Chapter 6 - The Boy Who Was Already MissingBy midnight, the house had become a crime scene.
The officer secured the area and contacted the relevant investigators. Photographs were taken before documents were removed, and the concealed compartment was examined under proper procedures.
Candice spent much of the first hour insisting that Gabriel had planted the evidence.
“This is his revenge,” she told anyone who would listen. “He has always been unstable since his first wife died.”
Gabriel watched her from the hallway.
She had learned every detail of his grief and turned it into a weapon.
When Detective Ruiz arrived, she did not immediately question Candice. She first examined the documents, photographed the compartment, and arranged for the materials to be collected and logged.
The forged placement agreement was sent for further examination. Investigators would need to establish who prepared it, how it was signed, and whether it had been submitted to Haven Ridge.
The identity documents would require their own investigation.
Then Ruiz opened the black notebook.
She read several pages without speaking.
“What is it?” Gabriel asked.
Ruiz turned the notebook toward him.
It contained brief profiles of multiple households. Some entries included insurance policies, property estimates, and the names of children. Others listed dates of marriages, deaths, and changes to wills.
Next to some names were the words settled, closed, or moved.
The pattern was difficult to ignore.
“These appear to be records connected to the wider investigation,” Ruiz said. “We need to determine whether the people listed were victims, clients, or something else. We cannot assume every entry means the same thing.”
Gabriel pointed at the final page.
“What about my route?”
Ruiz photographed it.
“We'll look into this immediately. Until we understand what 'transport event' means, I want you to avoid your usual routes and keep your location restricted to the people handling your safety.”
He nodded.
Then she showed him a name in the notebook.
Lucas Lawson: Placement scheduled, Monday.
Below it was another line.
If father interferes, activate alternative plan.
“What is the alternative plan?” Gabriel asked.
“We don't know yet.”
Ruiz's voice remained steady, but her expression was grim.
“I need you to tell me everything you know about your work schedule. Every route that appears in this notebook, every regular stop, and anyone who could have access to your delivery information.”
Gabriel spent the next hour going through his recent work records.
He drove long-haul trucks for a regional carrier and regularly received his routes through the company's dispatch system. His employer had strict policies for customer confidentiality, but his schedule was not a secret to people in his household. He often told Candice when he would be away and when he expected to return.
He had never imagined that ordinary family conversations could become a planning tool.
Then Evelyn arrived with a document she had obtained through the proper channels.
It was a copy of an email exchange between a residential placement agency and an intake coordinator at Haven Ridge. The agency had agreed to accept a referral for Lucas, subject to receipt of authorization from his parent or legal guardian.
No valid authorization had been confirmed.
The application nevertheless listed Monday as the proposed intake date.
Gabriel stared at the screen.
“They were going to take him?”
“Possibly,” Evelyn said. “We need to find out whether the facility knew the parental consent was questionable, whether the agency submitted anything under false pretenses, and who arranged the placement.”
Candice interrupted from the living room.
“I did nothing wrong! Lucas needs help, and his father refuses to admit it.”
Ruiz turned toward her.
“Mrs. Lawson, you're making several serious claims. We will give you the opportunity to explain them through the appropriate process. For now, I need you to stop interfering with the collection of evidence.”
Candice laughed bitterly.
“You all think you're heroes. You have no idea what that child is capable of.”
Gabriel took a step forward.
“What did he do?”
She looked at him.
“He ruins everything.”
The words came out so plainly that even Candice seemed surprised by them.
Then she recovered.
“He lies. He steals. He manipulates people. He's been trying to get rid of me since the day we married.”
Gabriel stared at her.
“You told me he was sleeping while he stood outside the house watching you celebrate Wyatt's birthday with his cake.”
Candice's face hardened.
“That's not what happened.”
“Then tell me what happened.”
She said nothing.
Gabriel waited.
“Tell me why my son was washing your clothes in the dark. Tell me why he has bruises. Tell me why someone created a residential placement agreement in my name.”
Candice suddenly looked older.
For a brief moment, the mask slipped far enough for Gabriel to see something underneath that frightened him more than her anger.
Not guilt.
Calculation.
She was trying to decide which lie had the greatest chance of surviving.
Then she lifted her chin.
“You don't understand how much I've done for you.”
Ruiz asked her to remain silent while investigators continued their work.
Candice looked past the detective and met Gabriel's eyes.
“You have no idea what your first wife left behind.”
Gabriel froze.
“What did you say?”
Candice smiled, but there was no warmth in it.
“Clara wasn't the woman you think she was.”
Gabriel moved toward her.
Ruiz stepped between them.
“Mr. Lawson, stay back.”
He stopped.
“Explain what you know about Clara.”
Candice's expression became unreadable.
“She kept secrets from you. Important ones. She knew things about her family, her insurance, her death. You never asked because you were too busy feeling sorry for yourself.”
Gabriel felt the air leave his lungs.
Clara had died after months of treatment. He had sat beside her hospital bed, held her hand, and promised that he would raise Lucas to be kind. He remembered her final days in painful detail: the medication schedules, the sleepless nights, the quiet apologies she made when she could no longer eat.
He had never suspected anything.
“Are you saying she wasn't sick?”
Candice glanced at the detective.
“I'm saying you should ask what happened to her records.”
Then she fell silent.
Ruiz did not react, but Gabriel saw her make a note.
Evelyn gently pulled him aside.
“Do not let her turn an unsupported accusation into another crisis. We need documents, not insinuations.”
He knew she was right.
Still, the thought lodged in his mind.
What records?
As the investigation continued, Gabriel's phone rang. The caller was Lucas's school counselor.
She explained that the school had received a formal request several weeks earlier to release Lucas's educational records to a residential program. The request had included his name, date of birth, and a copy of a signed authorization.
The school had rejected it because the signature did not match the one in their records.
But a second request had arrived two days later.
It was sent by Candice.
This time, the accompanying documents appeared more convincing.
The counselor had become concerned because the request also asked the school to classify Lucas as a potential danger to himself and others.
The school had not made that determination.
Gabriel thanked her for calling and asked her to preserve all relevant records for the authorities.
When he ended the call, Ruiz was standing beside him.
“This is no longer just an allegation about what happened inside your house,” she said. “Someone has been trying to build an official record around your son.”
“A record that makes him look dangerous.”
“Yes.”
Gabriel thought about the bruise-shaped marks on Lucas's arms. The birthday cake. The hidden phone. The false signature.
Someone had been trying to make Lucas disappear in plain sight, not by hiding his location, but by persuading institutions that he belonged somewhere else.
Then Ruiz's phone rang.
She listened for several seconds, her expression tightening.
When the call ended, she looked at Gabriel.
“We located a person associated with Haven Ridge. The intake coordinator says a representative called this morning to confirm Lucas's arrival on Monday.”
“Who called?”
Ruiz looked at her notes.
“Marissa Miller.”
Candice's sister.
“And the coordinator says the representative made one additional request.”
“What request?”
Ruiz met his eyes.
“They asked whether the facility could accept Lucas without notifying his father again, because his consent was already on file.”
Gabriel stared at the documents scattered across the table.
The forged signature was only part of the plan.
May you like
They had been preparing the world to believe that Lucas was supposed to disappear.
And Monday was less than seventy-two hours away.
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