Chapter 4 - The Garage on the River
Mara asked to speak where nobody could hear through the apartment walls. Ray invited her into the small kitchen, then called Reed on speaker so there would be a record of the contact. Mara hesitated, but she agreed to meet an investigator with counsel present. She did not give Ray a detailed account that could later become a disputed informal interview.
Before leaving, she said one thing Ray couldn't forget. "Eli tried to stop a shipment. Everybody talks about him as if he took something. He was trying to make sure people didn't get hurt."
The warehouse had closed after a labor dispute. Its empty building sat beside a road that flooded each spring. Merrow Logistics had dissolved, but the same owners operated an equipment leasing company with a new name. Marco DeLuca had served as a lender and later bought several vehicles from the old fleet. On paper, that could explain his possession of a car that once belonged to Tomas. It did not explain Eli's locket hidden in its trunk.
Ray was reinstated for limited towing work while the customer complaint was reviewed. His supervisor told him to accept only calls outside the downtown district. Ray agreed. The job kept him moving and prevented him from sitting at home refreshing news searches until dawn. Each ordinary vehicle felt like an insult to the mystery waiting in his brother's case, yet he also felt a strange gratitude for work that ended when a car reached a repair shop.
Reed interviewed Mara. She described a defective warehouse lift that had been taken out of service after an inspection. Eli discovered it was scheduled for use in a late-night shipment because a replacement part hadn't arrived. He documented the defect and told Tomas he would report it to the appropriate safety authority if the lift operated. Mara saw a confrontation in the office, then left at the end of her shift. Eli wasn't present when she returned the next morning.
Tomas admitted he had argued with Eli, but insisted the younger man walked away angry and alive. Records showed a safety complaint was drafted but never submitted. No one could say whether Eli changed his mind, was prevented from submitting it, or disappeared before he finished.
A break came from the repair yard. Its manager supplied security footage of the customer who signed Eli's name four days earlier. The man wore a cap and kept his face turned from the camera. His build was similar to Eli's, but the image could not identify him. He drove the silver van away at dusk. Reed asked Ray whether Eli was left-handed. He was. The man's visible hand movements on the recording appeared right-handed.
"People use different hands," Reed cautioned. "Don't make an identification from that."
Ray nodded, but his heart sank. He had allowed himself to imagine Eli alive long enough to feel the loss fresh when the possibility weakened.
His mother wanted to see the footage. Ray told her the police would share information when they could, and that the image wasn't clear enough to settle anything. She accused him of hiding good news. The argument spiraled until she said, "You're like your father. You think keeping me from facts is the same as protecting me."
Ray slept poorly and called her the next morning to apologize. His father had died before Eli went missing, leaving both sons with the habit of deciding things without their mother. He had promised himself he wouldn't repeat it. Yet fear had made the old instinct feel like common sense.
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Reed contacted him late that day. The person who signed Eli's name had apparently used a key to access the yard after hours. Only three people had that type of key, including Tomas Greer and an employee who had left the country years earlier.
The third name was Marco DeLuca.
