Chapter 4
Detective Kim moved before anyone else.
She shoved the CPS investigator behind the table and reached for her weapon.
Officer Pike aimed at Eli.
“Get away from the boy.”
Eli froze.
I grabbed him and pulled him to the floor.
Pike fired.
The bullet struck the wall above us.
Kim returned fire.
Pike stumbled into the door, dropped his gun, and collapsed.
The entire attack lasted less than five seconds.
Then hospital alarms began screaming.
Kim kicked Pike’s weapon away and called for assistance.
Blood spread across his shoulder, but he was conscious.
He looked directly at Eli.
“You should have stayed quiet.”
Two officers rushed into the room and handcuffed him.
Eli shook against me.
“You’re safe,” I whispered.
But I no longer believed anyone was safe.
Not inside the hospital.
Not with Michael and Victoria still free.
Detective Kim crouched beside Pike.
“Where are they?”
He smiled through the pain.
“You’re already too late.”
“Too late for what?”
Pike closed his eyes.
Kim ordered the officers to search him.
They found two phones, a hospital access card, and a photograph of Emma’s intensive care room.
Someone had sent him detailed instructions.
Get the boy first.
Move the girl before 3:00.
It was 2:41.
I ran into the hallway.
A hospital administrator tried to stop me.
I ignored him and headed toward intensive care.
The doors required a security badge.
I slammed my hand against the glass.
“My daughter is in there!”
A nurse recognized me and opened the door.
Emma’s room was empty.
The bed was gone.
So were the monitors.
A nurse’s clipboard lay on the floor.
“Where is she?” I demanded.
The charge nurse looked confused.
“She was taken for imaging.”
“By whom?”
“Transport.”
“There was no imaging order,” Dr. Ortiz said from behind us.
The charge nurse turned pale.
Security footage showed two people wearing hospital uniforms pushing Emma’s bed into a service elevator.
One of them kept his face hidden.
The other looked directly at the camera.
Victoria.
She had entered the hospital wearing a blond wig and a surgical mask.
The footage showed her removing the mask for one second while speaking into a phone.
She knew the camera was there.
She wanted us to see her.
Dr. Ortiz checked the elevator controls.
“It went to the underground loading area.”
We ran down the stairs.
Detective Kim called every available unit.
The loading area was almost empty.
A discarded hospital gown lay beside an open door.
Outside, tire tracks crossed the wet pavement.
Emma was gone.
I struck the concrete wall with both hands.
Kim caught my shoulder.
“We’ll find her.”
“She is unconscious. She needs medical care.”
“We issued an alert.”
“They have people inside the police department.”
“Pike was a patrol officer, not a detective.”
“He found us in a locked hospital room.”
Kim could not argue with that.
Eli came running into the loading area.
The social worker followed him.
“I know where they might take her,” he said.
“Where?” Kim asked.
“My father owns a cabin near Mount Rainier.”
“Michael does not own a cabin,” I said.
“Not under his name. Dr. Hale owns it.”
Eli had been there twice.
Michael used the property to store company records and medical supplies.
It was nearly two hours away.
Kim called the county sheriff.
Then she looked at me.
“You stay here.”
“No.”
“Daniel, this is a police operation.”
“That is my daughter.”
“You are emotionally involved.”
“I am the only person Emma might respond to.”
“You could make the situation worse.”
Eli stepped closer to her.
“I’m going too.”
“Absolutely not.”
“I know the road. The cabin does not appear on the map.”
Kim stared at both of us.
She knew telling us to stay would not stop us.
Twenty minutes later, we were in an unmarked police SUV.
Two tactical vehicles followed at a distance.
Rain struck the windshield as we headed south.
Eli sat in the back with a blanket around his shoulders.
“Why did Michael put you with Pike?” I asked.
“He said Roger would take care of me.”
“Did Michael ever tell you about Rachel?”
“Not much.”
“She was Emma’s mother.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“I found a picture in my father’s desk. Rachel was holding me when I was a baby.”
“What happened to her?”
“He said she gave me away because she wanted a better life.”
“That doesn’t sound like Rachel.”
My first wife loved children.
She had wanted a large family.
When Emma was born, Rachel refused to leave her side for weeks.
