Chapter 10 - THE STOLEN LEDGER
The explosion came from the kitchen.
A flash device.
No fire.
No structural damage.
Just confusion.
Eleven seconds.
That was all someone needed.
Detective Torres remembered being knocked sideways.
Sarah remembered smoke.
When visibility returned, the window was open.
And the red book was gone.
Patricia was still in custody.
The officers searching the house found no intruder.
Dr. Voss vanished too.
Sarah stood outside in a blanket while paramedics checked a cut on her forehead.
Torres paced.
“Someone knew exactly where we were.”
“Dad.”
“Maybe.”
“Who else?”
Torres did not answer.
Sarah called Daniel.
No response.
Again.
Nothing.
Her chest tightened.
“The hospital.”
Torres was already moving.
They reached St. Matthew’s in sixteen minutes.
Daniel was not in Lily’s room.
The officer assigned outside was unconscious.
Not injured badly.
Drugged.
Lily was gone.
Sarah’s scream echoed through the floor.
Security footage showed a nurse pushing Lily’s wheelchair toward a service elevator.
The nurse wore a mask and cap.
Her badge was stolen.
In the elevator, she removed the cap.
Gray hair.
Patricia?
No.
Sarah leaned toward the monitor.
“Aunt Evelyn.”
Robert’s younger sister.
The woman who had interrupted Daniel when he searched the study.
Police checked every exit.
Evelyn’s car was already gone.
Sarah called her.
No answer.
Then a text arrived.
COME HOME.
Sarah stared.
Hawthorne Crest was uninhabitable.
“What home?”
Another message arrived.
THE FIRST ONE.
Daniel called.
Sarah answered.
“Where are you?”
“In the hospital parking garage.”
“Lily’s gone.”
“I know.”
“Aunt Evelyn took her.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because Evelyn called me.”
Sarah closed her eyes.
“What does she want?”
“The ledger.”
“We don’t have it.”
“She thinks Voss does.”
“What does that have to do with us?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Evelyn says Voss is at our first home.”
Sarah remembered a narrow brick house they had lived in before Hawthorne Crest.
She had been five when they moved.
“Maple Street?”
“Yes.”
“Why would he be there?”
“Because Emily is there.”
Sarah went completely still.
“What?”
Daniel’s voice cracked.
“She says Emily came back.”
They drove to Maple Street under police escort.
The old Collins house had been vacant for years.
Robert still owned it through a holding company.
Sarah had never known.
Lights were on inside.
Torres wanted tactical units.
Sarah wanted her daughter.
They compromised badly.
Sarah remained behind the police line while officers approached.
Then the front door opened.
Lily walked out.
Alive.
A blanket around her shoulders.
Sarah ran.
Torres shouted but did not stop her.
Sarah reached Lily and dropped to her knees.
“Baby.”
Lily threw her arms around her.
“Mommy.”
Sarah checked her face.
Her hands.
Her body.
“Did they hurt you?”
Lily shook her head.
“Aunt Evelyn said we were visiting somebody.”
“Where is she?”
Lily pointed toward the house.
A woman appeared in the doorway.
Early forties.
Dark coat.
Brown hair.
Sarah knew her before anyone spoke.
Not from memory.
From the photograph Voss had shown her.
The woman looked at Sarah.
Then at Lily.
Her face collapsed.
“Oh, Sarah.”
Sarah stood slowly.
The woman took one step forward.
“My name is Elise Harper.”
Sarah could not breathe.
May you like
Then the woman said the words Sarah had waited twenty-two years to hear.
“But you knew me as Emily.”
