Chapter 9 - NINETEEN MINUTES
Claire’s scream ripped through the house.
Ethan searched the room as if Lily might somehow be hiding beneath the bed.
“Lily!”
Nothing.
“LILY!”
Claire grabbed him.
“She’s a baby! She can’t answer you!”
Nora stumbled into the hallway.
“What happened?”
“Call the police!”
The next nineteen minutes became the longest nineteen minutes of Ethan’s life.
Police filled the street.
Dogs searched the yard.
Neighbors turned on lights.
A helicopter circled overhead.
Claire sat on the porch shaking so hard she couldn’t hold a cup of water.
Ethan paced.
Officer Ramirez grabbed his shoulder.
“Look at me.”
“My daughter is gone.”
“I know.”
“My mother took her.”
“We don’t know that yet.”
“Yes, we do.”
“We need facts.”
“Here’s a fact. She’s insane.”
“Ethan.”
“She put cameras in my house. Drugged my wife. Tried to frame her.”
“Listen to me.”
Ramirez lowered his voice.
“If Evelyn took Lily, she needs somewhere to go. Somewhere familiar.”
Ethan stopped pacing.
Familiar.
He thought of his childhood.
Sunday dinners.
School pickups.
Summer vacations.
Then he knew.
“The lake.”
“What?”
“My parents had a cabin.”
“Address?”
“I don’t know the number. It’s on Pike Lake Road, maybe forty miles north.”
Ramirez signaled another officer.
“Find it.”
Claire stood.
“I’m coming.”
“No,” Ethan said.
She stared at him.
“Excuse me?”
“You stay here.”
“That is my daughter.”
“I know.”
“Then don’t tell me to stay behind.”
“You have a concussion.”
“I don’t care.”
“I do.”
Her eyes filled with fury.
“Your mother took my baby out of my arms and you are not leaving me sitting on somebody’s couch waiting for a phone call.”
Ethan had no answer.
Then his phone buzzed.
Everyone went silent.
Unknown number.
A picture appeared.
Lily.
Wrapped in a white blanket.
Sleeping.
Claire nearly collapsed.
Then a message.
SHE’S SAFE.
Another.
FOR NOW.
Ramirez motioned.
“Don’t respond yet.”
A third message came.
YOU ALWAYS CHOSE WRONG, ETHAN.
His hands shook.
Then the final one.
COME TO THE CABIN ALONE.
NO POLICE.
OR YOU WILL NEVER SEE HER AGAIN.
Claire read it over his shoulder.
“No.”
Ramirez said, “We trace it. Nobody moves.”
Ethan stared at Lily’s picture.
Another message appeared.
A photograph this time.
Not of Lily.
Of Ethan standing on Nora’s porch.
Taken seconds earlier.
He looked up sharply.
Across the dark street, an SUV suddenly started.
“HEY!”
Ethan ran.
The SUV peeled away.
Police cruisers chased it.
Ramirez shouted into his radio.
Claire grabbed Ethan’s arm.
“Was that her?”
“I don’t know.”
His phone buzzed again.
One sentence.
Nice try.
Then another photograph loaded.
The lake cabin.
And standing behind one of its windows was Evelyn.
May you like
Holding Lily.
---
