Seven days after Lily Reyes’s disappearance
Though Sylvia Reyes tried to keep her emotions in check, Nick “Deke” Deketomis could feel the sobs racking her body as the two of them embraced. Deke was glad Sylvia couldn’t see the guilt that he was sure was written all over his face. He’d been dreading this encounter since hearing the news, his years of having been negligent weighing on him.
“It’s going to be all right,” he said, knowing what he was saying was inadequate, but helpless to come up with anything better.
Sylvia nodded and disengaged from their hug. She ran a hand down her face, wiped away her tears, and gathered herself with a deep breath. Her dark circles and gaunt face spoke of her tiredness.
“I’m afraid I haven’t slept in days,” she said, but then tried to smile for him. “Please come inside. Can I get you something to drink?”
“I’m fine, thanks.”
It had been fifteen years since Deke had last seen Sylvia. He was reminded of that as they entered her small house. Photos lined the hallway wall, and Deke spotted a picture of him holding a baby in a white baptismal gown.
His goddaughter, Lily. Deke hadn’t seen her in all the years since.
They each took a chair and sat down in a tiny living room. Sylvia said, “I wouldn’t have bothered you, Deke, but Bill Fuller suggested you might be able to help.”
Bill was also in some of the pictures in the hallway. He had been the best man at the wedding of Sylvia and Art Reyes, and Deke had been a groomsman. Deke and Bill had both been prosecutors in the Broward County State Attorney’s Office, and Art had been chief investigator there. The three men became close friends, their coworkers referring to them as the “three amigos.” Bill was now the state attorney for Leon County.
“Bill and his office have been working with the police,” Sylvia said. “What they’ve uncovered has left me feeling like a failed parent. I had no idea what was going on in Lily’s life.”
“Every parent of every teenager has said the same thing.”
“That’s what I want to believe, but it still doesn’t excuse my not knowing that Lily has been seeing a twenty-one-year-old man for the last five months.”
“I’m sure Lily did everything she could to keep you from finding out about him.”
“She did, but I’m the parent, and should have been protecting her from a drug-dealing predator like Carlos Navarro.”
“Has he been arrested?”
“Not yet. The police are still trying to make a case against him, but he’s been questioned multiple times. His story keeps changing, or at least it did before he lawyered up. At first, he tried to claim that he and Lily were just casual friends, and that he wasn’t with her on the night she went missing. After being confronted with evidence showing that was a lie, Navarro claimed it was his pride that made him say what he did, because he didn’t want to admit that Lily had dumped him for another guy with money. He said he didn’t even know the name of this other guy Lily drove off with.”
Sylvia’s lower lip began trembling, and she bit down on it in an effort to try and regain control. Deke could see how she was barely holding on.
“How about I get you a glass of water?”
Sylvia shook her head. “His lies make me want to scream. A confidential informant told the police that Navarro got burned on some drug deal, and was desperate to pay off his debt. According to this informant, Navarro made an arrangement with Leonel Rodríguez, who goes by the name of Tío Leo.”
Fighting back her emotions, Sylvia found the strength to finish her story. “Rodríguez is a sex trafficker.”
The tears, held back with such effort, began pouring down Sylvia’s face. Being witness to her raw pain was torture for Deke. Inaction wasn’t his way. He much preferred confronting problems head-on. That’s why he’d become a lawyer in the first place. It had given him a platform for taking on cases he believed were important. Needing to do something, Deke went to the kitchen and returned with a glass of water. Sylvia took a gulp and steadied herself with a few deep breaths.
“What can I do to help?” Deke asked.
“Bill Fuller said you and your firm were heading up a case going after human traffickers.”
Deke met her desperate red-rimmed eyes and nodded. “We’re bringing a case against Welcome Mat Hospitality, alleging that they’ve knowingly allowed their truck stops and motels to be used for the purpose of human trafficking.”
“Welcome Mat’s a big company, right?”
“More than five hundred truck stops, and three hundred motels with over twenty thousand rooms.”
“Bill said the more eyes and resources we can put on Lily’s situation, the better it would be, and he was pretty sure you’d be using investigators in your lawsuit.”
