Chapter 11 - Eli Leaves One More Clue
Claire wanted to run straight to the pier.
Ruiz refused.
“You give a desperate man exactly what he asks for, you lose control.”
“He has my son.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
Ruiz looked at her.
Then nodded.
“You’re right. I don’t.”
That ended the argument.
They built a plan.
A duplicate cassette went into a padded envelope.
The real Tape 17 stayed with Ruiz.
Marcus arranged an unmarked car.
Adrian insisted on coming.
Claire refused.
“He’s my son too.”
“You forgot that when you used him as collateral in our marriage.”
Adrian flinched.
Claire almost regretted the words.
Almost.
Then Ruiz’s technician recovered a cloud backup from Eli’s phone.
One audio file had never played at the gala.
Eli had recorded it earlier that evening.
Claire listened.
Daniel’s voice.
Then Lauren’s.
They were arguing.
“You said nobody gets hurt,” Lauren whispered.
Daniel answered, “Nobody was supposed to hear us.”
“What about Eli?”
“He’s seven.”
“He remembers everything.”
Daniel paused.
Then came the sentence that changed the case.
“You worry too much, just like your mother did.”
Lauren’s breathing stopped.
“My mother?”
Claire looked at Ruiz.
Lauren’s mother had died when she was a baby.
At least that was the story Claire knew.
Daniel continued.
“Ask Evelyn.”
The recording ended.
Claire stared at the phone.
Her mother’s name.
Again.
Evelyn had known about Eleanor.
About Robert Hayes.
About the theft.
And now Daniel was tying her to Lauren’s mother.
Claire called Evelyn.
No answer.
She called again.
Nothing.
Marcus asked, “Where is she?”
Claire opened the family location app.
May you like
Evelyn’s phone showed one place.
Pier 46.
