by Rick Mofina
Before Cal’s trial, which was nearly a year away, Kay Donahue, Cal’s criminal defense lawyer, was pushing hard with the Cook County state’s attorney to work out a plea bargain. A case for felony probation, so that Cal would avoid prison, was rejected. Donahue worked hard to ensure Cal’s conviction, which was inevitable, would result in as little prison time as possible.
During that period, the FBI had succeeded in gaining access to Yutellim’s computer where they’d discovered encrypted files, which they eventually managed to unlock. Hidden deep among them was a video made by Ezili in which he boasted about “abducting, dating, then sending to heaven” the missing little boys in the Chicago and Pittsburgh cases. The video revealed details that only the killer would know, eliminating any doubt as to Ezili’s guilt.
The video was eventually obtained by several news organizations and, with graphic parts redacted, was made public. The revelation ignited a social media furor. No one knew what, if any, impact the video would have on Cal’s case, or Thorne’s prison sentence, but Cal’s lawyer was hopeful it would be a factor.
In the months after his abduction, Gage had nightmares and several breakdowns for he feared elements of Illicitum Passio were coming for him, stalking him at school, hiding in cars, in bushes and dark places like his closet or under his bed. Cal, Faith and Dr. Minovich did all they could to reassure him, knowing that he might never be fully assured.
Almost a year later, Cal’s case was heard by the court.
He entered a guilty plea. The judge called Cal’s willful planting of evidence against Ezili a highly serious offense. After hearing all of the agreed upon facts and evidence, and after considering Cal’s spotless criminal record, the judge sentenced him to ten months in a minimum-security prison.
That his dad was going to jail meant little to Gage because to him Cal would forever be his hero. Faith took Gage to the prison regularly to visit his father. Apart from the family visits, it was during the phone calls that Cal was allowed that he and Faith struggled to work out what their future should be. They discussed all options with Gage being the priority, but there were many wounds that needed time to heal.
They settled on not making any decisions until closer to Cal’s release.
Each night as Cal tried to sleep in his cell, he thought of his family, while miles away Faith looked in on Gage before going to her bedroom and getting into her side of the bed she’d once shared with her husband. In those moments, Gage, Faith and Cal were helpless against the anguish that assailed them in the desperate night. They each grappled with the truth on their own: their lives would never again be the same, the degree of happiness they had once known now only as certain as a falling star.
* * * * *
Acknowledgments & Author’s Note
In bringing Last Seen to you I benefitted from the hard work, generosity and support of a lot of people.
I want to thank David Heinzmann, a reporter with the Chicago Tribune, Shane Gericke, formerly with the Chicago Sun-Times, and Laura Caldwell, former civil trial attorney, now a professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. David, Shane and Laura are superb authors in their own right and you’d do well to seek out their work.
If any part of Last Seen rings true for you, it’s because of their kind help. If this story fell short for you then blame me; the mistakes are mine for I have taken creative license with police procedure, jurisdiction, the justice system and Chicago’s geography.
My thanks to Amy Moore-Benson and Meridian Artists; thanks to Emily Ohanjanians and the incredible editorial, marketing, sales and PR teams at Harlequin, MIRA Books and HarperCollins.
As always, my thanks to Wendy Dudley for improving the tale.
Very special thanks to Barbara, Laura and Michael.
For readers who follow my work, my apologies for the long gap between stories. Other commitments vied for my time but I worked faithfully on Last Seen, taking it with me when I traveled, as I do with all of my works in progress. Parts of this book were written in hotels, in airports, on jetliners, in train stations and on trains in Toronto, New Orleans, Montreal, New York City and Quebec City.
This brings me to what I hold to be the most critical part of the entire enterprise: you, the reader. This aspect has become something of a credo for me, one that bears repeating with each book.
Thank you for your time, for without you, a book remains an untold tale. Thank you for setting your life on pause and taking the journey. I deeply appreciate my audience around the world and those who’ve been with me since the beginning who keep in touch. Thank you all for your kind words. I hope you enjoyed the ride and will check out my earlier books while watching for my next one. Feel free to send me a note. I love hearing from you!
Rick Mofina
www.RickMofina.com
Facebook.com/RickMofina
Twitter.com/RickMofina
ISBN-13: 9781488079399
Last Seen
Copyright © 2018 by Highway Nine, Inc.
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 22 Adelaide St. West, 40th Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5H 4E3, Canada.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and in other countries.
www.Harlequin.com