Chapter 18 - The Senator’s Son
Maurice Beltran was not hiding from us.
He was hiding from his mother.
Sebastian had placed him in a private apartment after the construction-site shooting.
When we found him, he looked nothing like the young man laughing outside the police station.
He had not slept.
He kept checking the windows.
“You’re The Ghost.”
I sat across from him.
“No.”
“You’re Daniel Salgado.”
“Yes.”
“Renata’s father.”
“Yes.”
His eyes dropped.
“I’m sorry.”
I waited.
He started crying.
“I didn’t know Emmett was going to hurt her that badly.”
“You held the door.”
His face crumpled.
“Yes.”
“You laughed afterward.”
“My mother told me to.”
That answer made me sick.
“She told you to laugh?”
“She said if we looked scared, people would think we were guilty.”
“You were guilty.”
He nodded.
“I know.”
For the first time, one of the three boys actually said it.
Maurice explained what happened.
Emmett discovered Renata had been meeting Professor Holloway.
He believed Holloway had given her evidence.
Emmett told Santiago and Maurice that Renata was blackmailing his family.
They confronted her.
When she refused to surrender the key, Emmett struck her.
Then Santiago.
Then Maurice.
None of them stopped.
Afterward, Emmett called Sebastian.
Santiago called Rafael.
Maurice called his mother.
Evelyn Beltran arrived first.
Not physically.
Through instructions.
She ordered the campus cameras disabled.
She contacted Detective Warren.
She arranged attorneys.
Then she told Maurice something he had never forgotten.
“If the girl dies, this becomes easier.”
Renata had been nineteen.
Maurice had been willing to let her die because his mother told him it was convenient.
“What happened to Emmett?”
Maurice wiped his eyes.
“My mother’s people took him.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“What does she want?”
“The ledger.”
Again.
Always the ledger.
Sebastian believed Elena had hidden it.
Beltran believed I had it.
Then I finally understood.
Neither of them knew where it was.
But Elena did.
I returned to the hospital.
She was stronger now.
Renata sat beside her.
For the first time in nineteen years, my entire family occupied one room.
I almost did not want to destroy the moment.
But Elena saw the question in my eyes.
“The ledger.”
She nodded.
“You know where it is.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Elena looked toward Renata.
“Our daughter has had it her entire life.”
Renata stared at her.
“What?”
Elena pointed toward the silver pendant around Renata’s neck.
A small oval locket Elena had given her before the crash.
Renata had worn it since childhood.
I had opened it hundreds of times.
Inside were tiny photographs of Elena and me.
Elena whispered.
“Behind the photographs.”
Renata removed the locket.
I carefully opened it.
Behind the photograph was a paper-thin memory card.
May you like
Nineteen years.
It had been hanging against my daughter’s heart.
