Chapter 4 - THE MAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD
“My father died five years ago.”
Norah's voice trembled.
Elliot answered carefully.
“I didn't say the photograph proved he was alive. But the date printed on it was July 14 of this year.”
Norah closed her eyes.
Five years of grief.
Five years of unanswered questions.
Five years of watching her mother cry over a grave that contained no body.
Thomas Whitmore had disappeared after leaving his office one rainy November evening.
His burned vehicle was discovered beside the Hudson River.
The police assumed he'd drowned.
His remains were never recovered.
“Where was he in the photograph?” she whispered.
“Inside a building with white walls. There was a clock behind him and a window with metal bars.”
“A prison?”
“I don't know.”
Norah heard approaching footsteps.
“Elliot, I have to go.”
“There's a maintenance staircase behind the laundry room. It leads to the garage. My car is waiting near the east exit.”
She hesitated.
“Why are you helping me?”
For several seconds, Elliot said nothing.
Then he answered.
“Because you were the first person at that party who asked what I wanted instead of telling me what I couldn't do.”
Norah felt tears sting her eyes.
“Thank you.”
“Please hurry.”
She followed his directions.
At the garage entrance, a black sedan waited with its engine running.
The driver, a silver-haired woman in her fifties, opened the passenger door.
“I'm Margaret,” she said. “I've worked for Elliot since he was nineteen.”
Norah climbed inside.
“Where is he?”
“Coming separately.”
They sped into the night.
But at the first red light, Margaret glanced at the rearview mirror.
Her face tightened.
“We have company.”
A black SUV was following them.
Then another appeared from a side street.
Margaret accelerated.
“Hold on.”
The sedan swerved through traffic.
Norah gripped the dashboard.
“Are they going to hurt us?”
Margaret didn't answer.
Instead, she reached beneath the seat and handed Norah a brown folder.
“Mr. Elliot told me to give you this if anything happened.”
Norah opened it.
Inside were medical records bearing her father's name.
The final document listed a restricted patient facility outside Albany.
May you like
And beside the words Emergency Contact was a name she recognized immediately.
Dominic Russo.
