Chapter 4 - THE GIRL WHO CALLED THREE TIMESGideon had spent fifteen years believing his sister disappeared because of him.
Her name was Elena Locke.
She was twenty-two.
A nursing student.
Stubborn.
Funny.
According to Sarah, the only person in their family capable of making Gideon apologize before breakfast.
The night she disappeared, Elena called him three times.
He didn't answer.
They had argued earlier.
Gideon had been twenty-four then, running security for clubs owned by men he later refused to describe.
Elena hated the people surrounding him.
“You think being feared makes you safe,” she had told him.
He told her she was naive.
She told him he was becoming someone their father would have hated.
He walked away.
At 1:17 a.m., she called.
At 1:22.
At 1:31.
By the time he listened to her voicemail, she was gone.
Police eventually found her car.
No body.
No arrest.
Nothing.
Daniel Mercer had been a young patrol officer at the time.
His name appeared nowhere in the original investigation.
Yet now Tyler's tablet showed him speaking to Elena forty-three minutes before her final phone call.
Ortiz watched the video five times.
Mercer stood beside his cruiser.
Elena appeared angry.
A second man walked into frame.
Tyler.
Younger.
Thinner.
But unmistakable.
My stomach turned.
“Tyler knew her?”
Gideon didn't answer.
Sarah did.
“Apparently.”
The video had no audio.
Elena pointed at Tyler.
Tyler moved toward her.
Mercer stepped between them.
For a moment, it almost looked like he was protecting Elena.
Then Mercer opened the rear door of his cruiser.
Elena hesitated.
He said something.
She got inside.
The recording ended.
Gideon stood.
“Where?”
Ortiz knew exactly what he meant.
“Where was the camera?”
“Yes.”
“The metadata says West 19th and Lorain.”
Gideon was already moving.
Ortiz blocked him.
“You are not going there.”
“Move.”
“No.”
“Lena.”
“This video is fifteen years old.”
“Move.”
“If there's evidence, you stomping around the location helps nobody.”
His face changed.
“I have waited fifteen years.”
“And if you wait fifteen more minutes, maybe we finally get an answer.”
They stared at each other.
Then Gideon backed away.
I realized something then.
Gideon Locke could have ignored police.
Could have sent his own people.
Could have threatened anyone he wanted.
Instead, when Ortiz said no, he listened.
Not happily.
But he listened.
That mattered.
By evening, detectives working under Ortiz had traced the video location to an old parking structure once owned by a company called North Coast Urban Renewal.
The company no longer existed.
Its former president was Councilman Victor Hale.
One of the most powerful politicians in the county.
His name appeared thirty-seven times on Tyler's tablet.
The city announced emergency suspension of Officer Mercer shortly after midnight.
By morning, he had vanished.
So had Tyler.
The story reached local news.
Nobody knew my name publicly.
Ortiz insisted on that.
But Tyler apparently knew exactly where to find my fear.
At 10:14 a.m., Sarah's home phone rang.
Nobody used that number.
Sarah answered on speaker.
Silence.
Then Tyler’s voice.
“Emma?”
Every muscle in my body locked.
Gideon reached for the phone.
I shook my head.
He stopped.
Tyler laughed softly.
“I know you’re there.”
I said nothing.
“You really screwed this up.”
My hands began shaking.
Sarah squeezed my shoulder.
“You always were nosy,” Tyler continued.
Funny.
For years he had told me I was stupid.
Now that I had accidentally exposed him, I was nosy.
“I want my tablet.”
Ortiz, listening through a secure line, motioned for us to keep him talking.
I swallowed.
“I don't have it.”
“You know what I mean.”
“You broke my leg.”
Silence.
Then he sighed.
“Emma, you know how you get.”
Something changed inside me.
Not courage exactly.
Maybe exhaustion.
For years I had participated in his version of reality because arguing was dangerous.
Now he was miles away.
Surrounded by people who believed me.
So I said, “Tell me.”
“What?”
“Tell me how I get.”
