Chapter 3 - The Boy Who Remembered the Fire
“Then why didn't you protect him?”
Hannah's accusation stopped Robert halfway down the staircase.
“You knew Noah saw someone lock our mother inside that house. You knew he was in danger. And you disappeared anyway.”
Robert gripped the railing.
“I thought keeping my distance would protect you both.”
“That's what you keep saying.”
“Hannah—”
“Then tell me something that makes it true.”
He couldn't.
Dominic came down the stairs behind them, pulling on his black coat.
“Frank has two vehicles heading to the rehabilitation center. We're going there ourselves.”
Vanessa appeared at the landing.
“Dominic, please. My father wouldn't hurt Noah.”
Dominic looked up.
“Your father certified a living man dead. You threatened my employee with a gun. And now her brother is being moved somewhere nobody can identify.”
“He's still my father.”
“And Noah is still somebody's brother.”
Vanessa lowered her eyes.
Dominic turned away.
For the first time, Hannah noticed he wasn't wearing the engagement ring Vanessa had given him.
He had left it on the library desk.
Outside, the cold Cleveland night cut through Hannah's thin sweater.
Dominic removed his coat and placed it over her shoulders.
She started to protest.
“Keep it,” he said. “You can argue with me after we find him.”
They arrived at the rehabilitation center twenty minutes later.
An unmarked medical transport van sat beside the loading entrance.
Two men were guiding a wheelchair toward its open doors.
Hannah recognized the young man sitting in it.
“Noah!”
Her brother lifted his head.
“Hannah?”
She ran.
One of the men stepped into her path.
“Ma'am, this is an authorized medical transfer.”
“Move.”
“We have instructions—”
“I'm his sister!”
The man glanced toward the van.
Dominic stepped beside Hannah.
“Is the patient consenting to this transfer?”
The attendant hesitated.
“We were told his guardian approved.”
“I'm twenty-two,” Noah said sharply. “I don't have a guardian.”
Hannah pushed past the attendant.
Noah reached for her.
His left leg was supported by a brace, and the skin along his neck still showed the scars of the fire.
But his eyes were clear.
“I told them I didn't want to go,” he whispered.
Hannah knelt and wrapped her arms around him.
“I'm here. Nobody's taking you anywhere.”
Frank arrived with two security vehicles. He photographed the transport paperwork while the center's night supervisor called the police.
The attendants claimed they were following instructions from a private physician.
When Frank asked for the physician's license number, neither man could provide it.
The van's destination was listed as Lake County Medical Annex.
Frank checked the address.
It belonged to an abandoned administrative building.
Hannah felt sick.
Someone hadn't arranged medical treatment for Noah.
They had arranged for him to disappear.
Dominic called the center director.
“Noah stays here until the police finish their investigation. Any future transfer requires his informed consent.”
The director began apologizing.
Dominic ended the call.
Noah watched him carefully.
“Are you Mr. Moretti?”
“Yes.”
“My sister works for you.”
“She does.”
“Then why is she crying?”
Dominic looked at Hannah.
“Because she was worried about you.”
Noah considered that.
Then he squeezed Hannah's hand.
“I'm okay.”
Those two words nearly broke her.
For twelve years, Noah had tried to comfort everyone around him, even when he was the person suffering most.
Robert approached slowly.
“Noah?”
The young man's hand tightened around Hannah's.
He stared at the gray-haired stranger.
Then recognition reached his face.
“Dad?”
Robert nodded.
Noah looked at him for several seconds.
“You got old.”
Robert gave a broken laugh.
“So did you.”
Noah's expression hardened.
“I waited for you.”
“I know.”
“I stopped asking after my fifteenth birthday.”
Robert swallowed.
“Noah, I never stopped thinking about you.”
“That's not the same as being there.”
Robert looked down.
“No. It isn't.”
Noah turned his wheelchair away.
Hannah rested a hand on his shoulder.
She had waited twelve years for someone else to tell Robert what his absence had meant.
Hearing Noah say it hurt more than she expected.
