Chapter 6 - The Voice Behind the Door
The line went dead. I called back until the recording told me the number couldn't be reached. Nora put out an alert for Celia's car and told me to stay beside Lucía while her team looked.
"You don't understand," I said. "She could be dying."
"I understand you want to charge into the one place a kidnapper told you to visit. That's exactly what he wants."
Lucía touched my arm. "Listen to her. I already tried to be brave by myself."
She told us more while her voice lasted. At Mill Nine, she'd heard an engine running behind a locked metal door. Every few hours somebody opened it, bringing cold air and a smell like sawdust. She'd heard Jamie call for his mother, then go quiet when a man struck the door with something hard.
"Did you see him?" Nora asked.
"Only his shoes. Brown work boots. One heel made a clicking sound."
She had officers review cameras near the pay phone. A gray utility van had followed Celia from the grocery store. Its license plate had been covered with mud, but one camera caught a torn yellow decal above its rear window.
I knew that decal. Northline Storage used the same vans at the yard on our mother's land. I'd repaired their brakes last winter for cash, never guessing whose company it was.
"I have the invoice," I said. "And the name of the person who picked it up."
The man had signed as Miles Grant. When I pulled up the repair-shop security recording, I saw a silver-haired stranger in a baseball cap. His face was mostly hidden. Then he turned to inspect a tire.
A pale scar split his right eyebrow.
I'd seen that scar when I was a boy. Dad got it when a horse kicked a gate into his face. Lucía turned away from the screen. "That's him."
Nora leaned in. "Can you prove the van was his?"
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Before I answered, the security recording jumped to a second clip saved that morning. Someone had sent it directly to my shop's email. It showed Celia tied to a chair.
A familiar voice behind the camera said, "Bring me the ledger, son, or watch your aunt die."
