Chapter Twelve K: Grant Speaks
After the meeting, Grant approached Emily near the water fountain.
He carried his jacket over one arm and looked as though he had rehearsed what to say.
“I heard you were helping the families,” he began.
“I came to listen,” Emily answered.
Grant nodded toward the gymnasium.
“They asked about the drivers,” he said.
“I know something that might help.”
Emily did not move closer.
“Then tell Deputy Kent,” she replied.
“I already did,” Grant said.
“But I didn’t tell her everything.”
Emily stared at him.
“Why not?”
“Because I was afraid they’d close the diner,” he answered.
“I thought if I admitted how long the contractor had been using the back lot, I would lose the business.”
“People went missing,” Emily said.
“I know.
”
“Then you should have told her.”
Grant looked toward the door.
“The contractor paid me in cash for three nights,” he said.
“On the first night, a man asked whether the freezer room had an outside lock.”
Emily felt her stomach tighten.
“What did you say?”
“I told him it was a kitchen freezer and nobody was going inside it,” Grant answered.
“He laughed and said he only needed somewhere quiet to make a phone call.”
“Did you let him in?”
“No,” Grant said.
“But he went behind the building while I was taking out trash.”
Emily remembered cleaning the kitchen after she had been fired.
She remembered the low engine noise beyond the rear wall.
“Was he there that night?” she asked.
Grant nodded.
“I think so.”
“Who was he?”
“I never learned his name,
” Grant said.
“He had a tattoo of a small anchor near his thumb.”
Emily repeated the detail once so she would remember it.
“Tell Kent now,” she said.
Grant hesitated.
“Will you come with me?”
Emily looked at the man who had dismissed her for feeding Samuel.
She felt no desire to protect him from the consequences of his choices.
“I’ll walk to her car,” she said.
“What you say after that is your responsibility.”
Grant followed her across the school parking lot.
Kent was speaking with a county employee beside her vehicle.
Emily waited until the conversation ended.
“Grant has something he needs to add to his statement,” she said.
Kent looked at him.
“Then let’s start now,” she replied.
Emily stepped back as Grant began to talk.
She stayed long enough to see Kent open her notebook.
Then she went to find Nadia, who had promised Lucia they could stop for ice cream on the way home.
Chapter Twelve L: The Man at the Warehouse
Kent found the man with the anchor tattoo the following afternoon.
His name was Russell Dane, and he worked as a dispatcher for the transportation broker.
He had been staying in a rented room above a hardware store.
When officers arrived, he attempted to leave through a rear staircase.
They stopped him before he reached the alley.
Dane denied knowing Tomas Velez.
He also denied entering the diner after closing time.
Kent showed him a photograph of the loading platform and asked why his name appeared on the broker’s dispatch schedule.
Dane claimed he had been arranging deliveries of bottled water.
Then Kent asked about the warehouse near the repair depot.
Dane stopped answering.
A search of his room produced a set of keys and several handwritten delivery instructions.
One instruction directed a driver to move two passengers to a private medical pickup point.
The address belonged to a closed veterinary clinic on the western edge of town.
Kent sent officers to the clinic immediately.
They found the front doors locked and the parking lot empty.
A light burned in the rear office.
An officer knocked and heard someone moving inside.
A man opened the door holding a baby against his shoulder.
He looked exhausted and frightened.
“My name is Tomas Velez,” he said before anyone asked.
“Please don’t wake her.”
The officers helped him sit down while they checked Alma’s breathing and called for medical assistance.
Tomas told them he had been moved between buildings because he refused to sign a statement saying his daughter had been treated for a condition she did not have.
He said the men wanted a medical excuse for separating children from their families during the evacuation.
When he refused, they told him he would be blamed for taking Alma away without authorization.
“I was afraid they’d take her,” he said.
“So I kept her with me.”
He had found an unlocked rear door at the warehouse and left while the guards were changing shifts.
A maintenance worker at the veterinary clinic had let him shelter inside after seeing the baby.
Tomas had called Maribel from the worker’s phone but ended the call when a vehicle slowed outside.
He had spent the night watching the street through the blinds.
Kent arrived after the ambulance and listened to his account.
“Your sister has been looking for you,” she said.
Tomas lowered his head.
“I know,” he answered.
“I wanted to call again, but I didn’t know who was safe.”
“She is safe,” Kent said.
“And she is waiting to see you.”
Tomas looked at the sleeping child.
“Can she come to the hospital?” he asked.
Kent nodded.
“We’ll arrange it,” she said.
The ambulance doors closed, and the vehicle pulled away from the clinic.
For the first time in days, the search had an address and an ending that could be spoken aloud.
