Chapter 24 Section five

"He's not your brother." "what?" "The man who took your wife and son was not Peter Denning," Gad said from my front door. "His name is Lester Dante." I felt like I was being pushed hard. "You mean that Patty used the pseudonym Lester Dante." "No, it means something else." "For God's sake, what are you talking about?" "In your house, crime scene officers found fingerprints belonging to a man named Lester Dante." Gad walked in. "We have a file on him, background information, social security number, Criminal record."

I sat bewildered in the living room, staring at the photos that came with the files: chipped teeth and scarred jaws.The mug shot was taken in Boot, with Patty's face facing me. But the dossier revealed that the man was Lester Dante.He was born in Brockton, Indiana, a year before Patty.Over the years, he has been arrested for theft, armed robbery and homicide, but has never been convicted. "Dante did time for racketeering, drug dealing and rape," Gad said. "It's a miracle he didn't kill you in your sleep. See where the Bout police records on him happened? Rice Te Dante got involved in a bar fight that put a man in the ICU. He was released a week before CBS Sunday Morning Report aired your show."

"But..." The sense of unreality was so strong I felt the living room tilt, "how does he know so much about Patty?" "They must have met by chance," Gad said. "Maybe your brother saw the Sunday morning report and talked to people he knew, including Dante. Later, privately, Dante learned from him that For more details, I decided to visit you." I raised my voice in astonishment: "Is my brother hanging out with someone like Dante?" "Maybe your brother is still living as hard a life as Dante said." "But, my God, why doesn't Patty come and see me?"

Gad looked at me, and I felt I understood that Dante might have killed Patty to stop his interference. "That doesn't make sense," I told Gad, "If Dante is so cruel, why did he get my son the clothes? Why did he take Jason instead of..." The word stuck in my throat . "Kill him?" Gad looked uncomfortable, "I'm not sure if you want to talk about this topic." "Let me decide. Answer me." Gad exhaled slowly. "It is possible that Dante took your son to put pressure on your wife, threatening to hurt Jason, so that your wife would agree to him."

I felt like I had been hit in the face. "No." "I'm sorry, Mr. Denning, but you wanted me to be blunt." "Petty... Lester Dante..." "Fingerprints don't lie." "There must be a mistake somewhere. Patty told me about when we were kids. And how he got kidnapped—" "That's what Dante told you. He probably kept buying your brother wine so he could keep talking to him, giving details." "But it all feels so real. I'm sure he's telling the truth." "Listen. Some of these crooks are really good actors, and they might win Oscars if they turn around."

"only……" "It's all a lie. Including the name of the town in West Virginia where he told you he was imprisoned." "repay." "There is no such place." "what?" "The rest of his story doesn't connect either. He tells you that the scar on his chin is from a fall from a ladder during a roofing project in Colorado Springs last summer." "right." "Well, our office staff showed Dante's picture to all the roofing contractors in that area, and no one knew him. The same goes for the building contractors there. If someone had a two-inch gash on his chin , they said they would remember. That wound needed stitches, but there is no record of a construction worker in a hospital in that area coming in with that injury last summer. However, the Colorado Springs police have a videotape of a man who looks like Dante's men beat up the salesman during a robbery in a small liquor store. The police car chased his car into the mountains. His car skidded at a bend and fell into a depression. The wound on his face may be from that time It fell. The police climbed down to search the scene of the accident and found only blood, not the driver."

My voice trembled with pain: "Yeah, Patty has a habit of disappearing suddenly." "You're talking about Dante." "Of course... Dante." "We'll catch him," Gad said. "It won't take long for him to take the money from you. In the end, he'll have to steal again. Once he does it, he just needs to do it again and we'll catch him." " "Finally," Gad said against my throat.I try not to think about what happened to Kate and Jason.