Chapter 2 - Three Degrees Below
The paramedics arrived before Daniel could open the hidden door.
He wanted to remain beside the wardrobe, but Lily began calling for him from the master bedroom. He returned to her and did not leave her side while the paramedics checked her breathing and wrapped her in warming blankets.
They said she needed to be examined at the hospital.
Daniel carried her outside.
As they reached the ambulance, headlights appeared at the end of the driveway.
Rachel’s car stopped beside the gate.
She stepped out wearing a long coat over her pajamas.
Her blonde hair was perfectly dry.
She looked from the ambulance to the broken side door.
“What happened?”
Daniel stared at her.
“Where were you?”
“I went to find Lily.”
“She was locked in the blue room.”
Rachel’s eyes widened with convincing surprise.
“What?”
“The window was open.”
“That’s impossible.”
“She was soaked.”
Rachel approached the ambulance, but Daniel stepped between her and Lily.
“Don’t touch her.”
A paramedic looked up.
Rachel stopped.
For the first time, irritation appeared beneath her concern.
“Daniel, you’re frightened. I understand that, but Lily has been acting unpredictably.”
“She’s eight.”
“She ran away from the house last month.”
“She walked to the mailbox.”
“She hid from me for two hours.”
“Because you told her I was never coming back.”
Rachel’s expression sharpened.
Lily had whispered those words while the paramedics examined her.
Daniel had not yet decided whether they were true.
Rachel glanced toward the house.
The blue bedroom window was visible from the driveway.
So was the faint glow coming through the wardrobe panel.
She saw it.
Daniel watched her see it.
The concern vanished from her face for less than a heartbeat.
Then she began to cry.
It was quiet, careful crying.
The kind that invited witnesses to protect her.
“I would never hurt Lily,” she said. “I love her.”
Daniel did not respond.
At the hospital, Lily was treated for cold exposure and dehydration. The doctor assured Daniel she was expected to recover completely, but wanted to keep her for observation until morning.
Rachel attempted to enter the room three times.
Daniel refused.
Eventually, Detective Mara Chen arrived.
She was a small woman with calm eyes and a voice that never needed to become loud.
She listened while Daniel described the locked room, the disconnected security system and the hidden door behind the wardrobe.
When he mentioned the woman’s voice, Mara stopped writing.
“You heard someone behind the door?”
“Yes.”
“What exactly did she say?”
“That Rachel would take Lily too.”
“Did you see her?”
“No.”
“Did she identify herself?”
“No.”
Mara looked through the glass wall at Lily sleeping beneath a white blanket.
“Has your daughter mentioned anyone living in the house?”
“She said something about a lady downstairs.”
“Before tonight?”
Daniel thought about it.
Three weeks earlier, Lily had asked whether houses remembered people who were hidden inside them.
Daniel had assumed it was part of a story she was reading.
A few days later, she left half her dinner untouched and asked whether she could take it upstairs.
Rachel had refused.
Daniel had supported Rachel, telling Lily not to waste food.
He remembered the disappointment in his daughter’s face.
The memory made him feel ill.
“She has said things,” he admitted. “I didn’t understand them.”
Mara closed her notebook.
“Officers are searching the house.”
“The door has a keypad.”
“They’ll open it.”
Daniel looked toward the corridor.
Rachel sat beneath a clock with her arms folded. She had stopped crying.
“Why isn’t she in custody?”
“Because we need evidence before we arrest someone.”
“My daughter was locked in a freezing room.”
“And your wife says she returned home, discovered Lily missing and went out to search for her.”
“She’s lying.”
“Probably.”
Mara’s honesty surprised him.
“But probably is not enough,” she continued. “The bedroom door was damaged when you entered. The window could have been opened from inside. We need to establish who locked it, when the heating failed and whether the security footage was intentionally erased.”
“It was erased?”
“The main recorder was wiped at eleven forty-two tonight.”
Daniel glanced at Rachel.
“She controls the security account.”
“She says you do.”
“I installed the original system. She replaced it last year.”
“Why?”
“She said the cameras were old.”
Mara leaned closer.
“Mr. Cross, do not confront her about the basement until we know what’s behind that door.”
“It could be a person.”
“It could also be a speaker, a recording or a ventilation channel carrying sound from somewhere else.”
“I heard her.”
“I believe you heard something. That is not the same as understanding it.”
Lily moved in the hospital bed.
Her eyes opened, and Daniel immediately went to her.
“Is the lady safe?” she asked.
“We’re trying to find her.”
Lily looked toward Rachel through the glass.
Her heart monitor quickened.
Daniel moved to block her view.
“Lily, can you tell me who locked you in the room?”
She stared at the blanket.
“Rachel said I was making things difficult.”
“What things?”
“The lady was hungry.”
Daniel crouched beside the bed.
“Did you give her food?”
Lily nodded.
“Through the little hole.”
“What little hole?”
“In the wall behind the wardrobe. I couldn’t reach the door, but she could hear me through the vent.”
“What is her name?”
“She wouldn’t tell me.”
“Why?”
“She said names make it easier for bad people to find you.”
Mara approached slowly.
“Lily, did you ever see her face?”
“No.”
“Did Rachel know you were talking to her?”
Lily’s lower lip trembled.
“She saw the bread in my pocket.”
“What happened then?”
“She said children who tell stories have to learn consequences.”
Daniel forced himself to remain calm.
Mara asked, “Did Rachel lock the blue bedroom?”
Lily nodded.
“Did she open the window?”
Another nod.
“Did anyone else see her?”
Lily pointed toward Daniel’s phone on the table.
“The camera did.”
Rachel had claimed the main recorder was erased.
But Daniel remembered the old nursery camera installed before Lily was born. It had stopped appearing in the security application years ago, yet he had never removed it from the hallway.
Unlike the new cameras, it recorded onto an internal memory card.
Daniel stood.
“There’s another camera.”
Rachel was no longer sitting beneath the clock.
Her chair was empty.
Mara looked toward the elevator.
The doors were closing.
Daniel saw Rachel inside.
May you like
She was not running away from the hospital.
She was holding Daniel’s house keys.
