Chapter 2 - The Empty Motel Room.
Gabriel sent two guards to the doors before Sterling could take another step.
"Nobody leaves."
His voice was quiet again.
That was worse than shouting.
Sterling raised both hands.
"You're making a mistake."
Rory stared at him with the exhausted distrust of a child who had heard too many adult promises.
Gabriel picked up the notepad but did not turn another page.
"Where were you staying?"
"The Westview Motor Lodge."
One guard, Mateo, immediately reached for his phone.
Gabriel stopped him.
"We go ourselves."
Sterling laughed once, too sharply.
"For a motel room?"
Gabriel looked at him.
"For a missing mother."
Twenty minutes later, three black vehicles stopped beneath the broken neon sign of the Westview Motor Lodge.
Rain had begun to fall.
Rory sat beside Gabriel in the back seat, holding the notepad with both hands.
She had refused to let anyone else carry it.
Room 214 was at the end of an outside walkway overlooking the parking lot.
The door stood open.
Gabriel's guards moved first.
The room smelled of bleach.
Too much bleach.
A mattress had been stripped.
Two drawers hung open.
A child's backpack lay upside down near the bathroom.
Rory ran toward it.
"That's mine."
Gabriel caught her gently by the shoulder before she reached the bathroom door.
A dark stain marked the tile beside the tub.
Mateo crouched.
"Blood."
Rory went still.
Gabriel's hand tightened on her shoulder.
"Don't look."
"I already saw it last night."
The words hit harder than anything Sterling had said.
Gabriel turned to her.
"You were here?"
Rory nodded.
"Mommy told me to hide behind the ice machine."
She pointed toward the walkway.
"Then Mr. Sterling came with two men."
Gabriel's eyes narrowed.
"Did you see their faces?"
"One had a dragon on his hand."
Mateo and Gabriel exchanged a glance.
The description meant something.
Rory continued.
"They yelled at Mommy about a ledger."
Gabriel looked down at the notepad.
"What ledger?"
"I don't know."
She opened the back cover.
A motel key card had been taped inside.
On it, her mother had written one sentence.
CHECK THE CHURCH LOCKER.
Gabriel stared at the message.
Sterling, who had been forced to come with them under guard, suddenly lost control.
"That doesn't prove anything."
Mateo shoved him against the wall.
Gabriel stepped close.
"I haven't accused you of anything yet."
Sterling breathed hard.
Gabriel lowered his voice.
"Why are you defending yourself?"
Sterling said nothing.
A police siren sounded somewhere far away.
Rory climbed onto the edge of the stripped bed and hugged her backpack.
Gabriel noticed a small plastic container beside it.
Inside were three crackers.
Nothing else.
He looked back at the purple stars.
"How long has this been happening?"
Rory stared at the crackers.
"Since Mommy started working for him."
She pointed at Sterling.
Gabriel turned slowly.
Sterling's face had become grey.
"She wasn't working for me."
Rory shook her head.
"You told her she was."
Mateo checked the bathroom and returned carrying a torn piece of blue fabric.
Gabriel recognized it immediately.
It came from the uniforms worn by employees at his private accounting office.
May you like
His own company was now inside the story.
And for the first time, Gabriel wondered whether Sterling had been stealing from more than one frightened mother.
