Chapter 213 Put Everything Together
ELIJAH
I grabbed the notepad and went straight upstairs.
Adriana had been running her own investigation the entire time. Quietly, methodically, without telling anyone, while every person around her assumed she was too deep in shock to function. I should have known better. She didn’t go silent when she was breaking — she went silent when she was working, and there was a significant difference between the two.
I was at the top of the stairs when Peter appeared at the end of the corridor.
“Alpha. We found something outside. It needs you now.”
“Can it wait twenty minutes?”
“No.” His face said the rest clearly enough.
I followed him downstairs and out through the side door to the courtyard. Two guards were standing over something laid out on the ground. Small clothing. Lana’s onesie and the cotton wrap she’d been wearing, both removed and left deliberately where they would be found. More blood than the blanket. A lot more.
Wrapped underneath the clothing, folded in a piece of rough cloth, something else. I looked at Peter.
“Where did you find it?” I asked through gritted teeth. It took everything in me to remain calm.
“The east tree line, past the outer gate. Patrol troops found it twenty minutes ago.”
“Footprints? Tire marks? Anything else in that area?”
“We’re still working it. Alpha—” He stopped.
“Say it.”
“There’s more. Something else was found further in. I think you need to see it in person before we discuss it here.”
I looked at him for a long moment. “Is there a body?”
“No. Nothing like that. No body.”
“Then she’s alive.” I said it plainly and I meant it and I needed him to hear that I meant it. “Bag everything found. All of it goes to my office. Nobody touches it, nobody moves it, nobody talks about what was found out there — not to other guards, not to Hazel, not to anyone. You come directly to me with every update. Clear?”
“Yes, Alpha.”
“And whatever else your team found in those woods — you and I go look at it together tonight. After dark, quietly. Just us.”
He nodded and I walked back inside.
I needed those three guards.
I sent word to have them pulled from their posts and brought to the interview room, then took a longer route through the house to get there first and settle before they arrived. I was almost at the door when I heard footsteps and turned to find Peter behind me.
“I can assist in the interview—”
“I don’t need assistance. Thank you.” I held the door and waited.
He stood in the hallway a beat too long, deciding whether to push back, then turned and walked away. I watched him go before I went in.
The three guards arrived looking like men who had already convicted themselves internally and were just waiting for me to catch up. Hazel appeared in the doorway behind them and leaned against the frame without a word. I let her stay.
I sat down across the table from them and said nothing for a moment. Let the silence do its work.
“Sunday evening. Walk me through your exact positions and everything you observed. Start from when your shift began. First answer only — no revisions.”
The older one — Dave — cleared his throat. “Alpha, the Luna already asked us these questions.”
“Then you’ve had practice. Go ahead.”
He put himself at the front entrance. The second guard said the second-floor corridor. The third said the same.
“Both of you on the second floor.” I looked between them. “Separate posts or together?”
“Separate, Alpha.”
“Did either of you observe anything out of the ordinary on that floor during your shift?” He waited just a second before he started speaking. That alone was enough for me.
“Nothing unusual. The evening was quiet.”
“Good.” I nodded like this was all perfectly satisfactory. “Last question and you can go. When Hazel left the nursery, what did you see?”
They both looked at Dave. He looked at the table for less than a second before he answered.
“My colleague mentioned he saw the Beta leaving the room with the baby. He told me when we crossed over at shift change.”
Hazel moved away from the door frame and came fully into the room, stopping just behind the two second-floor guards. They felt her before they saw her. Both of them turned and the colour left their faces.
Dave kept talking anyway, which told me he had committed to this and was going to see it through regardless.
“He said she had the baby in her arms and a knife in her hand.”
“Interesting,” I said. “Since Hazel has been accounted for elsewhere during that window. So let’s try this again. Without the part you invented.”
Dave’s composure came apart fast. “I didn’t have a choice. He said he’d kill us if we didn’t back his version. I had no way out.”
“He came to you directly.”
“I woke up and he was already in my room standing over me with a gun at the side of my head. I couldn’t turn to see his face. I couldn’t move.”
“What did he tell you to do?”
“Swap my post with the guard at the back entrance. Get two others to swap out the second-floor positions. He said he had something he needed to do and we couldn’t be in the way.” Dave’s hands were flat on the table and shaking. “He did not tell me it was about the baby. I swear to you I did not know that’s what this was.”
“What did his voice sound like?”
“Older. Like someone who was not worried about what would happen if he got caught.”
I stood up.
“You’ll stay in this room. You won’t speak to each other and you won’t speak to anyone else until I decide what happens next.” I looked at all three of them in turn. “If anything you’ve told me is incomplete or selectively remembered, the consequences will be proportionate to how much you withheld. And if my daughter is not returned to this house safely, every person who opened a door for this man will answer for it directly. Do you understand me?”
None of them spoke. The silence was answer enough.
I walked out into the corridor. Hazel fell into step beside me immediately.
“He had access to the inside before last night,” she said quietly. “He scouted the layout, identified the right people, threatened them in advance. This wasn’t improvised.”
“No. It wasn’t.”
“Which means he was watching this house for weeks.”
“At least.” I stopped walking and turned to face her. “Find Adriana and bring her to my office. She’s been working this longer than any of us. It’s time we put everything together.”