Chapter 2 - FOUR DAYS WITHOUT A FATHER
Harper was admitted to St. Luke’s University Hospital before sunrise.
She was dehydrated, underfed, and weak from missing several doses of medication prescribed for a chronic thyroid condition. None of it was irreversible, according to the pediatrician, but another day or two alone could have become dangerous.
Sarah sat outside the room while county child-protection worker Dana Kelley spoke gently with Harper.
Mercer was nowhere near the hospital.
Lieutenant Patrick Sloan had ordered him off duty after Sarah reported the physical confrontation and Marcus’s transmission.
Administrative leave.
Not an arrest.
Not yet.
Sarah understood the distinction even if she hated it.
At six-thirty, Marcus arrived carrying two coffees.
“You okay?”
Sarah flexed her bruised wrist.
“I’m more interested in why you told me our own precinct tried to destroy footage.”
Marcus sat beside her.
“It came from a private garage camera two blocks from Elias Thorne’s house.”
“Why was it in our system?”
“Because a patrol officer collected it after Elias disappeared.”
“And marked it for destruction?”
Marcus nodded.
“The evidence database says duplicate, non-probative.”
“Was it?”
“No.”
Sarah leaned toward him.
“What does it show?”
Marcus hesitated.
“A dark SUV leaving Elmbridge. Elias’s pickup behind it. Then a patrol cruiser.”
“Whose cruiser?”
“The unit number is partially visible.”
Sarah already knew.
“Mercer’s.”
Marcus didn’t answer.
He didn’t have to.
A nurse stepped from Harper’s room.
“She’s asking for Officer Sarah.”
Sarah entered.
Harper lay beneath a pale hospital blanket with a cup of apple juice beside her.
“Did you find Daddy?”
“Not yet.”
Harper nodded as though she had expected that.
“What happened the night he left?”
Harper stared at the blanket.
“He got mad at Uncle Caleb.”
Sarah paused.
“Who’s Caleb?”
“My daddy’s brother.”
“What were they arguing about?”
Harper looked toward the door.
“He said Uncle Caleb told the police where we were.”
Sarah’s stomach tightened.
“Where you were?”
Harper nodded.
“We were supposed to go somewhere.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Harper’s eyes filled.
“Daddy packed my backpack. He said we might stay with Aunt Rachel for a while.”
Sarah kept her voice gentle.
“Why?”
“Because bad people were mad at him.”
A silence opened between them.
Then Harper whispered:
“Uncle Caleb said Daddy should stop trying to ruin everybody’s lives.”
Sarah thought of Mercer.
Of the neighbors who had watched Harper collapse but seemed too frightened to move.
And suddenly Elias Thorne’s disappearance no longer looked like a missing-person case that had simply gone cold.
May you like
Someone inside his own family had known he was trying to leave.
And someone had made sure the police knew too.
