Chapter 5
Daniel wrapped Sophie in a wet blanket.
Smoke filled the bathroom.
Detective Torres kicked open the small window above the tub.
“We’re three floors up,” Daniel said.
“There’s a fire escape.”
Another shot struck the bathroom door.
Torres fired through it.
“Move!”
Daniel climbed onto the tub and forced the window wider. Cold air rushed inside.
He pushed Sophie through first.
She cried as Torres pulled her onto the metal platform outside.
Daniel followed.
Flames glowed behind the apartment windows.
People screamed on the floors below.
Victor appeared in the bathroom doorway.
He was tall, gray-haired, and terrifyingly calm.
“Give me the drive,” he said.
Torres aimed her gun.
Victor held up a phone.
On the screen was a live video of Vanessa tied to a chair.
Her face was bruised.
“If I don’t call within thirty seconds, she dies.”
Daniel stared at the image.
Vanessa had lied to him.
She had stolen from him.
She might have killed Rachel.
But she was still Rachel’s sister.
Sophie saw the screen.
“Aunt Vanessa.”
Victor smiled.
“The child still loves her. Children are generous that way.”
Torres kept her weapon raised.
“You’re surrounded.”
“No, Detective. I paid the man who was supposed to surround me.”
Sirens sounded outside, but Victor did not appear worried.
He looked at Daniel.
“The drive.”
Daniel removed it from his pocket.
Torres glanced at him.
“Don’t.”
“If we can keep him talking—”
“You cannot negotiate with him.”
Victor’s smile faded.
“Ten seconds.”
Daniel threw the drive through the open window.
It landed on the fire escape between them.
Victor lunged toward it.
Torres fired.
The bullet struck his shoulder.
He stumbled but grabbed the drive.
Then he smashed the bathroom light and disappeared into the smoke.
Torres started after him.
Daniel caught her arm.
“Sophie first.”
Torres looked at the frightened child and nodded.
They descended the fire escape.
Firefighters met them on the street.
Daniel held Sophie while paramedics checked her lungs.
Torres spoke angrily into her radio.
Victor had escaped through a maintenance corridor.
The officer assigned to watch the rear exit was missing.
Thirty minutes later, the fire was contained.
Torres returned.
“Victor has the drive.”
Daniel shook his head.
“He has a drive.”
She stared at him.
“I switched it with one from your evidence kit while you were calling dispatch.”
Torres looked almost impressed.
“What did you give him?”
“Family photographs.”
For the first time that night, hope crossed her face.
Then Sophie tugged Daniel’s sleeve.
“Daddy, Aunt Vanessa was sitting in Grandma’s chair.”
“What?”
“In the video. The green chair behind her belongs to Grandma.”
Rachel and Vanessa’s mother, Evelyn, lived two hours away on an isolated farm.
Daniel had not seen her since the funeral.
She blamed him for Rachel’s death and refused his calls.
Torres ordered officers to surround the farm.
They drove there before dawn.
The front door stood open.
Inside, furniture had been overturned.
The green chair was in the dining room.
Ropes lay beside it.
There was blood on the floor.
But Vanessa was gone.
Evelyn emerged from the hallway holding a shotgun.
She aimed it at Daniel.
“You should never have brought Sophie here.”
Daniel raised his hands.
“We came to save Vanessa.”
Evelyn looked at Torres.
“Vanessa does not need saving.”
A floorboard creaked upstairs.
Evelyn’s eyes moved toward the sound.
Torres raised her gun.
“Who is up there?”
Evelyn’s hands began trembling.
Sophie stepped from behind Daniel.
“Grandma?”
The shotgun lowered.
Evelyn started crying.
Then a young girl appeared at the top of the stairs.
She looked about eight years old.
May you like
She had Vanessa’s eyes.
And she was wearing Sophie’s yellow birthday dress.
