He Laughed While I Was Hit novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: No Warrant

Brennan moved first.

He took Elio upstairs to the bathroom at the end of the hall, with one of his guards at the door.

"Not a sound," he said to the boy, gently. "Like a game."

Elio nodded.

He had played that game for two years.

I put on Brennan's sweater over my torn blouse, took the gray phone, and walked down the drive beside him.

Rocco's black car sat on the other side of the iron gate with its engine running.

He stood on the gravel in a camel coat, with a lawyer at his shoulder and two bodyguards behind him.

The flat-nosed one from the chapel was not among them.

Rocco smiled at me through the bars.

"Britta. You look rested."

"Rocco."

"I'm looking for my nephew." He sighed. "Poor Elio. He's a sleepwalker. He's been gone since four, and the house is frantic. A neighbor saw a small boy on the lake road."

"I haven't seen him."

"No?" He tilted his head. "That's odd, because the footprints end at your gate."

The lawyer cleared his throat and held out an envelope.

"Mr. Doyle," he said, "this is a copy of the court order naming Mr. Rocco Venturi co-guardian of the minor Elio Venturi. It was entered two years ago, after his father's death. It permits him to retrieve the child from any location."

"It doesn't permit him to walk onto my property," Brennan said.

"Mr. Doyle has no warrant," I said.

"I don't need one." Rocco's voice went soft. "A guardian doesn't need a warrant to take a child home. I'd hate to call the sheriff."

"Call him," Brennan said.

Rocco looked at him, and then at me.

"You know, Britta, I wondered whether you'd turn it into this," he said. "The whole picture of you is so brave. But you've never had a child, have you? You wouldn't understand what it is to be responsible for one."

I felt my face go hot, and the bruise throbbed.

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