Chapter 6 - THE BOY WHO VANISHED SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO
Ravi Greedy had spent seventeen years believing his younger brother was dead.
Now my father's notebook suggested Michael Harper had known where Kiran was hiding.
I stared at the words.
"Gabriel knows about Kiran."
Ravi reached for the notebook.
"May I?"
I nodded.
He examined the page carefully.
"My brother disappeared when he was eight. I was seventeen."
"What happened?"
Ravi sat down.
For the first time since the ballroom, he looked genuinely exhausted.
"Our family was attending a private celebration at a country estate. Kiran went outside to see the horses. Nobody saw him leave the garden."
My stomach tightened.
"Was he kidnapped?"
"We received a ransom demand three days later."
"Did your father pay?"
"Five million dollars."
I stared.
"What happened after that?"
"The kidnappers stopped communicating. A year later, investigators found clothing that belonged to Kiran near a river."
Ravi looked down.
"Everyone told me he was dead."
"Except you?"
He shook his head.
"I never stopped looking."
Sadi sat beside me, listening silently.
Then she asked a question nobody expected.
"Did your brother like dinosaurs?"
Ravi turned toward her.
"What?"
She pointed at the notebook.
"Look."
Beneath the name Kiran, Dad had drawn a tiny dinosaur.
Ravi stared.
His expression changed.
"Kiran loved dinosaurs."
Sadi smiled sadly.
"I like them too."
Ravi touched the drawing.
"His favorite was the triceratops."
I turned another page.
There was an address in Queens.
Below it, Dad had written:
The boy is safe with Thomas. Don't tell Gabriel.
Ravi stood so abruptly that his chair scraped against the floor.
"Thomas?"
I frowned.
"Who's Thomas?"
"Thomas Bennett. He used to work for my father's security company."
"Do you know where he is?"
"He disappeared after Kiran was taken."
Detective Mitchell photographed the notebook and asked me to preserve it.
Then she contacted investigators handling the old kidnapping case.
Within hours, they discovered that Thomas Bennett had lived in Queens under an assumed name.
His registered address matched the one in Dad's notebook.
But when police visited the property, nobody answered.
The house had been sold years earlier.
Its current owner knew nothing about Thomas.
I watched Ravi's hope slowly fade.
Then Mrs. Alvarez approached us.
She had been standing near the kitchen.
"Excuse me," she said quietly.
I turned.
"Yes?"
She looked at the photograph of Thomas Bennett on Detective Mitchell's tablet.
Her face changed.
"I know that man."
Ravi moved closer.
"Where?"
Mrs. Alvarez hesitated.
"He used to visit your father, Diane."
I froze.
"What?"
"Sometimes he brought a little boy."
My heart hammered.
"What boy?"
She pointed at the dinosaur drawing.
"The boy always carried a green plastic dinosaur."
Ravi stopped breathing.
Mrs. Alvarez looked toward Sadi.
May you like
Then said something that made the room go silent.
"Your father called him Kiran."
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