Eli’s breath hitched, and his stomach roiled. “What happened?”
“Sarah Jane Leadsham. She was seven. Good family, not an easy mark.”
Because Eli knew it was easier to take the ones that no one would miss. He didn’t think anyone had ever missed him.
“I’d love to say it was when I was a newbie—no experience—but I’d be lying. We had a group similar to the ones who had restarted Playpen, but nothing we were doing was helping. Months after months we got nowhere, and then we got a break and Sarah’s uncle got flagged. We weren’t working that case as we didn’t think they were connected. His online history wasn’t as well protected as he thought, and a random search had found connections to a site that was a front for obscene images of minors, but there was a good chance he didn’t know and had used it innocently. The team looking for Sarah wanted to act right away as she had been missing for nine days, but they had nothing good enough for anything more than a fishing expedition.”
Daniel glanced up at Eli as if he was expecting something. Sympathy? Forgiveness? Eli didn’t move and he didn’t say anything.
“Sarah’s brother had insisted Sarah didn’t like her uncle.”
“But?” Eli’s question wasn’t gentle.
“The brother never got interviewed properly. He was twelve. We found out afterwards the uncle had tried it on him first. If we’d have asked the right questions much earlier, we might have found that out in time.”
Daniel swallowed. “Sarah was found in a shallow grave three weeks after we originally got the connection between the site and her uncle. The uncle gave it up after questioning and admitted he’d been grooming her, but he’d pushed her too far and she’d become hysterical. He’d smothered her to shut her up, then stabbed her for good measure…ten days after we failed to follow up on her brother.”
“Are you saying she’d be alive if you had listened to her brother?”
Daniel hesitated.
“But that makes no sense,” Eli protested. “The family would have been interviewed when she first went missing. Siblings? That’s nearly detective 101.” Even he knew that.
“He was going through some problems. We’d been told by the family doctor he was lying to get the attention back on him.”
Eli opened his mouth, but the words were instantly forgotten as he registered the guilt on Daniel’s face.
“What sort of problems?” Eli asked very carefully because a thought he really didn’t like was slinking its way into his head.
“Asher Patrick Leadsham had transformed eight months previously. He wasn’t coping well and had been undergoing psychiatric help.”
He was enhanced. They hadn’t believed him because he was enhanced. Red-hot anger licked at Eli’s skin, and he pushed away from the door. He couldn’t listen to this. He’d thought Daniel was different. He needed him to be different. But they were all the same.
No one had listened to him. He’d tried to explain, but the horror was nearly impossible to get past his lips, and no one made any attempt to get a terrified little boy to explain what had happened. All they saw was the mark. All they saw was the fire.
All they saw was the monster in him that had to be locked away so it wouldn’t hurt anything else.
Eli was out of the apartment door before he thought twice. He crashed through the fire escape and took the steps two at a time, getting faster and faster until it was a miracle he didn’t break his neck.
But would it have been a miracle? Maybe it would be a blessing. He thought he heard a shout but didn’t stop to find out. He was fast and there was no one that could catch him. He slowed for a second as he barged through the door at the bottom, but he was in the garage and just kept running until he’d cleared even that.
Chapter Twelve
Daniel hissed and pulled his hand back sharply from the scorch marks on the fire escape door. The metal plate was still hot as Eli had pushed through it. He had run, and by the time Daniel had even gotten out of his apartment, Eli had probably been down three flights.
What have I done?
He’d made himself go to the funeral, and the local cops had treated him like a pariah. Sarah’s mom had been distraught. The dad even worse because Sarah’s mom was blaming her husband. The screams when he had turned up with his parents had been soul destroying. Sarah’s mom had blamed her husband and his family. Said they had made a monster and it was their fault Sarah was dead.
And the worse thing was the poor guy did blame himself. Blamed himself every second until he’d swallowed his own gun. Mark Leadsham hadn’t just killed his niece, he’d practically put the gun to his brother’s head as well, and Daniel doubted if Sarah’s mom would ever recover.
Daniel had stayed another three months, and as soon as he had gotten a call to confirm the arrests, he’d stood up and calmly put on his jacket, pushed his chair under his desk, ignored the celebration going on in the office next door because they had arrested twenty-three bastards that would never see another free day in their lives, and walked out of the door.
He’d gone to his apartment to pack to fly home, and he’d never been so damn grateful to see his little brother so much in all his life.
Daniel didn’t bother taking the stairs. He walked back into his apartment and looked at his phone. The likelihood of Eli answering was less than zero, but he tried anyway. It rang but then went to voicemail. He didn’t leave a message. What did he say? His keys were here, and so was his wallet. He might have cash in his pocket, but Daniel didn’t know.
It was seven o’clock. He cleared up the kitchen and then tried to find something to watch on TV. By eight he had given up and started scrolling Google, and by nine he was wondering if he should call Sawyer. Eli was an adult. It wasn’t like it was past curfew or anything, but he had nothing with him.
Sawyer wasn’t answering either, but Adam did. Said Sawyer was in the shower, and sure enough, Sawyer called him after another five minutes.
“He doesn’t have a car. It’s still back at the field office, and his keys and wallet are here.” They were on the hall table where Eli had left them.
He heard Sawyer sigh down the phone. “Honestly, Daniel? I wouldn’t worry. He does this all the time. It got to the point where I was surprised if I saw him. Most of the time I didn’t know whether he’d slept in the apartment or not.”
It was on the tip of Daniel’s tongue to tell Sawyer he’d insisted Eli let him know if he was staying, but he managed not to. That was between him and Eli. Sawyer promised to text him if he heard from him, or if he turned up at Adam’s, but he doubted he would.
He put the phone down and decided he was going to have to call Talon. He hated it, and normally where Eli spent the night or not wasn’t any of Talon’s business either, but Eli was vulnerable. And Daniel was responsible for that.
Talon answered on the second ring. “What happened?”
Daniel almost smiled at the assumption, but he wasn’t wrong. “Eli has gone walkabout. I know he’s an adult, but—”
“Does he have his phone?” Talon interrupted.
“Yeah, but it’s going to voicemail.”