Chapter 2 - The Missing Child
The gunshot left a ringing silence behind it.
Then the ballroom erupted.
Guests screamed and rushed toward the exits. Tables overturned. Glasses shattered beneath polished shoes. The emergency lights flickered weakly along the walls.
Evelyn stood in the center of the chaos with her arms empty.
“Sophie!”
She turned desperately.
A moment earlier, her daughter had been pressed against her chest.
Now there was only a torn piece of blue fabric caught between Evelyn’s fingers.
“Sophie!”
She pushed through the crowd.
A man stumbled into her path, holding a bleeding hand. Two women crouched behind the wedding cake. A child cried beneath one of the tables.
But Sophie was nowhere.
Behind Evelyn, someone shouted for a doctor.
Preston lay on his back near the dance floor. Blood spread across his shirt below his left shoulder.
Marcus Hale knelt beside him and pressed a folded tablecloth against the wound.
“Keep pressure here,” Marcus instructed a guest. “Don’t move him.”
Evelyn grabbed his arm.
“Where is my daughter?”
Marcus looked up.
“What?”
“Someone took Sophie when the lights went out.”
His face tightened.
He immediately spoke into his radio.
“Lock down every exit. Missing child, seven years old, blond hair, blue dress. No one leaves the building.”
One of the police officers hurried toward the main doors.
The other raised his voice above the panic.
“Everyone remain where you are!”
Few obeyed.
Evelyn turned toward the family table.
The woman in the green gown was gone.
Caroline stood near Julian, her white dress stained by spilled wine. She looked terrified.
“Where’s Sophie?” Caroline asked.
“That is what I’m trying to find out.”
“I thought she was with you.”
“She was.”
Evelyn seized Caroline’s wrist.
“Who was the woman in green?”
Caroline blinked.
“What woman?”
“The woman Preston was looking at before the lights went out. She wore a sapphire necklace.”
“I don’t know.”
“You were sitting three tables away from her.”
“There are hundreds of people here.”
“She was near the family section.”
Caroline pulled her wrist free.
“Evelyn, I don’t know every guest Julian’s family invited.”
Julian stepped between them.
“This isn’t helping.”
“My daughter is missing.”
“And we’ll find her.”
“You don’t understand,” Evelyn said. “This was planned.”
Julian stared at her.
“The phone, the accusation, the camera, the blackout. None of it was accidental.”
He glanced toward Preston.
“Why would my cousin help kidnap Sophie?”
“I don’t know.”
A paramedic team entered the ballroom and hurried toward Preston.
As they lifted him onto a stretcher, Preston’s eyes opened.
He looked directly at Evelyn.
His lips moved.
She rushed to his side.
“Where is Sophie?”
Preston struggled for breath.
“The woman…”
“Who is she?”
“She wanted…”
His gaze moved toward Caroline.
Then toward Julian.
“No,” he whispered.
“What did she want?”
Preston’s fingers closed weakly around Evelyn’s sleeve.
“Daniel found the account.”
Evelyn froze.
“My husband?”
“The account,” Preston repeated. “He knew…”
His hand fell.
The paramedic pushed Evelyn back.
“We need space.”
They carried Preston from the room.
Evelyn followed until Marcus intercepted her.
“We found Sophie’s other shoe.”
He held up a small silver shoe.
“Where?”
“Service corridor behind the kitchen.”
Evelyn ran.
Marcus and one police officer followed her through the ballroom, past the catering station, and into a narrow hallway lined with steel doors.
The sounds of the wedding faded behind them.
A second shoe lay near a stairwell entrance.
Beside it was Sophie’s pearl hair clip.
Evelyn picked it up.
The tiny clasp was bent.
“She fought them,” she whispered.
Marcus examined the stairwell.
“This leads to the loading dock and underground parking.”
The officer spoke into his radio, directing units to seal the garage.
Evelyn pushed through the door.
They descended two flights.
On the lower landing, Evelyn found a small smear of blood on the railing.
Her knees nearly collapsed.
“Sophie!”
No answer.
The underground parking garage smelled of concrete and exhaust. Police lights flashed against the pillars as officers moved between the vehicles.
Near the western exit, a black sedan stood with its rear door open.
The engine was running.
No driver sat inside.
Marcus approached carefully.
Evelyn rushed past him.
The back seat was empty.
A blue ribbon lay on the floor.
Evelyn recognized it from Sophie’s dress.
On the passenger seat sat Preston’s silver phone.
The same phone he had planted in Sophie’s jacket.
Marcus put on a glove and lifted it.
“The screen is unlocked.”
A message had been left open.
Marcus read it aloud.
“Bring the child to Saint Ormond House. Do not let Evelyn follow.”
The sender’s name contained only one letter.
D.
Evelyn stared at the screen.
Daniel’s name began with D.
But Daniel was dead.
A vehicle engine roared behind them.
A white van shot from between two rows of parked cars and accelerated toward the western gate.
“There!” Evelyn shouted.
Police officers ran toward their vehicles.
Marcus grabbed Evelyn before she could step into the van’s path.
Through the tinted rear window, Evelyn saw a small hand strike the glass.
Sophie.
The van crashed through the lowered parking barrier and disappeared into the night.
On the concrete where it had been parked, someone had drawn a circle in red paint.
May you like
Inside the circle were three words.
DANIEL MERCER LIVES.
