Chapter 13 - The Water Room
Daniel stopped so hard his shoes slid on the old wood.
Sarah covered her mouth.
“Grant, she’s six years old,” Daniel said.
“So was I when Robert Mercer first visited my mother and told me to call him Mr. Mercer.”
The bitterness in Grant’s voice filled the lodge.
“That has nothing to do with Lily.”
“It has everything to do with what your family takes and what it keeps.”
A monitor flickered on near the fireplace.
Lily appeared on the screen inside a concrete room. Water covered the floor to her ankles. She was crying but standing.
“Daddy!”
Daniel moved toward the screen.
“Baby, I’m here.”
Grant’s voice returned. “Sarah has something that belongs to me.”
Sarah stepped forward. “I don’t have the recording.”
“You made more than one copy.”
“I mailed one to Evelyn.”
“Wrong answer.”
A mechanical hum started.
On-screen, water began pouring from a pipe.
Lily screamed.
“Stop it!” Daniel shouted.
Sarah’s face changed.
Then she reached into the lining of her jacket and ripped open a small stitched seam.
Daniel stared.
She pulled out a microSD card.
“You had it?”
“I found it in the coat they gave me at the hospital,” she whispered. “I didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t know who to trust.”
Grant laughed over the speaker.
“There she is. Always the smart one.”
Daniel fought the urge to explode.
“Turn off the water.”
“Put the card on the table.”
Sarah set it down.
A trapdoor near the kitchen opened with a click.
“Daniel goes downstairs alone,” Grant ordered. “Sarah stays.”
Daniel picked up the card.
“No. I bring it.”
“Fine.”
He opened the basement door and descended.
The old cellar was dark except for emergency lights. He heard Lily crying somewhere through the stone walls.
Then Grant stepped from behind a support beam.
His pistol was pressed against Lily’s shoulder.
The water room Daniel saw on the monitor had been fake footage.
Lily was dry.
Alive.
Daniel nearly collapsed with relief.
Grant smiled.
“You always were easy to control when someone you loved was in danger.”
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Behind Daniel, the basement door slammed shut.
And a second gun cocked in the darkness.
