Chapter 6
The girl stared down at them.
Sophie stared back.
Neither child spoke.
Evelyn placed the shotgun on the floor.
“Her name is Grace,” she said.
Daniel looked from the girl to the hospital record in his mind.
“Vanessa’s daughter?”
Evelyn nodded.
“Victor told Vanessa the baby died. He sold Grace through the clinic. Rachel found her last year.”
Torres holstered her weapon but remained alert.
“Why was Grace hidden here?”
“To keep Victor from finding her.”
Grace slowly came downstairs.
She stopped beside Evelyn and held her hand.
Sophie looked at the yellow dress.
“My mommy made that for me.”
Grace immediately looked ashamed.
“Grandma said I could wear it.”
Sophie touched the unfinished seam at the sleeve.
Then she said, “You can keep it.”
Daniel’s heart broke at her kindness.
Torres pointed to the blood.
“Whose is that?”
“Vanessa’s,” Evelyn said. “Victor brought her here last night. He wanted Rachel’s evidence. He believed Vanessa knew where it was.”
“Where is she now?”
“She escaped.”
Daniel did not believe her.
“Vanessa was tied to that chair.”
“Yes.”
“And you did nothing?”
Evelyn’s face hardened.
“Do you think I have not spent six months wondering which daughter I failed?”
Sophie moved closer to Daniel.
Evelyn saw it.
Her anger disappeared.
“Rachel came here before she died,” she said. “She told me Vanessa had stolen money to pay Victor. She believed Vanessa was trying to buy Grace back.”
“That does not excuse what happened on those stairs.”
“No. It doesn’t.”
Torres stepped forward.
“Did Vanessa push Rachel?”
Evelyn began to answer.
A car engine roared outside.
Torres ran to the window.
A black SUV crashed through the farm gate.
Victor climbed out with two men.
“Upstairs,” Torres ordered.
Daniel grabbed both girls.
They ran while Evelyn retrieved the shotgun.
“Grandma, come with us!” Sophie cried.
Evelyn shook her head.
“I should have protected my daughters years ago.”
Gunfire exploded downstairs.
Daniel pushed Sophie and Grace into a bedroom.
Torres moved to the window and called for backup.
“No signal,” she said.
The SUV had damaged the telephone line, and the thick walls blocked her radio.
Grace pointed to the closet.
“There’s a tunnel.”
Behind a row of boxes was a narrow wooden hatch.
Evelyn had once used it to reach the storm shelter.
Daniel opened it.
“Girls first.”
Sophie crawled inside.
Grace followed.
Another gunshot sounded below.
Then silence.
Daniel looked at Torres.
“We can’t leave Evelyn.”
“I’ll get her. Take the children.”
He wanted to argue.
A man’s footstep sounded in the hallway.
Torres shoved Daniel toward the hatch.
“Go!”
He crawled through the dark tunnel and pulled the hatch shut.
The girls were waiting below in the storm shelter.
Sophie hugged him.
“Where’s Detective Torres?”
“She’s coming.”
They waited.
One minute.
Then two.
No one appeared.
Suddenly, the hatch opened.
Daniel prepared to fight.
Vanessa dropped into the shelter.
Blood covered one side of her face.
She held Rachel’s old tablet.
Sophie screamed and hid behind Daniel.
Vanessa raised both hands.
“I’m not here to hurt her.”
“Where is Torres?”
“Victor caught her.”
Daniel moved toward the ladder.
Vanessa blocked him.
“If you go up there, you die.”
“You expect me to trust you?”
“No.”
She placed the tablet on the ground.
“But Rachel did.”
The screen showed a paused video.
Rachel sat beside Vanessa on the basement stairs.
The timestamp was ten minutes before Rachel’s death.
May you like
Vanessa pressed play.
Rachel looked into the camera and said, “Daniel, what happens next was my idea.”
