Chapter 12 - The House Was Never Empty)
Grant drove home faster than he had ever driven in his life.
Police arrived seconds behind him.
The front door was locked.
No sign of forced entry.
Grant entered shouting Tessa's name.
No answer.
He ran upstairs.
The nursery was empty.
The window stood open.
The curtains moved in the wind.
Grant approached the crib.
Noah's stuffed rabbit lay on the mattress.
His blue blanket was gone.
Grant's vision narrowed.
"NOAH!"
Nothing.
A detective checked the window.
"Second floor. No ladder marks."
Grant stared.
"So they didn't leave this way."
The detective nodded.
"The window is staging."
Grant ran downstairs.
"Tessa!"
A faint sound came from the pantry.
Grant opened the door.
Tessa was on the floor.
Her wrists were bound with plastic ties.
Tape covered her mouth.
Grant dropped beside her.
She was conscious.
Terrified.
He removed the tape.
"Noah."
Grant cut the restraints.
"Where is he?"
Tessa gasped.
"They took him."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"What happened?"
"I was in the kitchen. Someone came through the service entrance."
"Man? Woman?"
"Man. Masked."
"Did you hear his voice?"
"No."
"Car?"
"I didn't see."
Grant stood so quickly he nearly fell.
Police spread through the property.
The security system showed no exterior breach.
No unlocked door.
No garage entry.
Then Grant remembered Elise's notebook.
A page near the back contained an old hand-drawn layout of the house.
He had assumed it was decoration.
He retrieved it.
Tessa leaned over his shoulder.
One hallway was marked differently.
A narrow passage behind the pantry.
Grant frowned.
The original mansion had been renovated by his grandfather.
Old service corridors had supposedly been sealed.
He pressed against the pantry wall.
Nothing.
Tessa noticed a small metal latch hidden beneath a shelf.
She pulled it.
The wall opened.
Cold air rushed in.
Grant stared into darkness.
A narrow corridor extended behind the kitchen.
Police entered first.
It led beneath the house.
Then toward an old servant entrance hidden behind hedges near the property wall.
Someone had known the architecture.
Someone had entered without touching modern security.
Grant's phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered immediately.
A distorted voice spoke.
"If you want your son back, stop the investigation."
Grant felt his entire body become still.
"Let me hear him."
Silence.
Then Noah cried.
Grant closed his eyes.
Tessa covered her mouth.
The voice returned.
"Destroy the card. Destroy the dash camera. Tell police Elise's death was an accident."
Grant's voice was almost a whisper.
"If you hurt him, there is nowhere you can hide."
"You still think threats matter."
"Who are you?"
The caller ignored him.
"You have until midnight."
The call ended.
Grant looked at the detective.
"Trace it."
"Already trying."
Tessa stood.
"Vivienne."
Grant looked at her.
"She knows who this is."
They returned to the station.
Vivienne was brought into an interview room.
Grant placed his phone on the table.
"They took Noah."
Vivienne's face changed instantly.
"What?"
Grant watched carefully.
Her shock looked real.
"Tessa was bound. Noah is gone."
Vivienne went pale.
"They weren't supposed to touch him."
Grant leaned forward.
"Who?"
Vivienne shook her head.
"No."
Grant slammed both hands onto the table.
"WHO?"
Vivienne flinched.
The detective intervened.
Grant stepped back.
Vivienne's eyes filled.
"If I tell you, I'm dead."
Grant's voice trembled with fury.
"My son is one year old."
"I know."
"Then decide whose life matters more."
Vivienne cried silently.
Finally she whispered, "Marcus Vale."
"We know about Vale."
"No. You know his name."
"Who hired him?"
Vivienne looked toward the camera.
Grant remembered.
She had always feared recording.
The detective switched the interview camera off.
Vivienne laughed bitterly.
"You think that helps?"
"Talk."
Vivienne closed her eyes.
"When Elise started asking questions, Vale told me the operation was bigger than money."
"What operation?"
"Mercer succession."
Grant stared.
"Meaning?"
"Someone wanted control of the company without appearing to take control."
"Who?"
Vivienne shook her head.
"I never met them."
"You received orders."
"Through Vale."
"Then how do you know it was someone in my family?"
"Because Vale used one name."
Grant waited.
Vivienne opened her eyes.
"The Founder."
Grant frowned.
"My grandfather has been dead twelve years."
"I know."
"Then who?"
"I don't know."
Grant turned to the detective.
His phone rang.
The trace team.
The kidnapping call had bounced through several networks.
But the final physical relay tower was only eleven miles away.
An industrial district.
Police mobilized.
Grant moved toward the door.
Vivienne spoke.
"Wait."
He turned.
"If Vale took Noah, he won't keep him at the relay location."
Grant stared.
"How do you know?"
"Because he used the same trick with Elise."
Grant stopped.
"What?"
Vivienne swallowed.
"Elise received a threat three days before she died."
"What kind?"
"A photograph of Noah."
Grant remembered the photograph Julian had received.
Vivienne continued.
"She followed the signal to an abandoned warehouse."
Grant's pulse quickened.
"What happened?"
"No one was there."
"Then where did Vale go?"
Vivienne looked directly at him.
"Back to your house."
Grant stared.
Vivienne whispered, "He has always hidden things in places the Mercer family believes it already owns."
Tessa suddenly spoke.
"The old property."
Grant turned.
The abandoned Mercer house.
The place where Elise had met Vivienne.
The place only family and old staff remembered.
Grant's phone rang again.
This time the call came from Julian.
His voice was frantic.
"Grant, my security team found Vale's vehicle."
"Where?"
Julian answered.
May you like
Grant felt his blood turn cold.
"At the old Mercer estate."
