Chapter 6 - THE CHILD IN THE VIDEO
Clara watched the recording seventeen times.
Dominic watched it once.
Afterward, he could barely speak.
Leo looked thinner.
His hair had been cut unevenly.
But he was alive.
That mattered more than anything.
Dominic wanted to send armed men after Thomas.
Clara stopped him.
“You don't know where Leo is.”
“I'll find him.”
“And if Thomas sees you coming?”
Dominic said nothing.
She replayed the video.
Leo tapped his fingers against the chair.
Four times.
Pause.
Two.
Pause.
Four.
Clara remembered the motel.
He had used the same rhythm while frightened.
“Four-two-four,” she whispered.
Matteo searched the family's property records.
Warehouse 424 was an abandoned refrigeration facility near the industrial riverfront.
Federal investigators entered it that evening.
Leo was gone.
But they found his dinosaur's missing plastic leg and a drawing of a blue house beside a lake.
Clara recognized the house.
Her parents had owned a small cottage in Wisconsin.
Tommy had sold it years earlier.
“How would Thomas know about that property?” Dominic asked.
Clara felt a chill.
“Tommy.”
Her brother had shared information about their family with Victor.
And Victor had been conducting his own secret investigation into Sofia's death.
Someone had obtained his files.
The trail led toward the cottage.
Dominic prepared to leave.
Clara stood.
“I'm coming.”
“No.”
She stared at him.
He corrected himself.
“I don't think it's safe.”
“That is different from telling me I can't.”
He sighed.
“Yes.”
She picked up her cane.
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“Then let's discuss a plan that doesn't get Leo killed.”
For the first time, Dominic realized he trusted her judgment more than the instincts that had kept him alive in his criminal world.
