Chapter 33 - The Missing Boy
The convoy raced back toward the city through sheets of rain.
Arthur sat in the rear seat, silent except for the steady tap of his fingers against his cane. Mercer drove faster than the wet road should have allowed, his jaw clenched tightly as headquarters continued relaying updates.
Eli had been placed in temporary protective care inside a secure interview suite.
Two officers had been assigned outside the door.
A child services representative had arrived.
Then the cameras went dark for ninety seconds.
When they returned, the room was empty.
No broken window.
No forced lock.
No sign of struggle.
Only one thing had been left behind on the chair where Eli had been sitting.
A black chess pawn.
Mercer slammed one hand against the steering wheel.
"They took him from inside my own building."
Arthur spoke quietly.
"They wanted us at the estate."
"You think Blackwood was a diversion?"
"No."
Arthur looked out at the rain.
"It was an invitation. Eli was the cost of accepting it."
Mercer called headquarters again.
"Lock down every exit route. Pull traffic cameras within ten blocks. I want every vehicle that left during that ninety-second window."
The dispatcher responded, but Arthur's mind was already elsewhere.
Eli's name in the hidden notebook meant the boy had witnessed something long before Apartment 4B.
Something he might not even understand.
"Chief," Arthur said. "Find out where Eli lived before moving to the building."
Mercer glanced at him.
"Why?"
"Children rarely become targets by accident."
Within minutes, the answer came.
Eli Warren had moved into Apartment 4C six months earlier after his aunt gained custody.
Before that, he had lived with his mother in a small town near Lake Arden.
Mercer's eyes sharpened.
"Lake Arden?"
Arthur nodded slowly.
"The same lake beside Blackwood Estate."
The connection landed heavily between them.
Then another update came through.
Traffic cameras captured a gray van leaving headquarters during the blackout.
The plate was fake.
But one nearby camera caught the van turning east.
Toward Lake Arden.
Arthur closed his eyes for half a second.
When he opened them, the quiet old man was gone.
In his place sat the investigator Mercer had only heard about in academy legends.
"Turn around," Arthur said.
May you like
"They're taking him back to where this began."
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