Page 144 of Hidden Tide
“No shots,” Mom whispers.
“No one hurt,” Nathan adds.
The officer rolls the intruder onto his side and removes the baseball cap.
Thomas leans closer to the monitor.
“Do you know him?” I ask.
“No.”
Ivy’s expression changes.
“I do.”
“Who is he?” Marquez asks.
“Elliot Bell.”
Arthur Bell’s son.
The owner of the Blue Lantern.
The man who asked Willow about Grandpa’s watch.
Marquez immediately calls the arresting officers.
“Confirm the suspect’s identity. Possible name Elliot Bell. Do not question him beyond the standard booking information. Secure every item he carried as evidence.”
On the monitor, an officer photographs the scattered tools.
Another places the old Leica inside an evidence bag.
Ivy presses one hand to her mouth.
“He damaged it.”
“It can be repaired,” Ward says.
“That was Dad’s camera.”
Storm moves beside her. “The important part is still there.”
“You don’t know that.”
“No. But Elliot didn’t have time to open it.”
The body camera follows the officer carrying the evidence bag downstairs.
Police search the storage room before anyone touches what was disturbed.
Cabinet doors hang open.
Boxes cover the floor.
Framed photographs have been pulled from their shelves.
Elliot destroyed years of Ivy’s work searching for one object.
