Page 17 of Yours to Keep
“High-net-worth family,” I say.
Old money. Influence. Connections that don’t show up in public databases. The kind of people who could create noise overnight, yet they had chosen silence. Why had this been allowed to sit for three months?
That’s what bothers me. Not just the missing kid, but the delay, clearly the control, but also the silence. This doesn’t feel like a search; It feels managed. I flip another page.
“No interviews. No press. No public statements.” A faint pressure starts to build behind my eyes, the warning sign of a headache I had been ignoring for days.
Deck watched me closely as I read. The Sterlings weren’t acting like parents looking for a missing son. They were acting like people managing a situation. Power rarely hides what it loses. It hides what it fears losing control of.
When I look up, I already know.
“This feels wrong.”
He nods once. “I thought so too.”
Instead, there was nothing.
“What aren’t they telling us?” I ask. A faint prickle crawls along the back of my neck. This is a sensation I trust. It means danger. It means someone is lying.
Deck folds his arms. “They’re not acting like parents looking for a missing kid.”
“Exactly.”
I tap the file once.
“They’re acting like people managing a situation. Why?”
“And that,” Deck says quietly, “is the million-dollar question.”
He leans back, stretching out. Tattoos shift across his forearms, old ink over older scars. Some stories visible. Most not.
The room settles into that familiar kind of silence we only get when something doesn’t add up. Outside, fog rolls over the bay. A ferry moves through it like a ghost.
Deck picks up the file again.
“The job pays well.”
“Money isn’t the issue.”
“No,” he agrees. “It isn’t.”
Because it never is. It’s the delay that is the issue. The three months are not hesitation. This is pure intent.
“Ransom?” I ask.
“Nothing.”
“Blackmail?”
“Nothing.”
“Family scandal?”
Deck’s mouth twitches.
“Now we’re getting warmer.”
I lean back. A missing man isn’t the question, not really. The young man is real; That part of this is simple. It’s the silence and the timing. The absence of desperation from parents who should be raising hell to get their son back. But they aren’t. Instead, we get this file three months after he disappears. Three months of no leads, no questions. No action.
