Chapter 10 - The Company Was the Trap
The North Quay document changed the investigation.
Not because Daniel possessed it.
He did not.
But because Priya’s observation gave Maya enough specificity to seek targeted records through formal litigation.
Within two days, a Nevada registered agent produced a historical certification under subpoena.
Beneficial owner: Charles James Cross.
Daniel read the line three times.
Maya sat across from him.
“The $4.8 million ended up in a company your father owned.”
“And Marcus changed the records afterward.”
“Yes.”
“Anna didn’t steal it.”
“Not based on what we now have.”
Daniel pushed the document away.
For eight years he had carried a story.
Anna stole.
Anna ran.
Anna took Lucas.
Now every part of it was collapsing.
Except the part where Daniel had failed her.
That remained.
He visited Ethan that afternoon.
The boy was building a tower from wooden blocks while Lily crawled beside him.
Daniel sat on the floor.
“I found out where the money went.”
Ethan did not look up.
“Your dad?”
“Yes.”
“Mom was right.”
“Yes.”
“You were wrong.”
“Yes.”
Ethan put another block on the tower.
Daniel waited.
Finally Ethan asked, “Why do you say yes now?”
“What do you mean?”
“You used to argue about everything.”
Daniel almost smiled.
“You’ve known me six days.”
“Long enough.”
Fair.
Daniel looked at Lily.
“Because some things are true even when they make me look terrible.”
Ethan studied him.
“Mom says people tell the truth when lying gets more expensive.”
“That also sounds like her.”
A tiny smile appeared and vanished.
Daniel took a breath.
“I need to tell you something else. My father and Marcus told a court your mom was unstable before she disappeared.”
Ethan’s hands stopped.
“Why?”
“So if she accused them, people would doubt her.”
“Did you doubt her?”
“Yes.”
The block tower collapsed beneath Ethan’s hand.
“You keep saying things like that.”
“I know.”
“Do you want me to forgive you?”
Daniel thought carefully.
“No.”
Ethan looked up.
“You don’t?”
“I want you to know what happened. Forgiveness is yours.”
The boy swallowed.
“What if I never do?”
Daniel’s chest hurt.
“Then I still have to do what’s right.”
Lily crawled toward Daniel.
Ethan immediately watched him.
Daniel did not reach for her.
Lily grabbed his shoelace.
He froze.
Ethan said, “You can pick her up.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Are you sure?”
“She likes shiny buttons.”
Daniel slowly lifted Lily.
She stared at his shirt cuff and grabbed it.
For one brief minute, nothing was complicated.
Then Renee entered.
“Daniel, Maya called. It’s urgent.”
At Maya’s office, Detective Ruiz displayed a map.
Traffic-camera footage had tracked Marcus’s sedan after leaving Anna’s motel.
It crossed the Bay Bridge.
Then disappeared near an industrial district in Oakland.
“One of Cross Meridian’s subsidiaries owns property there,” Daniel said.
“Which?”
“Harbor Recovery Services.”
Ruiz looked at him.
“What is it?”
“A private rehabilitation facility for executives and employees. Addiction treatment, psychiatric stabilization.”
Maya stared.
“A psychiatric facility?”
Daniel felt sick.
Charles had called Anna unstable for eight years.
If he controlled a private clinic, he could hide her behind medical confidentiality.
“Can you search it?”
Ruiz shook her head.
“Not because a car drove nearby.”
Daniel’s fists tightened.
Maya said, “We need probable cause.”
“We have a threat photograph.”
“No location.”
“Then we find a connection.”
Daniel called Cross Meridian’s former head of facilities, a retired man named Owen Price.
Owen remembered renovations at Harbor Recovery.
“Private rooms,” he said. “Very private. Mr. Cross senior used one sometimes for people he didn’t want photographed.”
Daniel’s stomach turned.
“Locked?”
“Treatment rooms lock from the outside during psychiatric holds, but only under medical orders.”
“Who runs it?”
“Dr. Samuel Keene.”
Daniel knew the name.
Keene had signed Anna’s old psychological declaration.
The declaration calling her paranoid.
Eight years ago.
Daniel looked at Maya.
“The doctor who helped them call her unstable runs the property where Marcus’s car disappeared.”
Ruiz stood.
“That may be enough for another warrant application.”
Her phone rang.
She listened.
Then turned toward Daniel.
“Marcus has just filed to modify Lily’s visitation.”
“To what?”
“Unsupervised custody.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
Ruiz continued.
“And he attached a declaration from Dr. Samuel Keene.”
Maya whispered, “About Anna?”
Ruiz nodded.
“Keene claims Anna has a history of severe delusions and may be a danger to the infant.”
Daniel stared at the paper.
The trap had not changed in eight years.
May you like
They were using the same lie again.
Only this time, Lily was the child they intended to take.