She would never have abandoned a son.
“What did Michael say about the accident?” I asked.
Eli looked out the window.
“He said you caused it.”
The accusation struck hard.
Rachel died while driving home from our family’s lake house.
I had been waiting for her in Seattle.
Police said a drunk driver crossed the center line.
The other driver disappeared before officers arrived.
The burned vehicle was later found abandoned.
“How did I supposedly cause it?”
“He said you found out she had another child. You were angry.”
“I never knew about you.”
“I believe you.”
“Why?”
“Because when I told you who I was, you looked shocked. Not guilty.”
I turned toward Detective Kim.
“Michael knows what happened to Rachel.”
She nodded.
“We will reopen the case.”
“If we survive today,” Eli whispered.
The road narrowed as we entered the forest.
Fog hung between the trees.
Eli directed us toward an unmarked gravel turnoff.
Kim switched off the headlights.
The tactical units stopped farther back.
We continued until the road ended near an old gate.
“The cabin is one mile through the woods,” Eli said.
Kim gave me a protective vest.
“You stay behind me. You do exactly what I say.”
We moved between the trees.
The rain had softened the ground.
Fresh tire tracks led toward the cabin.
After fifteen minutes, we saw smoke rising above the forest.
The cabin was burning.
I ran.
Kim caught my arm.
“Wait.”
“Emma is inside.”
“We don’t know that.”
Then I heard a child scream.
“Daddy!”
I tore free and raced toward the flames.
The front door was locked.
I threw my shoulder against it.
It did not move.
Eli pointed toward a side window.
I struck it with a piece of wood.
Glass fell inward.
Smoke poured out.
I climbed through.
“Emma!”
The living room was empty.
Fire climbed the wall beside a metal cabinet.
I heard coughing from the back of the cabin.
A bedroom door had been tied shut with electrical cord.
I pulled at the knot.
It would not loosen.
Eli appeared through the broken window.
He handed me a small knife.
I cut through the cord and opened the door.
Emma lay on a mattress.
Her wrists were taped together.
An oxygen tube ran beneath her nose, connected to a portable tank.
I lifted her.
Her eyes opened slightly.
“Daddy?”
“I’m here, baby.”
“Victoria said you left me.”
“She lied.”
Emma touched my face.
“I knew you would come.”
The ceiling cracked above us.
Kim shouted from the hallway.
“We have to move!”
I carried Emma toward the window.
Eli climbed out first.
Kim took Emma from me and passed her through.
As I started to follow, someone struck me from behind.
I fell against the wall.
Dr. Hale stood over me holding a metal fire poker.
“You should have buried her,” he said.
He raised the poker again.
I kicked his knee.
He crashed into the floor.
The fire spread across the ceiling.
Hale crawled toward the door.
Detective Kim aimed her weapon.
“Do not move.”
He laughed.
“You think Victoria will let you take her alive?”
A gunshot came from outside.
Kim turned.
I ran to the window.
Eli was lying on the ground beside Emma.
A dark figure dragged my daughter toward a white van.
I climbed through the broken glass.
“Emma!”
Michael lifted her into the van.
Victoria stood beside the open door with a gun in her hand.
She aimed at Eli.
“Move away from her,” Victoria said.
Eli pushed himself up.
“That’s my sister.”
Michael froze.
Victoria looked at him.
For the first time, her control slipped.
“What did he say?”
Eli stared at Michael.
“Rachel was my mother. Emma is my sister.”
Michael’s face twisted.
Victoria raised the gun again.
“Then your mother left behind two problems.”
She pulled the trigger.
But the gun clicked.
Empty.
Michael stared at her.
“You said you only wanted the shares.”
Victoria reached for another weapon inside the van.
Michael grabbed her wrist.
They struggled.
Emma fell from his arms onto the wet grass.
I ran forward and pulled her away.
Police surrounded the van.
Victoria struck Michael and sprinted toward the trees.
Officers chased her.
Michael raised both hands.
“I surrender.”
Eli stood in front of him.
“Did you kill my mother?”
Michael looked at the burning cabin.
Then he looked at me.
“No.”
“Who did?” I demanded.
May you like
Michael’s eyes moved toward the forest where Victoria had disappeared.
“She did.”
