Chapter 14 - A Child Used as Bait
Emma thought of the frightened girl in the back of the SUV, the hospital bracelet cutting into her wrist. “Victoria is taking somebody else's child to make people chase her.”
Natalie nodded. “That child needs help, too.”
Torres organized a coordinated response with airport police and child-protection specialists. Emma wanted to go. Torres refused. “Lily needs you more than a raid does.”
Emma hated the words because they were true. She watched Lily sleep on a couch under a borrowed blanket, her little fingers still knotted around the teddy bear. Daniel stood in the doorway, unable to come closer without Emma flinching.
“Go home,” Emma said.
“There is no home,” he answered.
“There was one. You let your mother turn it into a trap.”
He didn't argue. “I signed an authorization last month. I thought it was for Lily's school enrollment. Mother brought it in a stack of forms.”
“Did you read it?”
When Lily woke, she asked whether Daniel was mad at her. Emma crouched beside her and said, 'Grown-ups are responsible for grown-up decisions. None of this happened because you asked questions, said no, or got scared.' Lily considered that answer with the solemn attention children give to promises they desperately need to be true.
“No.”
“Then don't tell me you didn't help.”
At 2:14 a.m., Torres returned. The aircraft had been stopped before takeoff. The decoy girl was safe, though frightened. Her name was Nora. A private caregiver had been paid to keep her silent. Keene was under arrest.
“Victoria?” Emma asked.
Torres took a breath. “Not on the plane. We believe she used the flight to buy time.”
Natalie's phone lit up. A voice message from an unknown caller contained nothing but a burst of static and the chimes of a church bell. Natalie played it twice.
“That's the old chapel,” she said. “The Whitmore family chapel, past the east orchard.”
Daniel looked up sharply. “Mother keeps a safe there.”
Emma's hand closed around the edge of the table. The chapel had been empty for decades—or so everyone said.
May you like
From the couch Lily stirred and whispered, “Grandma told me there was another little girl in the chapel.”
CHRISTMAS EVE BETRAYAL • THE MISSING DAUGHTER
