Chapter 4 - The Missing Forty-Seven Minutes
Vincent killed the lights in the library.
Security teams swept the lawn, the lake path, the service road, and the adjoining property.
They found nobody.
"Remote feed," Vincent said. "Whoever sent that message didn't need to be standing outside."
Dominic stared at the device. "Good. That means they planned for us to look in the wrong direction."
He ordered the deleted security footage reconstructed from backup fragments.
At 11:12 p.m., Vincent found something.
Six seconds.
Dominic watched them three times.
He moved with a slight outward roll of the left foot.
Arthur walked that way because of an old ankle injury.
But the man was carrying something Arthur never carried.
A black medical case.
Mercer leaned closer. "That's one of ours."
"From your clinic?"
"Yes."
Dominic looked at him. "How many exist?"
"Six."
"Where are they?"
Mercer checked his inventory system.
Five were accounted for.
The sixth had been signed out yesterday by Angela Pierce, Dominic's rehabilitation therapist.
"Call her," Dominic said.
Mercer did.
No answer.
They called again.
Straight to voicemail.
Vincent sent officers to her apartment.
Twenty minutes later, he received photographs.
The apartment door was unlocked.
Clothes were gone.
Laptop gone.
Passport gone.
But on the kitchen counter sat a sealed envelope addressed to Dominic Vale.
Inside was one sentence, handwritten.
I DID WHAT THEY TOLD ME BECAUSE THEY HAVE MY SON.
Dominic read it twice.
May you like
On the back, another line had been added in different ink.
ASK ARTHUR ABOUT BLACK HARBOR.
