Chapter 3 - The House That Belonged to a Child
Police arrived before midnight.
Not because Cedric called them.
Miriam did.
Jordan sat in the back of her sedan wrapped in a blanket while two officers spoke with Adrian.
A third officer, Sergeant Lena Foster, approached Jordan slowly.
“Hey, Jordan.”
Jordan looked at her badge.
“Am I in trouble?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“My dad says police don’t like people trespassing.”
“Were you trespassing in your own house?”
Jordan considered this.
“I don’t know anymore.”
Lena sat several feet away.
“Can you tell me how you got outside?”
Jordan looked at Miriam.
She nodded gently.
Jordan described the cabinet.
The key.
Cedric grabbing him.
The basement.
The screaming.
Adrian.
When Jordan finished, Lena was quiet.
“Did your father hurt you anywhere?”
“My head.”
“From what?”
“He pulled my hair.”
“And when he put you through the basement door?”
“He pushed me.”
“Did you fall?”
“On the steps. But not all the way.”
Lena nodded.
“Would you let a paramedic check you?”
Jordan looked embarrassed.
“I’m okay.”
“I believe you. I still want them to make sure.”
Across the property, another patrol car entered the mansion drive.
Cedric appeared at the front door.
Even from a distance Jordan could tell his father was furious.
Cedric pointed toward Adrian.
“He kidnapped my son!”
Jordan flinched.
Adrian did not move.
Lena stood.
“Stay here.”
Cedric marched toward them.
“Jordan!”
Jordan shrank deeper into the seat.
Cedric stopped when an officer stepped in front of him.
“That’s my child.”
“Sir, we need you to stay back.”
“My brother broke into my house and took him.”
Adrian said, “I pulled him out of the basement you locked him in.”
Cedric’s eyes became murderous.
“You don’t speak to my son.”
Jordan whispered, “He didn’t take me.”
Everyone looked at him.
Cedric’s expression changed.
“Jordan.”
“He helped me.”
Cedric forced his voice softer.
“Come here.”
Jordan did not move.
Cedric stared at him.
For years Jordan had responded immediately when his father used that tone.
Not tonight.
Lena stepped between them.
“Jordan will remain with us while we sort this out.”
Cedric looked at Miriam.
“And you.”
Miriam calmly handed an officer her identification.
“I’m counsel for Adrian Ellison and previously served as attorney to the Ellison Family Trust.”
Cedric’s jaw tightened.
“You were fired.”
“By you.”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t have authority to terminate trust counsel unilaterally.”
Cedric stared.
Miriam continued.
“Just like you don’t have authority to convey trust property to Redwood Development for your personal benefit.”
Jordan did not understand all the words.
Cedric did.
His face changed.
Only for a second.
Miriam saw it.
“So the closing is real.”
Cedric looked at the officers.
“This is a property dispute. She is using my son to interfere with a lawful transaction.”
Lena answered.
“We’re currently investigating an allegation that you physically dragged an eight-year-old child down a hallway and locked him in a dark basement.”
Cedric said nothing.
Jordan looked at Adrian.
“Is Dad going to jail?”
Adrian answered carefully.
“I don’t know.”
Jordan hated that he still felt afraid for Cedric.
Love did not disappear simply because someone frightened you.
That was the confusing part.
A paramedic checked Jordan.
No serious injuries.
Tender scalp.
Small scrape on one palm.
Bruising beginning on his upper arm.
Photographs were taken.
Jordan hated the camera.
Miriam explained why evidence mattered.
By one in the morning, child protective services had been contacted.
Then Miriam made another call.
A woman answered after two rings.
Jordan heard her voice from several feet away.
“Miriam?”
“Yes.”
“Did you find him?”
Miriam looked at Jordan.
“He’s safe.”
A sob came through the phone.
Jordan froze.
He knew that voice.
He had not heard it in eleven months.
“Mom?”
Miriam’s face softened.
She held out the phone.
Jordan did not take it.
Not immediately.
Cedric had told him his mother had stopped calling.
Cedric said Danielle was too busy building a new life in Atlanta.
He said some adults preferred freedom to responsibility.
Jordan had pretended it did not hurt.
Now Danielle Brooks was crying on the phone.
“Jordan?”
His hand shook as he took it.
“Mom?”
“Oh, baby.”
Jordan could not speak.
“I’ve been trying to reach you.”
Jordan looked toward Cedric.
His father stood near the mansion speaking angrily with an officer.
“You stopped calling.”
“No.”
Jordan’s eyes filled.
“Dad said—”
“I never stopped.”
Danielle’s voice broke.
“I swear to you, Jordan. I never stopped.”
Jordan began crying again.
Miriam put a hand near his shoulder without touching.
Danielle continued.
“I’m getting on the first flight.”
“Why didn’t you come before?”
Silence.
Then the answer.
“Because your father got a court order restricting my contact.”
Jordan stared toward Cedric.
“Why?”
“We’ll talk about it when I’m there.”
Jordan lowered the phone.
Another thing Cedric had never told him.
Another locked door.
By dawn, police had secured the basement and forbidden cabinet pending a search warrant because Adrian reported evidence connected to suspected financial crimes.
Cedric was not arrested that night.
But he was ordered not to interfere with Jordan while CPS arranged emergency placement.
Because Danielle was still traveling, Jordan went temporarily with Miriam to a child-friendly advocacy center.
Adrian followed separately.
Before leaving, Jordan looked at Ellison House.
Cedric stood behind an upstairs window.
Watching.
Jordan touched the brass key in the evidence envelope Lena had allowed him to see before officers took custody of it.
“What happens to the key?” he asked.
Lena answered, “For now, it stays safe.”
“And the box?”
“We’ll find out what it opens.”
Miriam looked at Jordan.
“And whatever is inside it may tell us why your father was so afraid of that basement.”
Jordan stared at the mansion.
May you like
For the first time in his life, Ellison House did not look like home.
It looked like evidence.
