Chapter 1 - The Call in the Dark
Thirty-six hours earlier, Daniel Mercer was standing in the kitchen of his small house when the landline rang.
Almost no one called that number anymore.
Daniel had kept it because Luke liked pressing the large buttons and because Rebecca had chosen the phone years ago. It was bright red, old-fashioned and nearly impossible to lose.
Daniel answered while packing Luke’s lunch for the following day.
“Hello?”
For several seconds, he heard only static.
Then a child whispered, “Dad?”
Daniel froze.
“Luke?”
“Please come get me right now.”
Luke’s voice was trembling. He sounded as if he were trying not to cry.
Daniel checked the clock. Evelyn had collected Luke less than three hours earlier. She had promised to take him to her house beside Lake Briar for the weekend.
Daniel had been reluctant, but Evelyn was Luke’s grandmother. After months of arguments about visitation, he had agreed to one overnight stay.
“Where are you?” Daniel asked.
“I don’t know.”
A loud bang sounded through the phone.
Luke inhaled sharply.
“Are you at Grandma’s house?”
“No. It’s dark.”
Daniel grabbed his keys.
“Luke, listen to me. Look around and tell me what you see.”
“A bed. A little window. The door won’t open.”
Daniel’s blood went cold.
“Is Grandma with you?”
“She put me here.”
Another sound came from beyond Luke’s door. Slow footsteps crossed what sounded like a wooden hallway.
Luke whispered, “She said I was bad because I found Mommy’s box.”
Daniel stopped moving.
“What box?”
“The green one. With the bracelet.”
Rebecca’s bracelet.
Daniel had searched for it after she disappeared. The police had listed it among the belongings missing from her car.
“Luke, where did you find the box?”
“In Grandma’s closet.”
The footsteps outside Luke’s room stopped.
A doorknob rattled.
Luke gasped.
“Dad, she’s coming.”
“Hide the phone.”
“I have Rex.”
Rex was Luke’s stuffed dinosaur. He carried it everywhere.
Daniel had attached a small rubber dinosaur footprint beneath the toy’s tail. Inside the footprint was a tracker with an emergency microphone. Daniel had bought it after Luke wandered away at a crowded county fair the previous summer.
“Do you remember our dinosaur game?” Daniel asked.
Luke sniffed. “Follow the footprints.”
“That’s right. Take the footprint off Rex and put it in your pocket.”
The doorknob rattled again.
“I can’t.”
“You can do it. Pull the little green clip.”
Daniel heard Luke struggling with the toy.
Then came a tiny click.
“I got it.”
“Good. Keep it with you. Don’t let anyone see it.”
The door began to open.
Luke whispered, “Dad, I’m scared.”
“I am coming for you. I promise.”
A woman’s voice sounded in the room.
“Who are you talking to?”
The phone fell.
Daniel heard Luke cry out in surprise. There was no sound of a struggle, only footsteps, Evelyn’s sharp breathing and the click of the receiver being lifted.
“Daniel,” she said calmly.
“Where is my son?”
“He’s overtired.”
“He said you locked him in a room.”
“Children exaggerate when they don’t get what they want.”
“Put Luke back on the phone.”
“No.”
Daniel opened the tracker application.
The device appeared after several seconds.
Rex Footprint One.
The signal was moving north along County Road 14.
“You’re not at your lake house,” Daniel said.
Evelyn became silent.
“Where are you taking him?”
“You lost the right to question me when you allowed my daughter to disappear.”
Daniel’s grip tightened around the phone.
“I didn’t allow anything.”
“That is what you tell yourself.”
“Evelyn, if you hurt Luke—”
“I would never hurt my grandson.”
“Then bring him home.”
“He is already where he belongs.”
The call ended.
Daniel watched the red dot move across the map.
He called emergency services while following it toward the highway.
When the dispatcher asked whether Luke might have been taken by a family member, Daniel gave Evelyn’s name, vehicle description and license plate number.
Then he said the one thing that changed the call from a custody dispute into an immediate abduction response.
“My son found evidence connected to his mother’s disappearance. Evelyn knows he told me.”
Twenty minutes later, Detective Tessa Cole arrived at Daniel’s house.
She had investigated Rebecca’s disappearance four years earlier.
The moment Daniel mentioned the silver bracelet, Cole’s expression changed.
“Rebecca was wearing it when she vanished,” she said.
“I know.”
“Only three people knew it wasn’t recovered. You, me and Evelyn.”
Daniel showed her the tracker.
The red dot had stopped near an empty field north of Lake Briar.
Cole stared at the location.
“What is it?” Daniel asked.
“That land used to belong to Black Pine Church Camp.”
Daniel remembered the name from Rebecca’s notebooks.
“Wasn’t that place destroyed?”
“Officially, it closed after a fire.”
“Officially?”
May you like
Cole reached for her radio.
“Rebecca visited Black Pine the week before she disappeared.”
