Chapter 13 - VANESSA DISAPPEARS
Someone had entered the hospital wearing stolen maintenance clothing.
Security footage showed a man pushing Vanessa out in a wheelchair.
Mask.
Cap.
Gloves.
But the height matched Charles.
Vanessa had still been under police guard.
Two officers were pulled away by a false emergency call on another floor.
Someone had planned every second.
“He wants information,” Ramirez said.
“About what?”
“Evidence. Locations. What Vanessa told us.”
“And if she doesn’t give it?”
Ramirez didn’t answer.
I knew.
For the first time, I felt something I didn’t want to feel.
Concern for Vanessa.
Not forgiveness.
Never that.
But she was still Lily’s mother.
And no matter what she had done, I didn’t want Lily growing up knowing her mother had been murdered.
At noon, police received a call.
Charles.
He demanded Daniel’s prepaid phone.
The phone recovered from the brown house contained encrypted files.
Charles believed police hadn’t opened them.
He was right.
He offered Vanessa in exchange.
Police prepared a controlled operation.
I wasn’t supposed to know the location.
I found out anyway.
Old grain depot outside Brighton.
Ramirez saw me grabbing my jacket.
“No.”
“I’m going.”
“No, you’re not.”
“He wants something connected to my family.”
“He wants leverage.”
“And Vanessa?”
“We’ll get her.”
“You didn’t stop him taking her from a hospital.”
Ramirez’s jaw tightened.
“That’s exactly why you’re not going.”
Lily grabbed my hand.
“Daddy.”
I looked down.
“Stay.”
That ended the argument.
I stayed.
Two hours later, gunfire erupted at the grain depot.
Charles never showed.
The man who arrived was a homeless addict paid two hundred dollars to collect a backpack.
The backpack contained no phone.
Police arrested him.
Vanessa remained missing.
Then my secured phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
Vanessa whispered, “Ryan.”
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know.”
Her breathing was fast.
“Are you hurt?”
“Yes.”
“Can you see anything?”
“Dark room. Concrete.”
“Any sounds?”
She started crying.
“I hear trains.”
I looked at Ramirez.
He was already tracing.
“Anything else?”
“A bell.”
“Church bell?”
“I think so.”
My mind raced.
Train tracks.
Church.
The yellow house had been near both.
“Vanessa, listen. Did Charles take you back near the yellow house?”
“I don’t know.”
Then a man’s voice spoke behind her.
“Enough.”
Vanessa screamed.
The phone fell.
Charles picked it up.
“You took something from me, Ryan.”
“My daughter was never yours.”
“No. But she was useful.”
Rage burned through me.
“What do you want?”
“The files Daniel kept.”
“I don’t have them.”
“You have access.”
“I don’t.”
Charles laughed.
“Then perhaps your wife dies for nothing.”
Vanessa cried in the background.
I looked at Ramirez.
His team was tracing.
Keep him talking.
“Why Lily?”
Charles went quiet.
“What?”
“Why my daughter?”
“She remembered too much.”
My heart stopped.
“What did she remember?”
“You should ask her about the river.”
The line disconnected.
I slowly turned toward Lily.
She had heard him.
Her face had gone white.
“Lily?”
She backed away.
“No.”
“What happened at the river?”
She started shaking.
“No, Daddy.”
I knelt.
“What happened?”
Tears filled her eyes.
May you like
Then she whispered,
“I saw him push a lady in.”
