Chapter 8 - Forty Miles to Find a Daughter
Daniel did not remember leaving the hospital.
He remembered shouting Lily's name.
He remembered Detective Ruiz calling for emergency assistance.
He remembered Vanessa gripping his wrist hard enough to hurt.
But the next clear moment came when he stood beside a police vehicle on the street outside St. Agnes.
Rain fell across the windshield.
Ruiz was talking into a working radio.
An officer had opened a city map on a laptop.
Daniel stared at it.
"Where did he take her?"
Ruiz looked up.
"We're searching."
"He's had my daughter for almost twenty minutes."
"We have an alert out on the vehicle."
"Then why are we standing here?"
"Because running in the wrong direction won't help Lily."
Daniel looked away.
He hated that she was right.
Vanessa stepped beside him.
"Martin won't kill her."
Daniel turned.
"How can you possibly know that?"
"Because Lily is valuable to them alive."
The words made him want to scream.
"She's a child."
"I know."
"She's not currency."
"I know that too."
Daniel looked at Vanessa's exhausted face.
For the first time, he noticed that her hands were shaking uncontrollably.
She had spent nearly a year living inside this nightmare.
She had lied to him.
Manipulated him.
Betrayed Catherine's trust by getting engaged to Catherine's husband.
But she was also terrified.
And Daniel began to suspect that fear, rather than ambition, had driven much of what she had done.
"Tell me everything Martin knows about Lily."
Vanessa hesitated.
"Vanessa."
She swallowed.
"Martin was part of the security arrangement after Catherine disappeared."
"Security?"
"At first, we thought he was helping."
Daniel stared at her.
"Who is we?"
"Me, Catherine, and Andrew Voss."
"You're telling me the man who tried to kill us was protecting Catherine?"
"He claimed he was."
Daniel gave a bitter laugh.
"That's becoming a common theme."
Vanessa looked down.
"After the accident, Andrew said Catherine had to remain hidden."
"Why?"
"Because he claimed there was a leak inside the federal investigation."
"And you believed him?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because he showed us intercepted messages from Nathan."
Daniel stared at her.
"Were they real?"
"Some were."
"And the others?"
"I don't know anymore."
Ruiz approached.
"We found Mrs. Alvarez."
Daniel's heart stopped.
"Where?"
"At the estate."
"Is she alive?"
"Yes."
He closed his eyes.
"Thank God."
"She was found unconscious in the service garage."
Daniel looked up.
"Drugged?"
"Possibly."
"Did she see who took Lily?"
"Not yet."
Ruiz glanced at the laptop.
"But we have camera footage showing a black SUV leaving the north gate."
"Martin?"
"We're working on identifying the driver."
Daniel stepped closer.
"Play it."
The officer turned the laptop.
Grainy footage showed the Whitmore estate's north gate.
A black SUV approached.
Its rear windows were tinted.
The vehicle slowed.
Then a security barrier lifted.
Daniel noticed something.
"Stop."
The officer paused the video.
"Go back."
He watched again.
As the SUV passed the gatehouse, its brake lights flashed twice.
Then once more.
Daniel leaned forward.
"That's not random."
Ruiz looked at him.
"What?"
"Three flashes."
He watched the footage a third time.
"Two, then one."
Vanessa stared.
"Daniel?"
He remembered a game Catherine had invented when Lily was four.
Whenever they drove home from school, Lily would ask him to signal from the driveway.
Two flashes meant Daddy was home.
One more meant he had a surprise.
It was their private family code.
Daniel pointed toward the screen.
"Lily did that."
Ruiz frowned.
"Are you sure?"
"She's telling us she's inside."
Vanessa whispered, "Then she's conscious."
Daniel nodded.
"And she's thinking."
His chest tightened with a mixture of pride and terror.
"Come on, sweetheart."
He stared at the screen.
"Give me something else."
The vehicle turned right at the end of the private road.
The officer enlarged the image.
A small white object fluttered from the rear passenger window.
Daniel leaned closer.
"What's that?"
The officer froze the frame.
It looked like a piece of paper.
Daniel thought of Lily's habit of drawing on anything she could find.
Napkins.
Receipts.
The backs of grocery lists.
"Send officers to that intersection."
Ruiz nodded.
"Do it."
Twelve minutes later, a patrol officer found a folded paper beneath a storm drain grate.
Rain had soaked one corner.
