Chapter 1 - THE FATHER WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO COME BACK
By sunrise, everyone in Briarwood had an opinion about Andrew Parker.
Natalie heard them through the hospital television even after she asked the nurses to turn the volume down.
“Local father disappears during storm while seven-year-old daughter is found alone.”
“Neighbors say Parker had become increasingly reclusive.”
“Police have not ruled out abandonment.”
Every sentence felt premature.
Ashley lay beneath three blankets in a pediatric room at St. Matthew’s Hospital.
She was dehydrated.
Exhausted.
Mildly hypothermic.
But physically stable.
Emotionally, Natalie was not sure.
Ashley had asked for her father seventeen times.
She had asked for Buddy, her stuffed puppy, six times.
And each time she woke, she repeated the same sentence.
“He said thirty minutes.”
Natalie sat beside the bed.
“What happened before Daddy left?”
Ashley looked at the ceiling.
“He made pancakes.”
“What kind?”
“Blueberry.”
“And then?”
“He looked outside.”
“At the storm?”
Ashley nodded.
Natalie waited.
“He got a phone call.”
“Who called?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did Daddy say?”
Ashley squeezed Buddy.
“He said no.”
Natalie leaned closer.
“No to what?”
Ashley’s eyes shifted toward the door.
“He said, ‘You stay away from my daughter.’”
Natalie felt something cold move through her.
“Did he sound scared?”
Ashley shook her head.
“Mad.”
“What happened next?”
“He got the black box.”
Natalie paused.
“What black box?”
“The one under Mommy’s picture.”
That was the first thing Ashley had said that Natalie had not already heard from officers who searched the house.
“What did Daddy do with it?”
“He put papers in my backpack.”
“The pink backpack?”
Ashley nodded.
Then frowned.
“But my backpack came back.”
Natalie already knew.
The backpack from the truck had been transferred to evidence.
The one still at the house had been photographed.
They appeared identical.
Same brand.
Same stains.
Same silver star keychain.
Two backpacks.
Natalie had no explanation.
“Did Daddy tell you where he was going?”
“To the bridge.”
“Which bridge?”
Ashley’s fingers tightened.
“He said Mommy went there.”
Natalie stopped.
Ashley’s mother, Rebecca Parker, had died four years earlier.
Official cause: vehicle accident.
Location: Mercer Bridge.
Natalie knew the name because she had been a patrol officer the night Rebecca died.
She had never met Ashley.
But she had seen Andrew standing beside the road after his wife’s car was pulled from the creek.
He had looked like a man who had lost the ability to understand language.
Natalie still remembered one sentence he had said to the responding detective.
“Rebecca never drove that road.”
The detective had written it off as grief.
Natalie had almost forgotten.
Until now.
“What did Daddy tell you about your mom?”
Ashley swallowed.
“That she got lost.”
Natalie’s throat tightened.
“Anything else?”
“He said someday he’d tell me why.”
The hospital door opened.
Detective Marcus Hale entered carrying a sealed evidence bag.
He was forty-six, broad-shouldered, tired-eyed, and had been Natalie’s field training officer twelve years earlier.
He waited until Ashley fell asleep again.
Then he motioned Natalie into the hallway.
“You opened the envelope?” she asked.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s addressed to you.”
Natalie stared at him.
“And dated tomorrow.”
Marcus nodded.
“That’s why I’m here.”
He handed her the bag.
Inside lay the envelope.
Dry despite the flood.
Typed across the front:
OFFICER NATALIE BROOKS
DO NOT OPEN UNTIL AUGUST 11
Today was August 10.
Natalie looked up.
Marcus folded his arms.
“You know Parker?”
“Not personally.”
“You worked his wife’s crash.”
“I was there.”
“That counts.”
Natalie looked through the glass at Ashley.
“What do you think happened to him?”
Marcus hesitated.
“I think someone wants us to think he abandoned his daughter.”
“And you don’t?”
Marcus looked at the sealed envelope.
“I think Andrew Parker expected something to happen.”
Natalie’s stomach tightened.
“And I think he expected you to be involved.”
Before she could respond, a nurse ran toward them.
“Officer?”
Natalie turned.
The nurse looked shaken.
“A man just tried to enter Ashley’s room.”
“Who?”
“He said he was her uncle.”
Ashley had no uncle.
Natalie reached for her sidearm.
“Where is he?”
The nurse pointed toward the stairwell.
Natalie ran.
By the time she reached the door, it was still swinging.
On the floor beside it lay a folded piece of paper.
May you like
One sentence had been written across it.
ASK ASHLEY WHAT HER FATHER BURIED UNDER THE SWING SET.
