Chapter 4 - The Girl in the Dark
Lauren stared at Emily for several seconds without understanding the words.
“Hannah is dead,” she finally said.
Emily’s face crumpled.
“No, Mom.”
“You saw a picture. A recording. Something Daniel put there.”
“I saw her.”
“Emily—”
“She was alive.”
Detective Nolan lifted a hand gently. “Tell us exactly what you saw.”
Emily closed her eyes.
“The room smelled like bleach and dirt. There was a mattress on the floor. A lamp. Bottled water. Old books. I heard breathing before I saw anyone.”
Lauren’s skin prickled.
“Then a woman moved in the corner.”
Emily looked at her mother.
“She was thin. Her hair was long and gray in places. She looked older. But it was Hannah.”
“How could you know?”
“She said my name.”
Lauren’s lips parted.
Emily’s voice broke.
“She said, ‘You got so big.’”
Lauren covered her mouth.
Nine years ago Emily had been eleven.
Hannah had been twenty-one.
Nolan asked, “Where is Hannah now?”
“I don’t know.”
“What happened after you found her?”
“Daniel came down. He was furious.”
Emily’s body tightened as memory returned.
“He kept saying I ruined everything. Hannah got between us. She told me to run.”
“Was Daniel armed?”
“He had a gun in his waistband.”
Lauren’s face went cold.
“He grabbed Hannah. I hit him with a lamp. Then I ran upstairs.”
Emily touched the bandage on her forehead.
“He chased me outside.”
“What about Michael?” Nolan asked.
“I called him from the car.”
Lauren looked at her daughter sharply.
“You called Michael?”
“He was the only person I thought might know what to do.”
Lauren hated that it made sense.
Michael had raised Emily from the time she was ten. Whatever he had hidden, Emily had loved him like a father.
“I told him I found Hannah. He went silent. Then he told me to get away from Daniel and drive toward Mill Creek.”
Emily’s breathing quickened.
“I made it maybe two miles. Then someone hit my car from behind.”
“Daniel?”
“I don’t know. It was dark.”
The impact pushed Emily off the road. Her car struck a ditch. She cut her arm on broken glass.
“I crawled out. Then I heard another car stop.”
Lauren squeezed her hand.
“Michael?”
Emily nodded.
“He found me. He took off his jacket and wrapped it around my arm. That’s why he had my blood on him.”
Lauren’s thoughts collided.
So Michael had not attacked Emily.
But he had still lied about Hannah.
Nolan asked, “Where did Michael go after that?”
“He told me to hide in the trees. He said the police were coming.”
“And then?”
Emily looked terrified.
“He said he had to finish something he should have finished nine years ago.”
Lauren’s chest tightened.
“Where did he go?”
Emily whispered, “Back to Daniel’s house.”
Nolan’s phone rang.
She answered.
Listened.
Her face changed.
Then she looked at Lauren.
“Crime scene just found a second body in Daniel’s basement.”
Lauren’s heart dropped.
Nolan continued.
May you like
“And it isn’t Hannah.”
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