“It’s true we’re looking into Welcome Mat’s operations and putting eyes on select truck stops and motels, but we don’t have the personnel or resources for extensive monitoring.”
“But you could tell your people to watch for Lily, right? And Rodríguez? They might end up in one of those properties.”
“We can do that and a lot more,” Deke promised. He didn’t want to raise her hopes, but he needed Sylvia to know he’d do everything in his power to help.
“I would be grateful.” The relief could be heard in her voice and seen in her face. Even Sylvia’s breathing looked less labored, as if a weight had been lifted from her chest.
Or maybe that weight had just been transferred over to Deke. He felt the need to make his own confession. “I need to say something before we continue. I want to apologize and say that I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what?”
She really didn’t seem to know, Deke thought.
“For failing in my responsibilities as a godfather. And failing to do right by Art.”
Sylvia began shaking her head, but Deke couldn’t let her forgive him that easily. She opened her mouth to speak, but Deke got the words out first.
“I should have made it to Art’s funeral. It was unforgivable of me to not attend. At the time I was in the middle of a huge trial, but that’s no excuse.”
“You explained that in your beautiful card,” she said. “And I heard you made a generous contribution to the National Pancreatic Cancer Foundation in Art’s name.”
“I didn’t honor the dead, and I failed the living by not being there for Lily.”
“That’s not how I remember it,” Sylvia said. “After Art died, and we continued living in Fort Lauderdale, you never forgot Lily’s birthday. Because of you, she learned about Benjamin Franklin.”
Deke almost smiled. Despite the pain she was in, Sylvia was trying to do the comforting. “Four or five years ago, Lily’s birthday card was returned to me. According to what the post office stamped on it, there was no forwarding address. I should have followed up. I meant to find out where the two of you were living. But good intentions aren’t enough. I know that.”
“That’s as much on me as it is on you, Deke. A few years after Art’s death, I decided Lily and I should start afresh. I was the one who didn’t send out change-of-address notices or put out a mass email. I was going through a bad patch. I was mad at the whole world, and thought a new life would make things better.”
“I appreciate your trying to share the blame. But I made vows saying I would look out for Lily, and promised God, and you, and Art. I broke those vows, but now I promise I will do whatever I can to make them right.”
Sylvia blinked away some tears and nodded.
Deke said, “Out in the car is my friend and colleague, Carol Morris. Carol is head of Safety and Security and Investigative Services for our firm. If it’s all right with you, she’d like to ask you some questions.”
“You left her out in your car in this heat?”
“I didn’t want to presume.”
“Please bring her in before she melts.”
* * *
Carol was a self-described “Southern steel magnolia.” She had grown up in the South, the daughter of an army staff sergeant. That was the magnolia part of her; the steel part showed itself in her work. Before Deke had brought her into the firm more than a decade ago, she had had a long and successful career working in the mostly male world of law enforcement. She had never felt the need to posture, as had so many of her coworkers, but her effectiveness was never a matter of dispute. On the job, Carol was invariably polite, but no one questioned her firmness. When it came to ferreting out answers and tracking down people, no one was better than Carol. She had been a decision Deke never regretted.
It didn’t take long for Carol to get Sylvia to open up, and Deke got to hear about a goddaughter he didn’t know. According to Sylvia, Lily was too clever by half. She was smart but indifferent to schoolwork. As pretty as her daughter was, Lily was still insecure about her looks. She could be loving one moment and surly the next. The daughter that Sylvia had once been so close to had become increasingly distant and secretive. Deke was mostly an accessory in the conversation, letting Carol take the lead.
While the two women talked, Deke found himself flipping through some photos that Carol had asked for. Most were recent shots of Lily. She was petite like her mother, and slight. In almost all of the pictures, she had a small, self-conscious smile. But one thing about her features stood out more than anything else, something Carol took a moment to inquire about.
“Where did Lily get her beautiful green eyes?”
“They’re from Art’s side of the family,” Sylvia said. “He had an aunt with almost exactly the same-colored eyes.”
Deke stared at the picture, studying his goddaughter’s eyes. They weren’t eyes easily forgotten. Unblinking, Lily looked back at him with eyes that haunted.