Chapter 13 - BEHIND THE LETTER M
Our old apartment had been empty for four months.
The landlord planned to renovate it the following week.
Harris obtained a warrant before noon.
Grant argued that the federal team should lead the search.
I refused to enter without Harris.
Trust had become a luxury I no longer possessed.
Emma and Lily remained at the pediatric hospital with Rachel.
Before I left, Emma touched my hand.
“Are you looking for Daddy?”
“I am looking for something he left.”
“Will he come back?”
I could not lie to her.
“I don’t know.”
She nodded slowly.
Then she whispered.
“I’m still mad at him.”
“You are allowed to be.”
“I still miss him.”
“You are allowed to do that too.”
The old apartment smelled like dust and fresh paint from the hallway renovations.
Emma’s former bedroom remained pale yellow.
Faded marks on the wall showed where her bookshelves had stood.
The wooden alphabet letters were still above the baseboard.
A through Z.
The M tilted slightly to the right.
Daniel had promised to fix it dozens of times.
He never had.
I knelt and pulled it free.
Behind it was a small circular hole.
Harris shined a flashlight inside.
A plastic tube had been pushed deep into the wall.
He removed it with forceps.
Inside was a flash drive and a hospital bracelet.
The bracelet belonged to a newborn girl.
Baby Girl Monroe.
Vanessa’s last name before marriage.
The date matched Emma’s birthday.
Grant inserted the drive into an isolated laptop.
Most files were encrypted.
One opened automatically.
A video.
Gerald appeared on the screen.
He looked ten years younger.
Beside him stood a man wearing a white medical coat.
His face was partly turned away.
A newborn cried somewhere off camera.
Gerald spoke first.
“Subject has been transferred.”
The doctor asked a question.
“What about the Carter infant?”
“Deceased.”
“And the Monroe mother?”
“Sedated.”
“Does she know the child survived?”
“No.”
The doctor turned slightly.
I recognized him.
Dr. Levin.
The physician who had treated Emma at the hospital.
The man who had found the older bruises.
The man who had introduced Rachel.
My chair scraped backward.
“No.”
Grant paused the video.
Harris stared at the screen.
“Dr. Levin was at the hospital during the outage.”
“He helped Vanessa.”
I said.
Grant reached for his phone.
“We need to detain him.”
I grabbed his wrist.
“Emma is at a hospital.”
The words had barely left my mouth before Harris called Rachel.
No answer.
He called again.
Nothing.
My chest tightened.
Grant contacted the security detail.
A voice answered.
Then shouted.
The call ended.
“What happened?”
I demanded.
Grant looked at me.
“An alarm was triggered on Emma’s floor.”
We ran.
The pediatric hospital was twelve minutes away.
It felt like an hour.
When we arrived, nurses were evacuating one wing.
Smoke drifted from a utility closet.
Not a real fire.
A distraction.
Two federal agents were unconscious near the service elevator.
Rachel had been found locked in a medication room.
Emma’s bed was empty.
Lily was missing too.
A security camera showed Dr. Levin pushing both girls through the radiology corridor.
He wore his hospital coat.
No one stopped him.
I stared at the footage.
“He has done this before.”
Grant said.
“He knows every weakness in the system.”
A nurse approached.
“She left something.”
She handed me a piece of folded paper.
Emma’s handwriting covered it in shaky purple letters.
MOMMY.
BAD DOCTOR.
BLUE CAR.
LILY SAID LAKE.
I looked at Harris.
“Lake Mercer.”
Grant shook his head.
“The clinic is secured.”
“Not the clinic.”
I remembered Daniel’s letter.
Emma’s original birth file contains the name.
The video file continued after we left the apartment.
Grant reopened it on his laptop.
Gerald handed the doctor a folder.
“The sponsor wants the child transferred after phase three.”
The doctor frowned.
“To where?”
Gerald looked directly toward the camera.
“Mercer House.”
Harris searched the name.
An address appeared.
A private estate on the opposite shore of Lake Mercer.
The registered owner was a shell corporation.
Grant opened the corporation record.
His face went still.
“What?”
I asked.
He turned the screen toward me.
The corporation belonged to Michael Grant Holdings.
I stared at him.
Harris drew his weapon.
Grant slowly raised both hands.
“That is not my company.”
“Your name is on it.”
“It was created using my credentials.”
“By whom?”
“I do not know.”
I stepped away from him.
“You said Gerald answered to someone else.”
“I did not know it was connected to me.”
Harris took Grant’s phone and badge.
“You are staying here.”
Grant looked at me.
“Sarah, listen.”
“No.”
“If my identity was used, whoever built this wanted access to federal systems.”
“You had access.”
“Yes.”
“You controlled Daniel’s agreement.”
“Yes.”
“You knew the first investigation disappeared.”
Grant’s face tightened.
“I reopened it.”
“After how many children?”
He had no answer.
Harris placed Grant in the custody of two local officers.
Then he and I headed toward Mercer House.
Rain had stopped.
Fog covered the lake.
The estate appeared through the trees like a dark shape carved from stone.
A blue sedan stood near the boathouse.
Emma’s note had led us there.
Harris called for backup.
I heard a child crying inside.
I ran toward the house.
Harris caught my arm.
“Wait.”
“That is Emma.”
“We need to clear the building.”
A gunshot sounded.
A window shattered above us.
Harris pulled me behind a stone wall.
Another shot struck the driveway.
Someone inside shouted.
Then the front door opened.
Lily ran out barefoot.
“Sarah.”
I broke from cover and reached her.
“Where is Emma?”
Lily pointed toward the boathouse.
“The doctor took her to the water.”
“Who fired the gun?”
“Grandma.”
“Patricia?”
Lily nodded.
“She said nobody gets to leave.”
Harris called to the officers.
I ran toward the lake.
A motorboat engine started in the fog.
I reached the dock just as a blue-and-white boat pulled away.
Dr. Levin stood at the wheel.
Patricia held Emma near the rear seat.
Emma saw me.
“Mommy.”
I jumped into the nearest boat.
The keys were already in the ignition.
Harris landed beside me.
“Can you drive this?”
“No.”
“Neither can I.”
The other boat disappeared deeper into the fog.
I turned the key.
May you like
The engine roared.
“Then we learn fast.”