But the drawing was still visible.
A crooked blue house.
A green tree.
A yellow sun.
And a single word written in uneven letters.
MOMMY.
Daniel stared at the photograph sent to Ruiz's phone.
"That's the lake house."
Vanessa nodded.
"She drew the green shutters."
Ruiz looked at the map.
"Forty miles."
Daniel reached for the car door.
"Then let's go."
This time, Ruiz didn't stop him.
They traveled north with two police vehicles ahead.
Daniel sat in silence, gripping the burned teddy bear.
He had refused to let it out of his sight.
Every few minutes, he opened the zipper and checked the empty pocket.
Catherine had hidden photographs, a key, and enough evidence to destroy their lives inside a child's toy.
He wondered how many nights she had spent sewing those compartments.
How many times she had held the bear and imagined Lily hugging it.
Vanessa finally spoke.
"Daniel?"
He didn't answer.
"I need to tell you something about the lake house."
He looked at her.
"What?"
"Catherine didn't always stay there."
"I know."
"Sometimes she went somewhere else."
"Where?"
"An old family property in Wisconsin."
"Whose family?"
Vanessa swallowed.
"Mine."
Daniel stared at her.
"And Rebecca?"
Vanessa nodded.
"Rebecca lived there before she disappeared."
Daniel looked back toward the road.
"Your sister didn't die thirty-two years ago."
Vanessa's eyes filled.
"I don't know anymore."
He studied her.
"Do you want her to be alive?"
"More than anything."
The answer was immediate.
Daniel looked away.
He understood that kind of longing.
Too well.
They reached the lake house shortly before dawn.
The property sat behind iron gates, surrounded by bare trees.
A narrow driveway wound toward a white two-story home with green shutters.
Exactly as Lily had described.
Police vehicles stopped beyond the entrance.
Officers moved toward the building.
Daniel got out.
Ruiz caught his arm.
"You stay behind cover until we clear it."
Daniel stared at the house.
One upstairs window glowed faintly.
He thought he saw movement.
"Lily."
Ruiz followed his gaze.
"Stay here."
Officers approached the porch.
A voice called for the occupants to identify themselves.
No answer.
The front door stood slightly open.
Then a child's scream came from inside.
"DADDY!"
Daniel moved before anyone could stop him.
He ran across the driveway.
Ruiz shouted his name.
He reached the porch as officers entered.
Inside, the house smelled of wood smoke and bleach.
The living room was empty.
A chair lay overturned.
A broken mug sat beside the fireplace.
Daniel followed the sound of crying toward the hallway.
"Lily!"
"Daddy!"
He turned a corner.
His daughter stood behind a glass door at the end of the hall.
She was barefoot.
Her red dress was torn.
Her face was wet with tears.
Daniel rushed toward her.
Then he saw the wire.
A thin black cable ran from the door handle toward a metal box beneath the stairs.
He stopped.
"Lily, don't touch the door."
She pressed her hands against the glass.
"Daddy, please."
"I'm right here."
An officer saw the device and shouted for everyone to move back.
Daniel raised his hands.
"Lily, sweetheart, listen to me."
She sobbed.
"I'm scared."
"I know."
"Martin said if I opened the door, the house would explode."
Daniel felt his heart stop.
He looked toward the officer.
The man was already calling for a bomb technician.
Daniel forced his voice to remain calm.
"Lily, don't move."
She nodded.
Tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Where's Martin?" Daniel asked.
Lily pointed toward the kitchen.
"He went outside."
"When?"
"Before you came."
"Did he say where?"
She shook her head.
Then she looked frightened.
"Daddy?"
"Yes?"
"He said you wouldn't leave me."
Daniel stared at her.
"What?"
"He said you'd come running."
Daniel felt the realization strike.
The house wasn't just a hiding place.
It was a trap designed around his love for his daughter.
He looked toward the dark hallway.
Then his phone vibrated.
A new message.
YOU HAVE TEN MINUTES TO CHOOSE.
YOUR DAUGHTER OR YOUR WIFE.
Below it were two live video feeds.
One showed Lily behind the glass door.
The other showed Catherine bound to a chair in an unfamiliar room.
Daniel stared at his wife's face.
She was looking directly into the camera.
Then a man's hand entered the frame.
He tilted her chin upward.
May you like
And Daniel heard Andrew Voss say:
"Let's find out which one he loves more."
