Chapter 2 - THE RED COAT
Lucas didn't move for several seconds.
Neither did Hannah.
Mateo's finger remained pointed toward the hallway.
“She was scared,” he repeated.
Lucas crouched beside his son.
“Mateo.”
The boy immediately pressed closer to Hannah.
Something passed across Lucas's face.
Pain, Hannah thought.
Then control covered it.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
Mateo wouldn't answer.
One of the other candidates shifted awkwardly near the sofa.
Lucas stood.
The room changed with him.
“Thank you for coming,” he told the women. “My assistant will arrange transportation.”
Nobody argued.
Within five minutes, Hannah was the only candidate left.
She expected Lucas to ask her to leave too.
Instead, he poured himself water.
Not whiskey.
That somehow made the silence more serious.
“You asked about my wife.”
“I shouldn't have.”
“No. You shouldn't.”
Hannah met his eyes.
“But Mateo answered.”
Lucas looked toward his son.
“He hasn't spoken about Elena in eleven months.”
Hannah glanced at the photograph.
“His mother?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Lucas's expression hardened.
“She walked out.”
Mateo shook his head violently.
“No!”
His shout startled even himself.
Hannah lowered her voice.
“It's okay.”
“No leave.”
Lucas turned toward him.
“I saw the note, Mateo.”
The boy's face crumpled.
“Red coat.”
Lucas froze.
“What?”
“Mama red coat.”
Hannah felt Mateo's hand trembling inside hers.
Lucas crossed the room.
“What about her coat?”
Mateo pointed again toward the hallway.
“The bad man took it.”
The penthouse became silent.
Lucas stared at his son.
“What bad man?”
Mateo hid his face.
Lucas took another step.
Hannah raised one hand.
“Don't.”
His eyes snapped toward her.
“He's four,” she said. “If you push, he'll stop.”
“That is my son.”
“Then act like his father before you act like whatever everyone else is afraid of.”
She expected anger.
Instead, Lucas stared at her with an expression she couldn't read.
Finally, he stepped backward.
“Monday,” he said quietly. “Nine o'clock.”
Hannah looked down at Mateo.
The boy still held her sweater.
“Okay.”
Monday morning, Hannah arrived to find security doubled.
Lucas's assistant finally introduced himself as Anthony Bell. Late fifties, silver hair, careful eyes.
He showed Hannah the kitchen, Mateo's room, the playroom, and a small bedroom she could use if she ever stayed overnight.
He did not show her the locked hallway room.
“What is that?”
“Mrs. Ravellini's dressing room.”
Hannah stopped.
“You kept it locked?”
Anthony's expression barely changed.
“Mr. Ravellini did.”
Mateo spent the morning testing Hannah.
He refused breakfast.
She ate toast beside him without comment.
Five minutes later, he stole half.
He threw crayons.
She made him pick them up.
He glared at her.
She waited.
He picked them up.
By noon, he had decided she was irritating enough to trust.
They built a city from wooden blocks.
Mateo placed one tall tower in the middle.
“Daddy.”
Another smaller tower beside it.
“Me.”
Then he found a red block.
He held it for a long time.
“Mama.”
He placed it far away.
Hannah's chest tightened.
“Why is Mama over there?”
Mateo whispered, “Car.”
“What car?”
“Black.”
There were probably ten thousand black cars in Manhattan.
She didn't push.
At lunch, Lucas appeared unexpectedly.
Mateo ran to him.
It was the first time Hannah saw Lucas smile.
Not the controlled expression he used with adults.
Something real.
He lifted his son and kissed his hair.
“You behaving?”
“No.”
Lucas almost laughed.
“At least you're honest.”
Then Mateo noticed something on his father's wrist.
A silver watch.
His expression changed instantly.
“No.”
Lucas frowned.
“What?”
Mateo slapped at the watch.
“No watch!”
Lucas caught his hand gently.
“Mateo.”
The boy screamed.
Hannah moved quickly.
“Lucas. Take it off.”
“What?”
“The watch.”
Lucas removed it.
Mateo stopped screaming almost immediately.
He stared at the silver watch on the table as if it were alive.
Then he whispered, “Bad man.”
Lucas's face went pale.
“This was a gift from Elena.”
Hannah picked it up carefully.
There was an inscription on the back.
L.R. — Until every hour is ours.
“Did someone else have one?”
Lucas stared at her.
“Elena bought two.”
“Where's the other?”
His eyes shifted toward the locked dressing room.
That afternoon, Lucas opened the door for the first time in eleven months.
The room smelled faintly of perfume and dust.
Clothes remained in the wardrobe.
Shoes lined the shelves.
Nothing looked like the room of a woman who had planned to abandon her family.
Hannah noticed it immediately.
“Lucas.”
He knew.
A woman running away might leave dresses.
She might leave photographs.
But Elena's passport lay inside the open jewelry drawer.
Her medication was beside it.
And hanging behind several dresses was a red wool coat.
Lucas touched it.
Mateo stood in the doorway.
“No.”
Lucas turned.
Mateo pointed.
“Not Mama's.”
Lucas pulled the coat from the wardrobe.
It looked ordinary until something fell from the pocket.
A subway ticket.
And a folded receipt.
Hannah picked it up.
A dry cleaner in Queens.
Dated two days after Elena disappeared.
Lucas read it twice.
“That isn't possible.”
“Why?”
“Because this coat was supposedly found in Elena's car the night she left.”
Hannah stared at him.
“Who found the car?”
Lucas didn't answer.
That was answer enough.
Anthony.
That evening, Lucas dismissed Hannah early.
She reached the elevator before he called her name.
“Hannah.”
She turned.
He held the dry-cleaning receipt.
“You were fired from your school because you accused people of taking money.”
Her stomach dropped.
“You investigated me.”
“I investigate everyone near my son.”
“And?”
“I think you were telling the truth.”
She laughed without humor.
“You might be the first employer who does.”
Lucas looked at the receipt.
“Then help me see what I don't want to see.”
Hannah understood.
Anthony had worked for him for twenty-seven years.
Trusted men didn't become suspicious because of one receipt.
Not in Lucas's world.
The elevator opened.
Then Mateo came running down the hallway.
He carried a sheet of paper.
“Miss Hannah!”
She crouched.
He handed her a drawing.
Three figures.
Mateo.
Lucas.
Elena.
And a fourth man beside a black car.
The man wore a silver watch.
Lucas took the drawing.
His face changed.
Hannah pointed toward the man's hand.
“Mateo, who is that?”
The boy looked directly at Anthony, standing twenty feet away.
May you like
Then he whispered one word.
“Tony.”
