Renee's Fear
Chapter 03 - Renee's Fear
Renee Bennett arrived at the hotel forty minutes later, still in her scrubs from an early shift at the hospital where she worked as a nursing assistant, exhaustion etched into every line of her face.
She pulled Eli into a tight embrace the moment she saw him, relief and fury tangled together in the specific way only a frightened parent's love can produce.
"You scared me half to death," she said, holding him at arm's length. "You know you're not supposed to leave school."
"I saw his watch, Mom," Eli said. "Dad's watch. I had to."
Renee's face went pale, her eyes moving slowly to Daniel's wrist, to the gold watch he'd slipped back on after showing Eli the engraving one more time to be certain.
"That's not possible," she said, voice barely above a whisper.
"I bought it eight months ago," Daniel said gently, "from an estate sale broker. I want you to understand, I had no idea of its history until your son stopped me in the lobby this morning."
Renee sat down slowly across from them, staring at the watch like it might disappear if she looked away.
"Scott disappeared eleven months ago," she said finally, tears falling freely now. "No note, no warning, just gone one morning after he left for what he said was a job interview. I've spent nearly a year trying to convince myself he simply left us, that he found the pressure of everything too much and walked away."
"You never believed that," Daniel said, watching her carefully.
"No," Renee admitted. "I never believed it. Scott loved Eli more than anything in this world. He would never disappear without a word, not voluntarily. I just didn't know what else to think, and the police stopped actively searching after the first few months, once they classified it as a voluntary disappearance."
"What happened before he vanished," Daniel asked. "Anything unusual, any stress, any conflict."
Renee considered the question carefully. "He'd lost his job about six weeks before he disappeared. He worked in hotel management, actually. Something happened there, some accusation he never fully explained to me, only that it wasn't fair, that he'd been blamed for something he swore he didn't do."
Daniel felt a specific, cold recognition building in his chest. "What hotel."
"The Ashford Regency," Renee said. "Downtown. He'd worked there for six years before it happened."
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Daniel sat back, understanding arriving in a rush that made his own pulse quicken considerably. The Ashford Regency had been acquired by his own hotel group just under two years ago, folded into the Meridian portfolio during a considerable expansion that had brought several new properties, and their existing staff, under his company's oversight.
"I need to look into something," he said slowly. "I think there might be a connection here I didn't expect, something that goes considerably beyond a simple watch purchased at an estate sale."
