Chapter 5 - The Night Lily Disappeared
Claire ran before anyone could stop her.
Damian caught her at the car.
"Claire."
"Get out of my way."
"We go together."
"My daughter—"
"Our daughter."
The words stopped them both.
Not because they were romantic.
Because they were true.
Claire nodded.
"Drive."
The trip took twenty-three minutes.
Damian made it in sixteen.
Police arrived seconds behind them.
Claire ran upstairs.
Lily's room was empty.
Her stuffed rabbit lay on the floor.
The window was open.
Claire made a sound Damian would remember for the rest of his life.
"No."
He searched the room.
No blood.
No broken furniture.
No sign of struggle.
Then he noticed something beneath the pillow.
A seashell.
Lily collected them.
This one had black marker on it.
A small arrow.
Damian picked it up.
Claire stared.
"She did that."
"What?"
"I taught her."
Claire grabbed the shell.
"When we hike, I tell her if she gets lost, leave signs."
Damian looked toward the window.
"Lily left us a trail."
They found another shell outside.
Then another beside the garden wall.
A third near the road.
The trail ended beside tire tracks.
Matthew crouched.
"Van."
Helen's officers began checking cameras.
Claire stood shaking.
Damian removed his jacket and put it around her.
She almost rejected it.
Then didn't.
"This happened because of me," he said.
"No."
"Claire—"
"Don't make this about your guilt."
He looked at her.
"Find her."
"I will."
"No."
Claire grabbed his shirt.
"We will."
The first break came from Lily herself.
A traffic camera showed a white van heading south.
At a gas station twelve miles away, surveillance footage captured the van stopping.
A small figure could be seen inside.
Lily.
Alive.
Claire nearly collapsed.
Then something extraordinary happened.
The passenger door opened briefly.
A tiny object fell onto the pavement.
A shell.
Damian stared at the screen.
"That's my girl."
Claire looked at him.
The pride in his voice broke something open inside her.
Not forgiveness.
But possibility.
The van continued south.
Another shell was found at a roadside turnout.
Then a piece of paper.
Lily had drawn a lighthouse.
Matthew studied it.
"Does she draw that often?"
"Every day," Claire said.
Damian looked toward the coast.
"Which lighthouse?"
Claire understood.
"The one outside the café."
An abandoned keeper's house stood near it.
Police surrounded the property before dawn.
Damian wanted to enter.
Claire refused to remain behind.
Helen stopped both.
"My officers go first."
A loudspeaker called for anyone inside to surrender.
Nothing.
Then the front door opened.
Lily walked out.
Alone.
Claire screamed her name.
Lily ran.
Claire met her halfway and dropped to her knees.
Damian stopped several feet away.
He wanted to grab her.
Claire could see it.
But he waited.
Lily looked over Claire's shoulder.
"Daddy?"
It was the first time she had called him that.
Damian's face collapsed.
He crossed the distance.
Claire opened one arm.
Damian joined them.
For several seconds, the three of them held each other on the grass beneath the lighthouse.
Then Lily whispered, "The man left."
Damian pulled back.
"What man?"
"The one with the bird ring."
"Where?"
"He said he had to meet Grandpa."
Claire froze.
"What?"
Lily reached into her dress pocket.
"He gave me this."
A key.
Old brass.
A number stamped into it.
Matthew recognized it.
"Train station lockers."
Helen dispatched officers.
Locker 317 contained no weapons.
No money.
Only documents.
And a cassette tape.
Claire stared at it.
Her father's name was written on the label.
ROBERT MERCER.
They found an old player.
Claire pressed play.
Static.
Then her father's voice.
"If Claire is hearing this, I failed."
Her knees weakened.
Damian stood beside her.
The recording continued.
"Victor Sloane's father believes the Blackwoods are responsible for the missing money. They aren't. He is stealing from them and using my accounts to hide it."
Damian stared.
"I have proof."
Claire covered her mouth.
"If they discover what I know, they will come for me. More importantly, they may someday come for Claire."
The tape clicked.
Then her father said something that changed everything.
"Thomas Blackwood tried to help me."
Damian's father.
Claire looked at him.
Damian looked equally shocked.
"Thomas knows Victor's father is stealing. We planned to take the records to federal investigators tomorrow."
The tape stopped.
Matthew turned it over.
Nothing.
"That's it?"
Claire shook the cassette.
Something rattled inside.
Matthew carefully opened the plastic casing.
A tiny folded strip of paper fell out.
Coordinates.
Helen entered them.
A location appeared.
An old cemetery outside Boston.
Claire knew it.
Her father was buried there.
Damian said, "He's telling us where the ledger is."
They drove north after Lily was placed under Helen's personal protection.
Claire hated leaving her.
Lily squeezed Damian's hand.
"Come back."
He crouched.
"I will."
"Promise?"
Damian hesitated.
Claire noticed.
He wouldn't make promises lightly anymore.
"I promise I'll do everything I can."
Lily accepted that.
At the cemetery, they found Robert Mercer's grave.
Matthew examined the stone.
One corner had recently been disturbed.
Behind it was a metal box.
Inside lay the ledger.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
Judges.
Police officers.
Businessmen.
Victor's father.
And Victor himself.
Damian turned pages.
Then stopped.
"What?"
Claire looked.
A payment had been made four years earlier.
To Adrian Cole.
Matthew swore.
Claire stared at Damian.
"Adrian?"
Damian read the notation.
SURVEILLANCE — C. BLACKWOOD.
Adrian had been paid to watch Claire.
The man Damian trusted most had lied.
Again.
Damian called him.
No answer.
Then Claire's phone rang.
Adrian.
She answered.
His voice trembled.
"Claire, listen carefully."
"Where are you?"
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"I thought I could fix it."
"Fix what?"
"Victor has Ethan."
Claire closed her eyes.
"Adrian—"
"He wants the ledger."
"We have it."
"I know."
A pause.
Then Adrian whispered, "And Damian can't know what I did the night you left."
Claire looked at Damian.
He had heard.
Adrian continued.
"Because if he finds out who actually ordered you out of Boston that night, everything he believes about those seven words will change."
May you like
The line went dead.
And Damian slowly asked, "What did Adrian do?"
