Chapter 9 - Samantha Disappears)
The transport attack happened three miles from the courthouse.
A black SUV struck the rear quarter of the vehicle carrying Margaret and two officers.
When police stopped to assess the collision, masked men opened the rear door.
They did not take Margaret.
They took Samantha.
The sixteen-year-old had been traveling in a separate juvenile services vehicle directly behind her mother.
Everything lasted less than forty seconds.
Professional.
Planned.
Samantha disappeared.
For the first time since the fire, Margaret begged to see Mark.
He agreed.
She sat in a hospital bed with a bruised shoulder.
One wrist was handcuffed to the rail.
"Get her back."
Mark stared.
"You think I can?"
"They took her because of me."
"Why?"
"I told Victor I would cooperate."
Mark sat.
"With police?"
"With anyone who could protect Caitlyn."
"That's generous after locking her in a room."
Margaret looked away.
"I deserve that."
"You deserve more than that."
"I know."
He had expected denial.
The admission disarmed him.
Margaret whispered, "I thought I could manage it."
"Manage what?"
"Victor."
She explained.
Eighteen months earlier Victor approached her after learning Daniel's company had financial trouble.
He offered a legitimate development partnership.
Margaret saw opportunity.
Then Victor revealed information about the trust.
The secret archive.
Caitlyn's beneficiary status.
At first Margaret believed the archive contained patents worth millions.
She began forging documents to shift control.
She convinced herself Mark would waste the opportunity.
She told herself Caitlyn would still inherit eventually.
Then Victor demanded more.
Recordings.
Provocations.
Custody arrangements.
By then Margaret was compromised.
"He had proof of everything I'd done."
"So you kept going."
"Yes."
"You used Samantha."
"Yes."
"You terrorized Caitlyn."
Margaret cried.
"Yes."
Mark did not comfort her.
"What was the fire?"
"I was told it would be a theatrical smoke device."
"Why lock the door?"
"To make you panic when you arrived."
"And Samantha would provoke me."
"Yes."
"Then cameras show me attacking her."
Margaret nodded.
"You would be arrested. I would request emergency custody. Victor said the property transfer could happen within days."
Mark leaned forward.
"Why did the fire become real?"
"I don't know."
"Who installed the ignition device?"
"I don't know."
"Who took Samantha?"
Margaret's voice dropped.
"Richard Vale."
Mark remembered the photograph.
"Why?"
"Because Victor is disposable."
"So are you."
She nodded.
"So is Samantha."
That was the first moment Mark saw genuine terror in Margaret's face.
Not for herself.
For her daughter.
Mark stood.
"Where would Vale take her?"
Margaret looked toward the door.
Then whispered, "The Meridian House."
"What is that?"
"I don't know exactly."
"You expect me to believe you?"
"It's a name Victor used. Meetings. Storage. Sometimes people."
"Location?"
"Ask Daniel about Riverpoint."
Mark froze.
"Why Daniel?"
"Because Bennett Development sold property there."
Back at Daniel's house, Mark confronted his brother.
Riverpoint was an abandoned industrial area near the county line.
Bennett Development had purchased four warehouse parcels.
Victor arranged the deals.
Daniel believed they were part of a redevelopment plan.
They drove to the largest warehouse with Moreno and a tactical unit.
The building was empty.
Almost.
In a back office they found Samantha's lavender cardigan.
Mark stared at it.
A small dark stain marked one sleeve.
Moreno bagged it.
"Could be nothing."
Mark looked at her.
"You don't believe that."
"No."
They found a chair with plastic restraints.
A camera.
And a phone.
The phone contained one video.
Samantha sat in the chair.
She was crying.
A man's voice spoke from behind the camera.
"Tell your father what we need."
Samantha looked directly into the lens.
"Dad."
Her voice shook.
"I'm sorry."
Mark swallowed.
"I didn't know they were going to hurt Caitlyn. I swear."
The unseen man said, "The message."
Samantha flinched.
"Dad, they want Grandpa's drive and the key from the safe."
She began crying harder.
"Please don't give it to them."
The video ended.
Daniel stared.
"She told you not to give it."
Mark replayed the final second.
Samantha's eyes moved downward twice.
Left.
Right.
Down.
A strange pattern.
Caitlyn, who had been kept away from the warehouse but later saw the video at Daniel's house, recognized it instantly.
"She's doing our game."
Mark turned.
"What game?"
"When Mom would check our phones, Samantha made a secret game."
Caitlyn demonstrated.
Eye movements.
Letters.
A simple code.
Samantha had hidden another message.
Mark replayed the video.
Caitlyn decoded it slowly.
R.
E.
D.
Then numbers.
4.
5.
6.
Daniel whispered, "Red 417."
Moreno searched.
A warehouse.
Storage unit.
Hotel?
Nothing obvious.
Then Caitlyn said, "Red isn't a place."
Mark looked at her.
"It's a book."
Samantha owned an old red dictionary.
Inside it, she kept passwords.
They searched her room after receiving police permission.
The red dictionary contained a handwritten page.
417.
Beside it:
Riverpoint freight tunnel.
Daniel stared.
"There hasn't been freight service there in thirty years."
Mark remembered the underground corridor beneath Parcel 14-C.
Maybe the abandoned tunnels connected farther than anyone realized.
Moreno organized another search.
Before they left, Caitlyn grabbed Mark's hand.
"Daddy?"
"Yeah?"
"Bring Samantha home."
Mark looked toward the burned bedroom across the street.
His anger toward Samantha had not disappeared.
Maybe it never would.
But she was still sixteen.
Still his daughter by marriage.
Still someone Victor and Margaret had manipulated.
And now someone had taken her.
"I'll try."
Caitlyn shook her head.
"Don't try."
May you like
Her small fingers tightened around his.
"Do it."
