Chapter 17 - Lily Leaves a Trail
Mara refused to let Daniel go alone.
Daniel refused to stay behind.
So they compromised without pretending it was a compromise.
He would enter the old textile mill carrying a decoy evidence package. Police would hold far outside the property, using long-range surveillance and a transmitter sewn into Daniel’s belt.
The real memory card stayed locked in evidence.
At 11:44 p.m., Daniel drove through the rusted gates.
The mill had been abandoned for fifteen years. Broken windows stared into the dark. Wind pushed loose metal somewhere above the loading docks.
Daniel parked and stepped out.
On the ground near the entrance, he saw something purple.
A strip of ribbon.
Lily’s rabbit wore a purple ribbon around its neck.
Daniel picked it up.
Inside the building, he found another strip tied to a pipe.
Then another near a stairwell.
Lily was leaving him a trail.
His six-year-old daughter was terrified and still thinking.
“Good girl,” he whispered.
He climbed to the second floor.
Nora stood in the middle of an old spinning room.
Her hands were shaking.
“Where is Lily?”
“Gavin has her.”
“Then take me to him.”
Nora did not move.
“You don’t understand him, Daniel.”
“I understood him for twenty-two years. That was the problem.”
“He says we can still leave.”
“There is no we.”
Nora’s eyes flashed. “You think I wanted all of this?”
“You poisoned my mother.”
“I wanted her quiet. I told myself it would only make her sick.”
Daniel stared at her.
“And my tea?”
Tears slid down Nora’s face. “By then there was no pretending.”
A child whimpered somewhere above them.
Daniel looked up.
Gavin’s voice came from the catwalk.
“Bag on the floor, Dan.”
Lily stood beside him, wrists bound in front of her. Gavin held one hand on her shoulder.
Daniel placed the bag down.
“Let her go.”
“First I check the card.”
“You check it after she walks to me.”
Gavin laughed. “Still negotiating.”
Lily looked at Nora.
For one strange second, their eyes met.
Nora glanced at Gavin.
Then at Lily’s bound wrists.
Slowly, carefully, Nora moved one finger against her own palm.
A silent signal.
Pull.
Lily twisted her hands.
One plastic tie slipped loose.
Daniel realized Nora had cut it almost through before he arrived.
Gavin had not noticed.
May you like
But he noticed Daniel looking.
His smile vanished.
