Chapter 4 - The Girl Nobody Was Supposed to Find
Emma Hale was doing algebra when strangers came looking for her.
She sat at her aunt's kitchen table in a quiet suburban neighborhood twelve miles from Mercy General.
Her dark hair was tied in a ponytail.
A bowl of cereal sat beside her notebook even though it was nearly six in the evening.
Emma's aunt, Rachel Hale, was washing dishes when a gray sedan slowed outside the house.
Rachel noticed it through the window.
At first, she thought nothing of it.
Then it passed again.
Five minutes later.
Same car.
Same driver.
Rachel dried her hands and called Marcus.
No answer.
She tried again.
Still nothing.
Emma glanced up.
“Is Dad okay?”
Rachel forced a smile.
“He's fine.”
“You're lying.”
Rachel turned.
Emma was eleven, but sometimes she looked much older.
“You always clean when you're nervous.”
Rachel looked down at the spotless counter.
“I clean all the time.”
“Not the same spot for five minutes.”
Before Rachel could respond, somebody knocked on the front door.
Three slow knocks.
Rachel froze.
Emma's pencil stopped.
Another knock.
“Rachel Hale?” a man's voice called.
Rachel moved toward the door but did not open it.
“Yes?”
“Police.”
Her relief lasted less than a second.
Then Marcus's warning came back.
If anyone comes asking, don't trust a badge until Detective Walsh calls you personally.
Rachel stepped backward.
“Can I see identification?”
A badge appeared through the narrow window beside the door.
It looked real.
That made it worse.
Rachel grabbed Emma's hand.
“Upstairs.”
“Why?”
“Now.”
Emma moved.
Rachel called Detective Walsh.
No answer.
The man outside knocked harder.
“Ms. Hale, we need to speak regarding your brother.”
Rachel backed toward the stairs.
The doorknob turned.
Locked.
Then something heavy struck the door.
Emma screamed.
Rachel ran upstairs.
Twenty minutes away, Sarah sat in Detective Walsh's car.
They had been heading toward Rachel's house when Walsh's phone rang.
She answered.
Her face changed immediately.
“What?”
Sarah looked over.
Walsh accelerated.
“What happened?”
“Rachel called dispatch. Men at the house.”
Sarah's body tightened.
“How many?”
“Unknown.”
“Police nearby?”
“Units responding.”
Sarah checked her seat belt.
“Too slow.”
Walsh glanced at her.
“You said you weren't doing operations.”
“I'm not.”
“You're currently calculating routes.”
Sarah looked through the windshield.
“I'm a nurse concerned about a pediatric patient's emotional well-being.”
Walsh almost laughed despite everything.
They arrived six minutes later.
Two patrol cars were already outside.
The gray sedan was gone.
The front door had been forced open.
Sarah's stomach dropped.
Walsh rushed inside.
“Rachel!”
No answer.
They found overturned furniture.
A broken lamp.
One shoe near the stairs.
Sarah's mind shifted into that familiar cold clarity.
Signs of struggle.
But little blood.
No shell casings.
No bodies.
Walsh cursed.
“They took them.”
Sarah crouched near the kitchen.
A cereal bowl remained on the table.
Emma's algebra notebook lay open.
On the page, beneath a half-finished equation, someone had written four words in pencil.
Dad said Star House.
Walsh leaned over Sarah.
“What does that mean?”
Sarah stared.
“Marcus said Emma likes astronomy.”
“Star House could be anything.”
“Or somewhere he taught her to go if something happened.”
They returned to Mercy General.
Marcus was pale but awake.
When Sarah showed him a photograph of the message, tears immediately filled his eyes.
“She remembered.”
“Where is Star House?”
Marcus looked at Walsh.
“Old Planetarium.”
Walsh frowned.
“The abandoned one near Riverside?”
Marcus nodded.
“I used to take Emma there when she was little. There's an old caretaker's cottage behind it.”
Sarah understood.
“They escaped?”
“Rachel knows the route through the basement.”
Walsh was already calling officers.
Marcus shook his head urgently.
“No sirens.”
“What?”
“Dutch's people know that place too.”
“Then why send your daughter there?”
“I didn't think they'd ever know about it.”
Sarah leaned closer.
“Who knows?”
Marcus closed his eyes.
“Only one person besides Rachel.”
“Who?”
Marcus hesitated.
“Cal Bishop.”
Walsh went rigid.
Sarah looked between them.
“Who is Cal?”
