“I’m sorry?”
“She knows where she is right now.”
“That’s not our procedure.”
“I understand.”
“Then please tell her to come with me.”
His jaw tightened.
“No.”
That was the moment I began distrusting him.
Not because of the leather.
Not because of the scars.
At least that’s what I told myself afterward.
It was because he said no.
But if I’m being truthful, his appearance made the no sound more threatening than it would have sounded coming from a grandfather in khakis.
“Sir, she is a missing child.”
“I know.”
“We’re responsible for her.”
“Then keep searching for her mother.”
“You cannot keep her.”
“I’m not.”
“She is holding you.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re refusing to release her.”
Elias looked down at Lucy.
“I’m not holding her at all.”
Only then did I notice.
His hands were resting on his own knees.
Lucy was doing all the holding.
He looked back at me.
“You want her off me?”
“Yes.”
“Ask her.”
“I already did.”
“And?”
I hated that he had a point.
Marcus arrived behind me.
“What’s happening?”
Before I answered, Lucy peeked over Elias’s shoulder.
The second she saw Marcus, she hid again.
Elias spoke without turning.
“She’s scared.”
Marcus looked at the patch.
Then the scar.
Then the child.
“Sir, we need you to cooperate.”
“I am cooperating.”
“You need to stand up.”
“If I stand up, she comes with me.”
“Then put her down.”
Elias’s eyes lifted.
His expression hardened for the first time.
“I’m not pulling a frightened five-year-old off my neck.”
Marcus crossed his arms.
“You don’t get to decide that.”
“No.”
Elias nodded toward Lucy.
“She does.”
By then shoppers had noticed.
That was inevitable.
Nothing attracts a crowd inside a large store faster than uncertainty.
A woman stopped her cart near the self-checkouts.
A teenage boy lifted his phone.
Another shopper whispered something to her husband.
The word kidnapper had not yet been spoken loudly enough for me to hear.
It was coming.
Security supervisor Derek Sloan arrived at 3:32.
Derek was twenty-nine and had worked asset protection for four years.
He approached situations the way some men enter rooms they think belong to them.
Fast.
Chest forward.
Certain everyone else should become smaller.
He took one look at Elias.
“What’s going on?”
Marcus explained.
Derek’s eyes narrowed.
“You know this child?”
Elias answered calmly.
“No.”
Derek stepped closer.
“Then release her.”
“I’m not holding her.”
“Sir.”
“She’s holding me.”
Derek crouched slightly.
“Little girl, come here.”
Lucy pressed harder against Elias.
“No!”
Derek reached toward her backpack.
Elias moved one open hand between them.
He did not touch Derek.
“Don’t.”
Derek stood.
“Do not interfere with me.”
“You reach again and she’s going to panic.”
“You don't tell me how to handle children in my store.”
Elias looked around.
“Your store?”
“You know what I mean.”
“Unfortunately.”
Derek pointed.
“Take your hands off her.”