“Don't start.”
“No. Explain it.”
Another silence.
“You were hysterical.”
“You kicked me down.”
“You grabbed me.”
“I was trying to leave.”
“You always exaggerate.”
“My bone is broken.”
He lowered his voice.
“You think Gideon Locke cares about you?”
I looked toward Gideon.
He showed no reaction.
“Men like him don't help for free.”
“Neither did you.”
That landed.
Tyler’s voice hardened.
“You have no idea what's happening.”
“Then explain it.”
“You want an explanation?”
“Yes.”
“Ask your new friend why his sister was talking to police fifteen years ago.”
Gideon’s expression changed.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
Tyler laughed.
“She wasn't some innocent girl who got unlucky.”
Sarah covered her mouth.
Gideon stepped forward.
Ortiz motioned sharply for him to stay quiet.
Tyler continued.
“Elena Locke knew what her brother was involved in. She was going to testify.”
Gideon closed his eyes.
“Against Gideon?” I asked.
“Yes.”
Sarah whispered, “That's impossible.”
Tyler heard.
“Oh, Sarah's there too? Nice little reunion.”
“You’re lying.”
“Am I?”
Tyler’s voice became almost cheerful.
“Elena had evidence. She gave Mercer a copy.”
Ortiz scribbled something.
I asked, “Evidence of what?”
“Ask Gideon.”
All eyes turned toward him.
His face had become unreadable.
Tyler continued.
“He knows exactly what he was doing back then.”
The line disconnected.
Silence swallowed the room.
Sarah turned toward her brother.
“Gideon?”
He didn't answer.
“Tell me he’s lying.”
Gideon stared at the phone.
Finally, he said, “Not completely.”
I felt my stomach drop.
Sarah stepped backward.
“What did you do?”
Gideon looked older suddenly.
“I moved money.”
“For who?”
“Men I should never have worked for.”
“Criminals?”
“Yes.”
Sarah slapped him.
Nobody moved.
Gideon accepted it.
“Elena found out?”
“Yes.”
“And you knew?”
“Not until after she disappeared.”
Sarah's eyes filled with tears.
“She was trying to testify against you?”
“Not only me.”
Gideon pulled out a chair.
He looked exhausted.
“The operation involved city contracts, police protection and construction companies. I was small then. A courier with a suit.”
“Who ran it?”
“I never knew everyone.”
“You knew enough.”
“Yes.”
Ortiz stepped closer.
“Victor Hale?”
Gideon looked at her.
“He was involved.”
“Mercer?”
“Not at first. But somebody inside law enforcement had to be.”
Ortiz’s phone buzzed.
She read the message.
Then looked at Gideon.
“We found something at the old parking structure.”
His face tightened.
“What?”
“A buried evidence container.”
Sarah stopped crying.
“What was inside?”
Ortiz swallowed.
“A nursing-school ID.”
Gideon gripped the table.
“Elena?”
Ortiz nodded.
“And a key.”
“To what?”
“We don't know.”
Then she placed a photograph on the table.
A small brass key with a faded plastic tag.
On the tag, written in black marker, were three numbers.
214.
Gideon stared at it.
“I know what that is.”
Ortiz looked up.
“What?”
“A bus-station locker.”
“How can you know that?”
“Because Elena left me a voicemail the night she vanished.”
His voice broke for the first time.
“She said, ‘If anything happens, two-fourteen.’”
Sarah whispered, “Why didn't you tell police?”
“I did.”
“And?”
“Detective assigned to her case told me there was no locker 214 at the downtown station.”
Ortiz went very still.
“When was the station renovated?”
Gideon looked at her.
“Fourteen years ago.”
“If the locker existed before renovation…”
“Then someone lied.”
Ortiz grabbed her coat.
Three hours later, city archive plans confirmed it.
Locker 214 had existed.
And the detective who told Gideon otherwise had been the supervising officer on Elena Locke’s missing-person investigation.
May you like
His name was Captain Robert Mercer.
Daniel Mercer’s father.
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