Chapter 14 - The Chase
Ethan screamed.
Claire pulled both children away from the window.
By the time she looked outside, the SUV was moving.
Ramirez was already on his way.
The vehicle had stolen plates.
Traffic cameras caught it heading east.
Then lost it.
For the next forty-eight hours, Ethan and Lily stayed at a protected family-services residence with Claire.
No school.
No playground.
No windows without blinds.
Lily grew restless.
Ethan grew quiet.
At breakfast on the second morning, a counselor placed two equal plates in front of them.
Eggs. Toast. Strawberries.
Ethan stared at his.
The counselor noticed.
“Something wrong?”
“No.”
“Too much?”
He shook his head.
“Then what?”
He looked at Lily's plate.
Same food.
Same amount.
His throat tightened.
Lily reached over and stole one of his strawberries.
“Hey.”
She grinned. “Now mine's bigger.”
He laughed for the first time in days.
That afternoon, Daniel called with news.
He was being discharged early and flying home the next morning with a medical escort.
Lily jumped around the room.
Ethan did not.
“You don't have to be ready,” Claire told him.
“For what?”
“To forgive him.”
Ethan nodded.
At 6:20 p.m., Ramirez arrived with another development.
Trent had used a company fuel card at a rural gas station sixty miles east.
Police were closing in.
Then Lily disappeared.
One second she was coloring at the small table by the common room.
The next, her chair was empty.
Claire shouted her name.
Staff locked down the building.
Ethan ran to the hallway.
“Lily!”
A back exit alarm was flashing.
The door stood open.
Outside on the pavement lay Lily's pink sweater.
Claire made a sound Ethan had never heard from an adult.
Raw panic.
Ramirez sprinted outside.
Security footage showed a woman in a delivery uniform entering through the service entrance with a covered cart.
Her face was hidden by a cap and mask.
She left seven minutes later.
The cart was heavier.
Ethan stared at the screen.
“That's not Trent.”
Ramirez paused the video.
“No.”
Claire whispered, “Then who?”
Ethan pointed to the woman's left hand.
A silver ring shaped like two leaves.
May you like
He had seen it every day at home.
Amanda's ring.
