Chapter 8 - The Man at the Loading Dock
Clara handed the phone to Ortiz.
Nobody spoke while the message played again.
“Do you know where he might go?” the detective asked.
Clara thought of Marco’s routines.
His cigarettes.
His endless complaints about suppliers.
“The old loading dock behind Il Destino. He parks there when he doesn’t want customers seeing his car.”
Ortiz stood.
Rico stood too.
“No,” she said.
“He called her.”
“And she gave us the message. Let us work.”
Rico’s hands curled at his sides.
Clara could almost see the effort it took him to remain still.
An hour later, Ortiz called.
Marco was alive.
Someone had beaten him and left him behind the loading dock.
His phone was broken.
His car was gone.
Rico shut his eyes.
“Is he talking?”
“Not yet.”
At the house, Teresa was waiting in the kitchen.
“So it’s true.”
Rico set down his keys.
“We don’t know everything.”
“My daughter knew enough to be afraid.”
“And you helped keep it from me.”
Teresa slapped her palm against the counter.
“Because every problem in this family becomes an order. A threat. A man standing outside somebody’s door.”
Clara stepped toward the hall.
This argument belonged to them.
But Teresa turned to her.
“And now you’re here, feeding him hope like that glass of milk.”
Rico snapped her name.
Clara stopped.
“I’m not Elena.”
“No,” Teresa said, crying now. “You certainly aren’t.”
The words hurt more than Clara expected.
She picked up her coat.
Before she reached the door, Leo came down the hall with his nanny.
“Milk lady?”
Clara crouched.
“I’m going home. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
He caught her sleeve.
“Mommy went.”
Her chest tightened.
“I know.”
“Didn’t come.”
Clara looked at Rico.
He stood completely still.
She could not promise that nothing bad would ever happen.
So she told Leo something smaller and true.
“I’m leaving because my workday is over. Your daddy is staying.”
Leo looked at his father.
Rico knelt.
“I’m staying.”
That night, Clara’s phone rang at eleven.
Rico.
“He’s asleep,” he said.
“You stayed?”
“Yes.”
Then his voice changed.
“The police recovered Marco’s car.”
Clara sat up.
“Okay.”
“There was an envelope under the passenger seat.”
“What was in it?”
“A copy of Elena’s event schedule.”
Rico stopped.
May you like
Then forced out the rest.
“With her departure time circled.”