The police took statements and secured the transport paperwork.
Frank discovered that the order had passed through three different offices, but all the authorization codes originated from the Kingsley Family Trust.
The organization that had paid Noah's rehabilitation bills for years had attempted to remove him from his treatment center.
And Vanessa's signature was on the first request.
Back inside Noah's room, Hannah helped him settle beside the window.
A small wooden box sat on his bedside table.
Inside were photographs, birthday cards, and a faded child's drawing.
Noah saw her looking at it.
“I kept that.”
He handed her the paper.
Hannah recognized his uneven handwriting.
MOM'S HOUSE.
The drawing showed their old two-story home.
Orange flames filled the windows.
A blue car stood beside the driveway.
Behind the house was a tall figure drawn in black.
The figure held something yellow.
Hannah remembered seeing the drawing years earlier.
She had thought Noah was trying to explain the fire through pictures.
She'd never asked him about the man.
“Who is that?” she whispered.
Noah looked toward Robert.
“Dad knows.”
Robert's face drained.
Dominic moved closer.
“Noah, tell us what you remember.”
The young man touched the drawing.
“I was upstairs. Mom told me to get out through the back.”
He paused.
“The back door wouldn't open.”
Hannah sat beside him.
“You don't have to do this.”
“Yes, I do.”
His voice was steady.
“I remember a man outside. He had something shiny on his wrist.”
“A watch?” Dominic asked.
Noah shook his head.
“A bracelet. Like a gold chain.”
He touched the black figure on the paper.
“He pulled something across the door. Then he went around the house.”
Robert closed his eyes.
“Voss,” he whispered.
Noah nodded slowly.
“I saw him again on television once. He had a different name.”
Hannah looked at Dominic.
Edward Whitcomb had attended a charity fundraiser that aired on local television three months earlier.
Noah had recognized him.
But he hadn't known whom to tell.
“Why didn't you tell me?” Hannah asked gently.
“Vanessa said bad memories made me confused.”
His voice became smaller.
“She said you might lose your job if I kept talking about the fire.”
Hannah felt a wave of anger.
For years, she'd believed Vanessa was helping her family.
Vanessa had attended Noah's birthday celebrations, paid for specialized equipment, and promised he would always receive the treatment he needed.
But she had also convinced him not to trust his own memory.
Dominic took the drawing.
“What about the blue car?”
Noah leaned forward.
“That came after the man left.”
“Do you remember the driver?”
Noah nodded.
“He had white hair. He wore a dark coat.”
Dominic went still.
“My father?”
“I think so.”
Robert looked away.
Dominic noticed.
“You knew Antonio was there.”
Robert nodded.
“He came to stop Voss.”
“Then why did he never tell me?”
“Because Samuel Kingsley had something on him.”
Dominic's voice turned cold.
“What?”
Robert looked toward Noah.
“Your father made a promise thirty-five years ago. Voss made sure he spent the rest of his life paying for it.”
Noah tugged Hannah's sleeve.
“There's something else.”
She turned back.
“When the firemen came, they told you Mom was already gone.”
Hannah remembered.
She remembered standing barefoot on a neighbor's porch while a firefighter told her there was nothing more they could do.
“Yes.”
Noah swallowed.
“That wasn't what happened.”
Hannah stared at him.
“What do you mean?”
“I saw the man from the blue car carry Mom outside.”
Dominic bent closer.
“Antonio carried her out?”
Noah nodded.
“She was coughing. She was holding his coat.”
Hannah's heart began pounding.
Her mother had been alive when Antonio reached her.
“Where did he take her?”
Noah stared at the drawing.
“To an ambulance.”
“Which ambulance?”
“The white one.”
He pointed to a small red cross Hannah had never noticed beside the driveway.
“There was a doctor waiting.”
Robert covered his mouth.
Hannah whispered, “What doctor?”
May you like
Noah looked directly at Dominic.
“Dr. Kingsley. He told Mr. Moretti that Mom would be fine. Then he closed the ambulance doors.”
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