“I’m sure he is.” I don’t smile, but I let the skepticism sit openly on my face.
He clenches his teeth and leans forward hard enough that his folder slides off the table. He doesn’t pick it up. “You want to know what I think, Mr. Bugrov? I think Aurora didn’t leave Echelon because of Dominic. I think she left because of you. She’s somewhere in this city right now because you put her there, and I think the reason her best friend won’t talk to me is you intimidated her into keeping quiet.”
The detective mask has not only slipped but is hanging askew. I’m looking at the man who touched Aurora’s hair and smirked when she flinched. “That’s an interesting theory.”
“It’s not a theory.” He stands, plants both hands on the table, and leans over me. “I know Aurora. She wouldn’t disappear without telling her mother where she was going. She wouldn’t leave her apartment without her things. She wouldn’t go silent on every person in her life unless somebody silenced her.”
I look up at him without standing. Every word he’s saying is being recorded, and every word confirms exactly what Aurora told me about how he operates. He can’t tell the difference between concern and control, and the badge gives him permission not to try.
“The parking garage Aurora used on Northeast Second Avenue has security footage from the week before Dominic’s disappearance.” He straightens up and tries to recover his professional tone, but the damage is done. “She was there three times, twice alone and once with another individual with whom she spoke for five minutes.”
The parking garage isn’t in any case file I’ve seen. I’ve never been there, so it has no relevance to the case or me. It predated Dominic’s death as well.
“There’s also a restaurant in Coral Gables where she was seen dining with Marisol Cruz two days before Dominic went missing. The hostess confirmed a two-top reservation under Cruz’s name.”
I haven’t seen the restaurant in any official documentation either. Hayes has been tracking Aurora’s movements independently, and none of it connects to Dominic Caruso.
“Detective, you seem to have a detailed understanding of Aurora’s personal schedule before Dominic’s disappearance.” I fold my hands on the table. “Is that standard procedure for a missing-person inquiry?”
Hayes picks up his folder from the floor. He tries to recover, but the professional voice is still shaky. “I’m going to find her, Mr. Bugrov. I need to hear from her directly that she left voluntarily. If she didn’t leave voluntarily, I need to know who took her and why.” He steps closer. “If I find out that someone is keeping her somewhere against her will, I will take that person apart using every tool I have available, professional and otherwise.”
I widen my eyes like I’m shocked. “Are you threatening me, Detective?”
“I’m making a promise.” He glares at me. “Thank you for your time.”
He walks out while I sit at the table for thirty seconds, letting the recording capture the silence after his exit. Viktor steps in from the adjacent room.
“He’s past emotionally compromised.” I stand and face Viktor. “He’s running on obsession now, and the badge makes him think it’s righteous.”
“He also doesn’t see that he just admitted to unauthorized surveillance in a recorded conversation.” Viktor pockets his phone. “The parking garage and the restaurant give us leverage if we need to discredit him.”
“Hold that for now. I want it available, not deployed.” I stand and button my jacket. “Every day she stays with me, the relationship becomes harder to frame as temporary.”
“I wasn’t going to say it, but yes.” Viktor meets my stare. “Is it temporary?”
“No.”
He looks at me with the same look he gave me the night I kissed Aurora in the corridor at Echelon. He’s resigned and loyal anyway. “Then we might have to deal with Hayes as more than a temporary pest.”
I don’t flinch. “That’s a possibility. Not yet. He’s still useful as a known quantity. The moment he becomes unpredictable, the calculation changes.”
“What happens if…when it changes?”
“We’ll handle it. No loose ends.” I pick up my jacket from the chair. “For now, I want the recording transcribed, the surveillance details flagged for legal review, and a full timeline of Hayes’s unauthorized activities compiled. When the time comes to dismantle him, I want enough material to end his career before I have to consider ending anything else.”
Viktor nods and starts making calls before I’ve left the room.
I drive backto the Key Largo property alone because Viktor stays in Miami to handle the recording extraction. The sun is low over the water when I pull through the gate, and Aurora is sitting on the back porch reading with her feet up and the Catherine the Great biography open in her lap. She looks up when I come through the door, reading my expression before I’ve said a word.
“What happened?”
I sit beside her on the porch and tell her everything, including how he’s acting like he owns her, not just looking out for her. His badge makes him think he can do anything he wants.
She listens. She doesn’t look surprised or scared. She looks resigned, which is worse because it means she expected this. She’s been expecting Eric to escalate since the night she left Echelon, and him doing exactly what she predicted doesn’t make it easier, just exhausting.
“He mentioned specific locations,” she says in a low voice. “A parking garage and a restaurant.”
“Neither appeared in official case files. He obtained them on his own.”
