Chapter 4 - The Threat
Maria’s knees almost gave out.
Her son, Mateo, was seventeen. He lived with her sister across town because Maria worked long hours at the Mercer house. The photograph had been taken that afternoon. Mateo was wearing the blue hoodie Maria had bought him two days earlier.
Someone was watching him.
She called him.
“Mom?” he answered. “Why are you calling so late?”
“Where are you?”
“At Aunt Rosa’s. Why?”
“Lock the door. Don’t open it for anyone.”
A pause. “Mom, what happened?”
“Just do it.”
Daniel arrived at Maria’s apartment ten minutes later with Sergeant Cole. Lily was with Daniel’s mother for the night. Cole bagged the photo and envelope.
“Did Claire send this?” Maria asked.
“She’s still in custody,” Cole said. “No phone access.”
“Then it’s Ray,” Daniel said.
Cole looked at him. “We don’t know who Ray is yet.”
Lily had described the tattoo: a snake wrapping around a dagger. Daniel remembered seeing a man with that tattoo once at a charity event beside Claire, but Claire had introduced him as a catering manager.
Cole took the red notebook into evidence. The transfers were real. So were the account numbers.
“What’s she moving money for?” Maria asked.
Daniel’s face tightened. “One of the accounts belongs to a shell company that bought a warehouse near the river.”
Cole said, “We’ll look into it.”
Maria held up the photograph. “And my son?”
“We’ll put a patrol near the house tonight.”
“That is not enough.”
“I know.”
Daniel looked at Maria. “Bring Mateo to my mother’s place. There’s security there.”
Maria wanted to refuse. She wanted to take Mateo and drive until the city disappeared behind them. But running would mean Claire—or Ray—had won.
She nodded.
At midnight, Daniel received a call from Claire’s attorney.
Claire had made bail.
“What?” Maria said.
“Her lawyer says she’s coming home for personal belongings.”
“She can’t come near Lily.”
“She won’t.” Daniel sounded certain, but his hands shook.
Then his mother called.
Daniel answered and immediately stopped breathing.
“What do you mean she’s gone?”
Maria stood. “Who?”
Daniel slowly lowered the phone.
“Lily.”
His voice broke.
“My mother went upstairs for five minutes. When she came back, the back door was open.”
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On the kitchen floor, police later found one small red ribbon from Lily’s hair.
And beside it, a wet footprint shaped like a man’s boot.
