Chapter 10 - The Empty Bedroom
Daniel didn't go alone. Maya and two officers watched from a discreet distance while he entered the house with his phone recording in his pocket.
Vanessa sat at the kitchen island, looking tired. For a moment she reminded him of the woman who had stayed up all night when Lily had pneumonia.
"I thought we were going to be a family," she said.
"We already were one. You just didn't seem to like my daughter."
"That's not fair."
The kitchen smelled of oranges from a bowl on the counter. Daniel noticed the smell because it was so normal. A dish towel hung from the oven handle. Lily's drawing, a crooked purple house with four windows, was still attached to the refrigerator by a magnet. Vanessa had prepared the room to suggest that nothing unusual had happened, that they could sit down and negotiate their way back to the life he'd imagined. He almost wished he could. But the photograph of Ben was too recent, and the boy's expression too guarded. Daniel saw how tightly Ben held his coloring book, like it was the only thing that belonged to him. He thought of what Lily would look like in an unfamiliar bedroom with a lock on the outside.
"Where is Ben?"
She slid a photograph across the counter. A dark-haired boy sat on a narrow bed holding a coloring book.
"He's safe," Vanessa said. "I can help Colin get him back. But I need you to stop digging."
"Did you arrange for him to be taken?"
"Colin made enemies. The system is complicated."
"You're asking me to trade my silence for a child."
"I'm asking you to be practical."
Daniel looked down at the photograph. A handwritten date appeared in the lower corner. Yesterday.
He heard movement upstairs.
"Who's here?" he asked.
Vanessa's hand closed around a glass of water. "Nobody."
A small voice called from above. "Help?"
Daniel bolted toward the stairs. Vanessa caught his sleeve, but he pulled free.
The first bedroom was empty. The second door was locked from outside with a sliding bolt.
He threw it open.
May you like
Inside was a neatly made bed, a paper cup, and an open window. A boy's shoe lay beneath the desk.
Outside, tires squealed on the driveway.
