Chapter 10 - The Rabbit in the Car
I felt sick. The photograph of Grace had shown that rabbit clutched against her pink sweater. It was an ordinary stuffed toy with one bent ear, but Elena looked at the screen as though the animal might tell her where to find her child.
Mara spoke to the detective. Isabel's car had been found outside a pharmacy. Security footage showed a dark van blocking her from leaving the parking lot. A man got out and spoke to her. Isabel put her hands up. The passenger door opened, and someone lifted Grace inside. Isabel followed without a struggle visible on the camera.
"She went with them because Grace was in the van," Elena said. "That's what I'd have done."
Vincent joined the call from the estate. His jaw was rigid. "I can have every road watched."
"By police," Mara said. "Not by men who owe you favors. There is an active abduction investigation now. We can't afford a second group muddying it."
"Then tell me what I can do."
"Give us the accounts Richard used. Names. Drivers. Everything."
Vincent looked away. I wondered how much he was carrying from the life he'd once built around the Moretti name. He'd moved the family into legitimate business, but old habits remained.
"I'll give them access," he said finally. "Every company and account."
I closed my eyes, hearing Elena ask whether Grace was warm, fed, and frightened. No report could answer that.
At eleven forty-five, the detective traced the dark van to a warehouse used by one of Richard's corporate clients. Officers reached the location in minutes. They found the van parked behind a loading bay, engine cold.
The back seat was empty.
On the floor lay a child's drawing. A little girl stood between two grown-ups. One adult had been crossed out in red crayon.
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On the reverse, in careful capital letters, someone had written:
DADDY DOESN'T KNOW ME YET.
