Chapter 3 - Emily’s First Words
At County General, Emily looked smaller than Lauren remembered.
A white bandage wrapped around her forehead. Her left wrist was splinted. Dried blood darkened the edge of her hair.
Lauren rushed to the bed.
“Oh, baby.”
Emily started crying before Lauren even touched her.
“I’m sorry.”
“No. No, you don’t apologize.” Lauren pulled her close carefully. “You’re safe.”
Emily shook against her.
Detective Nolan stood near the door.
Michael had been taken to the sheriff’s office for questioning. Daniel had been arrested on suspicion of unlawful imprisonment and evidence tampering after police found the hidden room.
None of it made sense yet.
Lauren stroked Emily’s hair.
“What happened?”
Emily looked toward Nolan.
Then back at her mother.
“I found Hannah’s journal.”
Lauren’s hand stopped.
“What?”
“In Grandma Margaret’s attic.”
Margaret had called Emily that afternoon asking for help moving old storage boxes. Inside one box, beneath Christmas decorations, Emily found a leather journal with Hannah’s initials pressed into the cover.
“I thought it was just school stuff,” Emily whispered. “Then I read the last pages.”
Lauren sat down slowly.
“What did she write?”
Emily’s eyes filled.
“She was scared of Daniel.”
Lauren looked at Nolan.
Emily continued. “She said he kept showing up where she worked. That he threatened her.”
“Why?”
“She saw something.”
“What?”
Emily swallowed.
“She saw Daniel hit a man with his car.”
The room seemed to shrink.
“Who?” Nolan asked.
“I don’t know. Hannah didn’t write his name. She called him ‘the man by the bridge.’”
Lauren’s mind raced.
Nine years earlier, Daniel had been twenty-eight. Reckless. Drinking too much. Running a small construction company that was drowning in debt.
But murder?
Emily grabbed Lauren’s hand.
“There’s more.”
Lauren braced herself.
“The last entry said Hannah was meeting Michael.”
Lauren stopped breathing.
“What?”
“She wrote, ‘Michael says he can make Daniel confess. He told me to meet him at the quarry after midnight.’”
Lauren stared at her daughter.
The quarry.
The same road where Emily’s car had been found tonight.
Nolan stepped closer. “What happened after you read that?”
“I called Grandma Margaret. She sounded scared. Then I called Uncle Daniel.”
Lauren’s head snapped up.
“Why would you call him?”
“I wanted to hear his voice when I asked about Hannah.”
Emily wiped tears from her face.
“He told me to come over. He said he could explain everything.”
Nolan’s expression tightened.
“You went?”
Emily nodded.
“I know it was stupid.”
“What happened at his house?”
“I found the basement room.”
Lauren felt sick.
“And Daniel caught me.”
Emily’s fingers dug into the blanket.
“He locked the door.”
Lauren whispered, “He locked you inside?”
“Yes.”
“What happened next?”
Emily stared toward the hospital window.
“Someone else was already in the room.”
Nolan leaned forward.
“Who?”
Emily looked at her mother.
May you like
And whispered, “Hannah.”
Page
