The Brother Who Was Supposed to Be Gone
Chapter 03 - The Brother Who Was Supposed to Be Gone
Jax demanded to see the discharge paperwork.
The hospital refused.
So he called the one person in town who could help.
Detective Maria Santos had known Jax since high school.
She arrived forty minutes later.
After checking security records, she found something strange.
The man who signed Emily out never entered the hospital.
The signature had been submitted electronically.
Someone had transferred Emily to another facility.
But the destination field was blank.
Luke started crying.
Jax knelt beside him.
“We’ll find her.”
“You promise?”
Jax had learned long ago not to make promises.
But he looked at the boy and said, “Yes.”
Back at the diner, Nora opened the old photograph beneath a bright kitchen light.
She noticed something.
“There’s writing on the back.”
Jax turned it over.
A date.
July 18, 2007.
And an address.
Room 12, Sunbird Motel, Arizona.
Jax remembered the motel.
It was the last place he saw Caleb.
The brothers had been riding west together when they argued.
Caleb accused Jax of trusting the wrong people.
Jax accused Caleb of ruining everything he touched.
By morning, Caleb was gone.
Jax always believed the argument had driven him away.
Now he wondered whether Caleb had been trying to warn him.
Maria searched the date.
A police report appeared.
On July 18, 2007, a young woman named Emily Carter reported being followed near the Sunbird Motel.
The report was closed after she refused to identify the suspect.
Jax stared at the screen.
Emily had been there.
With Caleb.
And she had never told him.
Luke looked at the photograph.
“Is that my dad?”
He pointed to Caleb.
Jax studied the younger man’s face.
Then looked at Luke.
Same hazel eyes.
Same slight curve in the eyebrow.
Jax felt the floor shift beneath him.
May you like
Maybe Luke had not come looking for his father.
Maybe he had come looking for his uncle.
