Chapter 2 - SIX MONTHS OF LIES
Elena moved before Arthur could think.
She slammed the sledgehammer sideways into Victoria’s wrist.
The gun fired.
The bullet punched into the ceiling.
Victoria screamed and dropped the weapon.
Arthur kicked it across the room.
“What are you doing?”
Victoria clutched her wrist.
“You don’t understand!”
“My son is behind a steel door!”
“I did this for us!”
Arthur grabbed her shoulders.
“For us?”
Victoria stared at him with wild eyes.
“Arthur, listen to me. If Leo comes out, everything changes.”
Elena was already kneeling beside the hidden door.
It had an electronic keypad.
“Code,” she said.
Victoria said nothing.
Elena looked over her shoulder.
“Give me the code.”
“No.”
Arthur walked toward Victoria.
His voice became terrifyingly calm.
“For six months, I have gone to bed wondering whether my child was dead in a ditch somewhere.”
Victoria’s mouth trembled.
“I know.”
“I blamed myself.”
“I know.”
“I paid private investigators. I searched shelters. Train stations. Bus terminals.”
“Arthur—”
“I put his picture on every telephone pole in this county.”
Victoria started crying.
Arthur pointed toward the hidden room.
“And he was twenty feet from my bedroom?”
Silence.
“Give her the code.”
Victoria shook her head.
“Elena doesn’t know what she’s opening.”
“I don’t care.”
“You should.”
Arthur stepped closer.
“Code.”
Victoria looked at him.
Then at Elena.
Then toward the front door.
Suddenly she ran.
“Elena!” Arthur shouted.
Elena lunged, but Victoria reached the door first and disappeared outside.
Arthur moved to chase her.
“Don’t!” Elena yelled.
He stopped.
“Your son first.”
That snapped him back.
“Leo?”
“I’m here.”
His voice sounded weak.
Arthur dropped beside the door.
“Buddy, I’m getting you out.”
“There’s a red button.”
Elena scanned the frame.
“Where?”
“Other side. Under the little box.”
Elena found a recessed panel beneath the keypad and pried it loose with a screwdriver.
A red emergency release sat inside.
She pressed it.
Nothing.
Then Leo said, “You have to hold it.”
Elena held the button down.
The lock clicked.
Arthur yanked the steel door open.
The room beyond was barely six feet wide.
A thin mattress lay on the floor.
Plastic water bottles were stacked in one corner.
There was a bucket.
A lamp.
A small camera.
And sitting against the far wall was Leo.
He looked smaller than Arthur remembered.
Too thin.
His brown hair hung over his eyes. His clothes were dirty. One ankle was attached to a chain bolted into the concrete floor.
Arthur’s knees gave out.
“Leo.”
The boy stared at him.
For half a second, he looked uncertain.
Then he cried, “Dad.”
Arthur crossed the room and wrapped both arms around him.
Leo began sobbing.
“I thought you weren’t coming.”
“I’m here.”
“She said you stopped looking.”
“No. Never.”
“She said you didn’t want me.”
Arthur held him tighter.
“She lied.”
Leo’s fingers dug into his shirt.
“She lies about everything.”
Elena cut the chain with a bolt cutter from her truck.
Arthur carried Leo into the living room.
Sirens were approaching in the distance.
Elena had called 911 before she swung the first hammer.
Arthur looked around.
“Where’s Victoria?”
Elena glanced through the open front door.
Her SUV was gone.
“She left.”
Leo suddenly grabbed Arthur’s shirt.
“Dad.”
“What?”
“Don’t let the police leave.”
Arthur frowned.
“Why?”
Leo looked toward the broken wall.
His eyes filled with fear again.
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“Because I wasn’t the only person in there.”
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