Chapter 6 - THE MAN BEHIND THE GLASS
Deputy Evan Reed stood beneath the diner sign.
Rain ran down his coat.
His eyes stayed on us.
Mara reached for her weapon.
“He’s retired.”
“Doesn’t mean he came for pancakes,” I said.
She called for backup.
Evan walked inside before it arrived.
Customers barely looked up.
He smiled at Marlene.
Then at Mara.
“Detective.”
“Hands where I can see them.”
He slowly raised them.
“Everybody’s nervous tonight.”
“Turn around.”
“Mara, you really want to do this here?”
“Yes.”
Something about his calm bothered me.
Then I noticed a woman at the counter.
She was holding her phone sideways.
Filming us.
Another man near the restroom stood up.
Lily whispered, “William.”
We were boxed in.
Evan smiled.
“Your father just wants his daughter home.”
“She’s not property.”
“No. She’s sick.”
Lily stood.
“I’m not sick.”
Evan’s face hardened.
“You always were stubborn.”
Mara stepped between them.
“Against the wall.”
Evan laughed.
Then every light in the diner went out.
People screamed.
A chair crashed.
I grabbed Eva.
Someone hit me in the shoulder.
Clara shouted Lily’s name.
Emergency lights flickered on.
Lily was gone.
So was Evan.
I ran outside.
A black sedan tore from the parking lot.
“Lily!”
Mara fired at a tire.
Missed.
I started after the car on foot.
Clara grabbed me.
“You can’t catch them!”
I turned on her.
“He took her again!”
“I know!”
“Because of you!”
Clara recoiled.
I regretted it instantly.
But not enough to apologize.
Mara got on her radio.
She ordered every patrol unit to watch for the sedan.
Then she looked at me.
“If Lily’s ledger exists, your father won’t kill her until he has it.”
“That supposed to make me feel better?”
“No.”
She picked up a phone dropped near the doorway.
Evan’s.
He must have lost it in the struggle.
No passcode.
One recent message was visible.
DELIVER HER TO BELL.
Mara stared.
“Dr. Bell.”
I nodded.
She opened the map history.
One location appeared repeatedly.
Millbrook Behavioral Recovery Center.
Closed twelve years ago.
Or so the public record said.
Mara looked at me.
“We go with backup.”
“No.”
“That wasn’t a suggestion.”
“My sister spent eighteen years waiting for somebody to stop following procedure.”
Mara’s jaw tightened.
Clara stepped forward.
“I know another entrance.”
I looked at her.
“How?”
She whispered, “Because I used to bring them supplies.”
I felt anger rise again.
Mara said, “You can hate her later.”
She handed me a flashlight.
“Right now, we get Lily.”
We left Eva with Marlene and two uniformed officers.
As I hugged my daughter, she whispered something into my ear.
“Daddy?”
“Yeah?”
“Grandpa was in our house before you came home.”
I froze.
“What?”
“He told Mommy not to tell you.”
I looked at Clara.
May you like
She had heard it.
And the shame on her face told me my daughter was right.