Walsh's face had gone cold.
“Detective Calvin Bishop.”
Marcus nodded.
“One of Dutch's people inside the department.”
Walsh whispered a curse.
Suddenly everything made sense.
The intercepted shipments.
Dutch knowing when police moved.
The false officer at Rachel's house.
The strange gaps in the investigation.
Walsh pulled out her phone.
Sarah caught her arm.
“If Bishop has access to department communications, calling this in tells him exactly where we're going.”
Walsh stared.
Sarah released her.
“You need someone you trust.”
“There are three people in my unit I trust.”
“Call one.”
Walsh nodded.
Sarah looked toward Marcus.
“Where's the ledger?”
Marcus swallowed.
“Planetarium.”
Of course.
“What exactly is it?”
“Not paper.”
“A drive?”
He nodded.
“Encrypted.”
Walsh looked at him.
“You hid the evidence and your daughter's emergency location in the same place?”
Marcus winced.
“When you say it out loud, it sounds bad.”
“It is bad.”
“I was desperate.”
Sarah turned toward the door.
Walsh followed.
“You're staying here.”
Sarah continued walking.
“Emma may be injured.”
“Sarah.”
“I'm medical personnel.”
“You know that's not what I mean.”
Sarah stopped.
Walsh lowered her voice.
“If Bishop is there, he may be armed.”
Sarah's expression remained steady.
“I told you I wouldn't carry a weapon.”
“That isn't the same as being safe.”
“No.”
Sarah looked back at Marcus.
“But somebody promised that girl she'd see Saturn someday.”
Walsh frowned.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
They left.
The abandoned Riverside Planetarium had been closed for twelve years.
Its silver dome rose beyond dead trees beside the river.
Windows were boarded.
The parking lot was cracked.
Night had fallen.
Walsh parked two blocks away.
Another unmarked car waited nearby.
Detective Hannah Price stepped out.
Walsh trusted her.
That was apparently the entire task force now.
Three women.
One armed officer.
One detective.
One nurse with a complicated résumé.
Sarah looked at the building.
“Any sign of Bishop?”
Price shook her head.
“His phone is off.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning he's either not involved…”
Walsh finished.
“Or he's already here.”
They approached through the back.
Sarah saw the cottage first.
Door open.
Lights off.
Walsh drew her weapon.
“Stay behind me.”
Sarah almost responded.
Then decided against it.
They entered.
“Rachel?”
Silence.
Sarah noticed a small smear of blood on the wall.
Fresh.
She followed it toward the basement stairs.
A muffled sound came from below.
Walsh moved carefully.
“Police!”
A frightened voice answered.
“Don't shoot!”
They hurried down.
Rachel sat behind an old storage shelf with Emma pressed beside her.
Blood ran from a cut on Rachel's forehead.
Emma looked terrified but unharmed.
Sarah knelt immediately.
“I'm Sarah. Your dad sent me.”
Emma stared.
“My dad?”
“He's alive.”
Emma began crying.
Not loudly.
Just sudden tears of relief.
Sarah checked Rachel's wound.
Superficial.
Walsh exhaled.
“We need to move.”
Emma shook her head.
“They're upstairs.”
Everyone froze.
Walsh whispered, “Who?”
“The men from the house.”
Footsteps sounded above them.
Then another voice.
A familiar male voice to Walsh.
“Erin?”
Walsh's face changed.
Cal Bishop.
He descended slowly.
Gun visible.
“Thank God,” he said. “I've been looking everywhere.”
Walsh did not lower her weapon.
Bishop stopped.
“What are you doing?”
“Put the gun down, Cal.”
His expression hardened.
“Excuse me?”
“The ledger.”
Silence.
That silence answered everything.
Bishop's friendly expression disappeared.
“Marcus told you.”
Walsh raised her weapon.
“Put it down.”
Bishop glanced toward Emma.
Then toward Sarah.
Recognition appeared.
“The nurse.”
Sarah said nothing.
“You caused a lot of problems last night.”
“Apparently you noticed.”
Bishop smiled.
“Dutch always said his biggest mistake was going into that hospital.”
“No.”
Sarah stepped slightly in front of Emma.
“His biggest mistake was thinking everyone inside would be afraid of him.”
Bishop lifted his gun.
Walsh shouted.
Then the lights went out.
Emma screamed.
A crash echoed through the basement.
May you like
And in complete darkness, Sarah heard the one sound she had hoped never to hear again.
A gunshot.
