Chapter 5 - THE PRICE OF SILENCE
I could not breathe.
The photograph blurred in front of me.
Grant took the phone from my hand.
His face tightened as he read the message.
“Who sent this?”
“There’s no number.”
Nadia examined the image.
“The location data has been stripped.”
“My mother needs medication.”
My voice broke.
“She can’t miss dialysis.”
Grant looked at me.
“We’ll find her.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I give you my word.”
“Your word cannot clean her blood.”
The room went silent.
I immediately regretted saying it.
Grant did not become angry.
He simply nodded.
“You’re right.”
He handed my phone to Nadia.
“Trace everything.”
Nadia began typing.
Lily stood beside me.
She understood more than any child should.
“Is your mommy sick?”
“Yes.”
“Did Renata take her?”
“I don’t know.”
Lily looked at Grant.
“Renata takes people when they know secrets.”
Grant crouched beside her.
“What secrets does Emma’s mother know?”
Lily shook her head.
I suddenly remembered Renata’s threat in the bathroom.
Your mother will die before you prove anything.
“She knew about my mother before tonight.”
Nadia stopped typing.
“How?”
“She mentioned the dialysis.”
Grant’s eyes narrowed.
“Employee files are restricted.”
“Who can access them?”
“Human resources.”
“And executive leadership,” Nadia said.
Grant pulled out his phone.
He called the head of human resources.
No one answered.
Nadia searched the company system.
“Emma’s employment file was opened eleven times during the past six months.”
“By whom?”
The screen displayed one name.
MALCOLM CALLAHAN.
I stared at it.
“I’ve never met him before tonight.”
“He knew who you were,” Grant said.
“Why?”
A memory surfaced.
On my first day, Renata had studied my application for a long time.
She had asked about my mother’s maiden name.
At the time, I thought it was casual conversation.
“My mother’s name is Helen Mercer.”
Nadia looked up sharply.
“Mercer?”
“Yes.”
“Was she ever an emergency nurse?”
I nodded.
“She worked at Saint Matthew’s Hospital before her kidneys failed.”
Nadia closed her eyes.
“What?”
“She was on duty the night Claire died.”
Grant turned toward me.
“Your mother treated my wife?”
“I don’t know.”
“My mother never talked about her work.”
“She stopped working a few weeks after the accident.”
Grant looked at Nadia.
“Find the medical records.”
“They were sealed.”
“Unseal them.”
Nadia’s computer chimed.
She had traced the photograph to a cellular tower near the old Callahan manufacturing district.
Grant grabbed his coat.
“We’re going.”
Nadia blocked the door.
“This could be a trap.”
“It is a trap.”
I pulled off my apron.
“But my mother is inside it.”
Grant turned to Lily.
“You’re staying here with Nadia.”
Lily’s face filled with panic.
“No.”
“You’ll be safe.”
“No!”
She grabbed my hand.
“Please don’t leave me.”
I knelt.
“I have to help my mother.”
“Renata will come back.”
“The police are here.”
“She has police too.”
Grant and I exchanged a look.
Lily had never mentioned that before.
“What do you mean?” Grant asked.
“The man at the crash had a police badge.”
Nadia looked toward the hallway.
“Which man?”
“The man who took Mommy’s phone.”
Before anyone could ask another question, every door in the nursery locked.
The lights turned red.
The intercom crackled.
Malcolm’s voice filled the room.
“Grant, the board meeting is beginning.”
“Come downstairs alone.”
Grant ran to the nursery door.
It would not open.
Then Lily’s bedroom window exploded inward.
A black object rolled across the carpet.
Nadia shouted.
“Get down!”
Thick white smoke filled the nursery.
I grabbed Lily.
Grant disappeared behind the smoke.
A masked figure climbed through the broken window.
Someone struck me from behind.
May you like
The floor rushed upward.
The last thing I felt was Lily being torn from my arms.
