Chapter 9 - THE ELEVEN O'CLOCK CLOSINGThe next morning, I sat across from Eleanor while she spoke to the closing agent again. At ten fifty-eight, the agent confirmed the transaction was on hold pending the fraud investigation. Nobody would be exchanging ownership documents that morning.
For the first time since I'd come home, I breathed all the way out.
Then my phone rang.
It was Mom's hospital room, but the voice belonged to a nurse. "Mr. Reyes, do you know where your mother went?"
I stood so fast my chair fell backward.
"What do you mean, went?"
"She isn't in her room. Someone arrived claiming to be an approved caregiver. Security is reviewing the entry."
By the time Chen reached the hospital, staff had found a forged discharge instruction left at the desk. It bore Eleanor's letterhead. A hallway camera showed Mom walking unsteadily beside a woman in a gray coat. Lorena's face was concealed by a cap, but I knew her posture.
"Why would she take Mom now?" I asked.
"Maybe because the sale was stopped," Chen said. "Or because your mother can testify."
Mom's phone was gone. So was the medication bottle from her overnight bag.
Carlos's truck had appeared on traffic footage heading north. Chen alerted nearby officers. Eleanor told me to stay reachable and resist the urge to chase anyone myself.
I obeyed until June called, whispering so softly I barely heard her.
"I saw Lorena's car earlier. There's a place she used to take your mother. That old motel by Miller's Creek. I thought they were going to appointments."
I passed the information to Chen. Twenty minutes later she called from outside the boarded-up motel.
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"Daniel," she said, "we found your mother's cane in the parking lot."
Then I heard a door slam through the phone, followed by Mom's voice crying my name.
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