Chapter 14 - The Hearing
Tessa said no.
Detective Quinn said absolutely not.
Sophia transferred money anyway.
Not two million.
Five hundred thousand dollars into an escrow account Patrick specified.
She told herself she was creating leverage.
She was really losing patience.
Patrick responded with an address.
An underground parking garage near Wall Street.
Midnight.
COME ALONE.
Sophia did not tell Quinn until she was already in the car.
Quinn called her immediately.
“You do not leave that vehicle.”
“I need what he has.”
“You need to stop behaving like you are the only person capable of fixing this.”
Sophia looked out the window.
“I lost five years.”
“And reckless decisions will lose more.”
Sophia almost turned back.
Then Patrick sent a photograph.
An external hard drive.
A handwritten note beside it:
ORIGINAL CAMERA IMAGE. 11 MINUTES INCLUDED.
Sophia’s heart stopped.
“I’m going.”
Tessa’s voice came through the conference call.
“If you do this, Julian’s lawyers will crucify you.”
“They already are.”
“That does not mean hand them nails.”
Sophia went anyway.
Quinn followed with plainclothes officers.
Patrick stood beside a concrete pillar.
He looked thinner.
Unshaven.
Terrified.
“You brought police.”
Sophia stayed ten feet away.
“I brought consequences.”
Patrick laughed.
“You sound like your father.”
“Give me the drive.”
“Release the money.”
“First tell me what’s on it.”
Patrick glanced around.
“The original townhouse security image.”
“You deleted it?”
“I removed eleven minutes from the copy police got.”
“Why?”
“Julian ordered me.”
Sophia’s pulse roared.
“Victor?”
“Victor paid me.”
“How much?”
“Three hundred thousand.”
Sophia stared.
Patrick’s voice cracked.
“I thought they were scaring you.”
“My child disappeared.”
“I know.”
“You watched me beg for him on television.”
“I know.”
“You stood in my home and lied to me.”
“I know!”
The shout echoed.
Patrick lowered his voice.
“I kept the original because I knew one day one of them would turn on me.”
“Where are Nora’s diaries?”
“Safe.”
“You stole them?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Insurance.”
Sophia wanted to hit him.
She did not.
That mattered.
Before Patrick could hand over the drive, headlights flooded the garage.
A black SUV entered fast.
Patrick panicked.
“That’s Rourke.”
Cal Rourke stepped from the vehicle.
He was not carrying a visible weapon.
He did not need one.
Patrick ran.
Plainclothes officers moved.
Rourke saw them and stopped.
Quinn shouted orders.
Chaos followed.
Patrick escaped through a service stairwell.
Rourke was detained for questioning on an outstanding financial warrant unrelated to the kidnapping.
The hard drive vanished with Patrick.
Sophia returned home empty-handed.
Worse followed.
The escrow transfer leaked.
The press reported that Sophia Laurent Hart had attempted to pay a key witness half a million dollars during an active investigation.
Julian’s lawyers moved instantly.
In family court they argued Sophia was interfering with witnesses, disregarding law enforcement, and placing Leo at risk by escalating conflict.
The judge was furious.
“So despite specific advice from law enforcement, you attempted an unsupervised transaction with a witness in a kidnapping investigation?”
Sophia answered quietly.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I believed he had evidence about my son.”
“That does not authorize vigilantism.”
“I understand.”
“Do you?”
That question again.
This time Sophia could not answer confidently.
The court did not remove Leo immediately, but imposed stricter supervision and warned one more reckless incident could change placement.
Outside court, Julian approached.
“You’re doing my work for me.”
Sophia stared at him.
He continued.
“You don’t know how to stop.”
“You should be careful sounding pleased about this.”
“I’m concerned for Leo.”
“No. You’re concerned that he came back.”
Julian’s face went still.
Sophia saw it.
A flash of fear.
Then it disappeared.
“You’ve become paranoid.”
“No. I’ve become observant.”
That night Leo found Sophia sitting alone on the kitchen floor.
He sat across from her.
“You got in trouble.”
“Yes.”
“For looking for the man?”
“Yes.”
“Did you find him?”
“Yes.”
“Did it help?”
“No.”
Leo nodded.
Sophia looked at him.
“You were right.”
“About what?”
“Listening first.”
He shrugged.
“Anna said running fast doesn’t help if you’re running wrong.”
Sophia laughed weakly.
“She was annoyingly smart.”
Leo smiled.
Then the smile faded.
“Are they going to make me leave?”
Sophia’s throat closed.
“I don’t know.”
“Because you made a mistake?”
“Yes.”
Leo looked down.
“Adults make bigger mistakes than kids.”
Sophia whispered, “Sometimes.”
He reached into his pocket and placed one crushed aluminum can on the floor between them.
“I found it under the car seat.”
Sophia looked at it.
“Why are you giving me this?”
“So you remember.”
“Remember what?”
Leo met her eyes.
“The first day.”
Sophia could barely breathe.
The can sat between them like something worthless.
May you like
Except it wasn’t.
Nothing from that sidewalk ever would be again.
