Chapter 11 - lily disappeared from the safe house
The call came at 3:17 in the morning.
Gabriel answered before the first ring finished.
"Mr. Mercer."
It was Nora.
Something was wrong.
He heard it immediately.
"What happened?"
"Lily is gone."
The words stopped his heart.
"What?"
"I checked her room ten minutes ago."
Gabriel was already moving.
"Where are the guards?"
"Outside. Nobody saw anything."
"Emma?"
"With me."
"Lock yourself in."
Gabriel drove with Shaw to the safe house.
The trip took thirty-four minutes.
It felt like hours.
The front door showed no forced entry.
The guards were frantic.
Security cameras had stopped recording for exactly eleven minutes.
Lily's bedroom window was closed from inside.
Her shoes were still beside the bed.
Her coat hung behind the door.
Gabriel stood in the middle of the room.
"She didn't leave willingly."
Nora shook her head.
"No."
Shaw searched the nightstand.
"Anything missing?"
Nora looked around.
"Her mother's locket."
Gabriel froze.
"What locket?"
"The silver one she always wears."
Gabriel remembered it.
Julia had given Lily the necklace shortly before her death.
Lily wore it almost every day.
But Gabriel had never opened it.
A guard entered.
"We found a vehicle on a service road behind the property."
Gabriel ran outside.
An abandoned black SUV sat beneath trees.
No plates.
The back door was open.
Inside was Lily's pink sleeping sweater.
Gabriel picked it up.
His hands shook.
Then Shaw saw something on the seat.
A folded paper.
It contained an address.
No message.
Just an address.
Reese recognized it.
"The old Mercer greenhouse."
Gabriel looked at him.
"What?"
"It belongs to a property your grandfather abandoned years ago."
They drove there.
Police units remained several minutes behind so they would not alert whoever held Lily.
The greenhouse stood behind a decaying estate.
Broken glass.
Overgrown vines.
No lights.
Gabriel entered alone through the front.
"Lily!"
No answer.
He moved between rows of dead plants.
Then he heard crying.
"Dad?"
Gabriel ran.
Lily sat behind an old wooden table.
Her wrists were not tied.
No one stood near her.
Gabriel dropped to his knees and held her.
"Oh God."
"Dad."
"I'm here."
She clung to him.
"Did they hurt you?"
"No."
"Who brought you here?"
"I don't know."
"Man? Woman?"
"A man."
"Did you see his face?"
"No. He wore a mask."
Shaw entered with officers.
The greenhouse was empty.
Whoever had taken Lily had already left.
Gabriel looked at his daughter.
"Why bring you here and leave you?"
Lily wiped her face.
"He wanted my necklace."
Gabriel stared at her.
"Your locket?"
"He asked where Mom put the key."
"What key?"
"I didn't know."
Gabriel took the silver locket from Lily's hand.
The chain had broken.
He opened it.
Inside was a photograph of Julia and Lily.
Nothing else.
Then Lily said, "Mom told me it opened twice."
Gabriel looked at her.
"What does that mean?"
Lily took the locket.
She pressed a tiny mark beside the hinge.
A second compartment opened.
Inside was a paper strip.
Six handwritten words.
GREENHOUSE FLOOR. THIRD ROW. RED TILE.
Gabriel stared at Lily.
"Did the man see this?"
She shook her head.
"I told him Mom never gave me a key."
Gabriel kissed her forehead.
"You did exactly right."
They moved to the third row.
Most floor tiles were gray.
One faded red tile sat near the wall.
Shaw lifted it.
Beneath was a metal box.
Inside they found an old key.
A passport.
And a photograph.
Gabriel picked up the passport.
The name was Elena Morrow Mercer.
The photograph showed a young woman with dark hair.
Beside her stood a man Gabriel recognized from old family photographs.
His father.
Edward Mercer.
But there was a third person.
Malcolm.
All three looked young.
The photograph was nearly thirty years old.
Gabriel turned it over.
Julia had written on the back.
Elena did not disappear.
Malcolm knows where she went.
Shaw examined the old key.
"What does it open?"
Reese looked at it.
His face changed.
"I know."
Gabriel turned.
"What?"
"The original Mercer estate."
"Where my grandfather lived?"
Reese nodded.
"The property has been closed for twenty-five years."
Gabriel looked at the key.
"Why would Julia hide this here?"
Reese's answer was simple.
"Because someone was already searching your house."
Gabriel looked at Lily.
Whoever had taken his daughter had not wanted to hurt her.
At least not immediately.
They wanted Julia's key.
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That meant they were searching for the same thing Gabriel was.
And if they were desperate enough to kidnap an eight-year-old, whatever waited inside the old Mercer estate was more dangerous than money.
