“Listen, you guys are going to have to stop torturing these animals,” Raphael said when Pierce looked at him as if he were begging for help. There was nothing he could do to help the dog. The cat didn’t seem to give a shit one way or another and Willow started to cry.
Dusty snapped a million photos with her phone since Willow couldn’t stop crying long enough to get a clear shot. Raphael cautioned Dusty to not post the pictures online or share them with anyone, because that would cause a problem. He warned her that they were still not safe nor completely out of the woods.
The teenager didn’t think any harm would come from sharing the photo with Skylar, who sent it to Jamal, who shared it with his mother, who was one of the organizers of the Father Daughter Dance, who then shared it on her social media pages. However, he couldn’t totally fault Dusty since more pictures were taken at the dance, and Karli, showcasing her ballroom waltzing moves and revealing the hidden unicorns in her skirt, became the Belle of the Ball. This resulted in more pictures being taken and uploaded to social media before Raphael could stop the fawning mothers who complimented the man and his adorable daughter. A few of the mothers had known him since high school, while others who worked the party, took the opportunity to take their shot even with the wedding band he wore.
At nine p.m., Raphael was holding the exhausted bundle of joy who drank too much punch, ate too many cookies, and crashed from the sugar high had fallen limp in his arms. He carried her to the car, driving slowly through the throng of parents about to cause accidents, before arriving home. Willow carefully undressed the little girl, tucking her into bed as Daniel Craig, who had also been waiting for her return, curled up in bed beside his owner, pawed at the covers, and fell asleep.
By the time the hour struck midnight, Rami Slanecki knew exactly where the children were and who they were with thanks to enhanced software that searched the internet for new postings with the name Karli. The computer dinged, locating a photo of the face based on the Boolean search parameters of ‘Karli’ and ‘Image’ or ‘Karli’ and ‘man’. Her face loaded into the fetching parameters as it searched tirelessly for the image of the young girl and the name Karli.
The computer dinged with a 98% match for both the name and image.
“Hmmph, found her,” Rami said, looking at the images of the Father Daughter Dance. “Well, don’t that just beat all. Whodda thunk the world could be this gosh damned small?”
Six hours later he was on the road, heading toward Hilton Head to pay a visit to his former brother-in-law, who still lived in the house that his former wife hated with a passion. He knew Raphael would never sell the house even after their mother passed away.
“I can always count on you, Raphael,” he said, humming as he drove to Hilton Head. Rami didn’t have a plan. Based on what he’d seen from Hymn at the compound, he knew beyond a doubt, those girls were in better hands with Raphael Hoyt than they would ever be with their biological father, if in fact, Hymn was actually who he claimed to be.
His brother-in-law was a sociopath with psychopathic tendencies, but he would never hurt a child, especially considering how protective he was of his mother and sister. However, Rami had made a promise to Hymn that he would find the girls and the woman. He also promised the cult leader that he would get video of her loving another man.
“How cool would it be to get the girls on film calling that asshole Daddy?” He guffawed hysterically, pressing his foot harder to the pedal, trying to get to Hilton Head to get started. To Rami Slanecki, all of it—family, love, support and caring— was a sham. The Glitter Man planned to prove it to them all.
Chapter Seventeen – Carbon Copy
THE TO-DO LIST SEEMED to grow exponentially as Raphael sat behind the desk in his home office making notations of items which required a check to show the task had been completed before their departure on Tuesday morning. Calloused hands ran across the smooth mahogany as he centered himself before setting to work. He loved the old desk. It was the same desk his father had previously worked behind while he looked over medical records, making notes on upcoming surgeries and plans for the family for summer vacations. His father worked in the home office from five a.m. on a Saturday morning to about seven and then would spend the rest of the morning hours with his son, doing father/son jobs around the house. The Saturday mornings were spent cutting the grass, doing small repairs, or cleaning the similar boat he currently sailed. The afternoon hours were dedicated to his sister, doing father/daughter things, from late lunches to shopping for special items she’d earned, or even an afternoon tea. That sort of personal time Raphael planned to add to his list of things to do with Karli.
His father maintained a set Saturday schedule with the day equally divided into four-hour blocks of quality time with his children. By the arrival of the six o’clock hour, time with the kids was over, and the final Saturday hours his father dedicated to his wife. Sunday mornings meant church, a late lunch, and a family activity.
“Sunday movie night,” Raphael said, thinking back to the CBS Sunday movies. The girls had lived a sheltered life knowing nothing of the world of Disney, Star Wars, or even Brittney, Christina, or Taylor. “Shit, that might be a good thing.”
However, having a 10-year-old call Trap music the devil’s grooves wasn’t cool. He had a great deal to bring them up to speed before the start of the school year. Raphael pulled the small notebook he maintained from the drawer, and he went back over the list.
Clean the gun.
Threaten teenage boy with gun.
Show daughter how a boy is supposed to hold her when they dance.
Dance lessons with teen daughter.
Clean bigger gun and knife to threaten teenage boy.
Movie night.
Set time with the girls on Saturdays.
Write financial plan, include stocks, bonds, index funds and a few blue chips.
Raphael opened his laptop, jotting down the items he used in his profession that all of the Technicians also employed, making a note of the parent companies who manufactured the products. Those companies he would include in the portfolio if the stocks were performing well. He began jotting down a separate list of the companies, but his fingers paused on the paper when he heard soft footsteps.
“Daddy?” a soft voice called from the opened door. “What are you doing?”
He looked up to see Dusty Rose standing there looking cute as a button in a pair of loose fitted drawstring pants. Raphael recognized the fabric he’d purchased in North Carolina. She’d made a pair of pants from it.
“Hey, Punkin Puss, I’m working on some financials for my meeting on Tuesday,” he said, looking down again at his notes.
“Financials, as in money?”
“Yes, as in planning to make money and have money for the long term,” he said, looking up at her over the edges of his reading glasses. She had a thing on that mind of hers and he was reluctant to ask, but he took on the role of father which meant he wanted to be accessible to her questions, even if they were a pain in his right nut. “What’s on your mind?”
“This whole money thing. I don’t understand it,” she said, asking if she could come in to speak with him more in detail in which he agreed. “Daddy, Marcella said she gets an allowance. I don’t know what that is, but she makes money and uses it to go to the stores and buy clothes, purses, and cute girl stuff. How do I get an allowance?”