Chapter 5
I thought I had heard her wrong.
“Daniel?”
Marcus stared at me.
Emily whispered, “I’m sorry.”
“No.”
“Sarah—”
“No. My husband is with our daughter.”
“I know who he is.”
My chest tightened until I could barely breathe.
“You haven’t seen Daniel in three years.”
“I saw him yesterday.”
The alley seemed to tilt.
“That’s impossible.”
“I followed him.”
“Why?”
“Because he was meeting Richard.”
I closed my eyes.
Images flashed through my mind.
Daniel shaking Richard’s hand at our Christmas party.
Daniel laughing with Richard at my promotion dinner.
Daniel asking casual questions about bank security.
Normal things.
Weren’t they?
“You’re lying.”
“I wish I were.”
“Why would Daniel take Noah?”
“I don’t think he knows who Noah is. I think Richard told him the boy stole something.”
“You’re not making sense.”
A noise sounded on Emily’s end.
She gasped.
“Emily?”
“I have to go.”
“No! Where are you?”
“Remember the place where we celebrated your twenty-fifth birthday.”
The line died.
I stared at the phone.
Marcus whispered, “What did she say?”
I couldn’t answer.
Because the place Emily meant was Daniel’s family cabin near Lake Geneva.
The first time I ever took Emily there was for my birthday.
Daniel had been there too.
That was where I introduced them.
Marcus read my face.
“Sarah.”
“She says my husband has Noah.”
He stared at me.
“Do you believe her?”
“No.”
But my voice lacked conviction.
I called Daniel.
Straight to voicemail.
Again.
Voicemail.
Then my daughter’s school.
“Sophie Carter, please.”
A secretary checked.
“Her father signed her out twenty minutes ago.”
My heart pounded.
“Did he say where they were going?”
“No, ma’am.”
I hung up.
Marcus put a hand on my shoulder.
“Think.”
I wanted to scream at him.
Instead, I forced myself to breathe.
Daniel had always been dependable.
Calm.
Protective.
We had been married nine years.
He packed Sophie’s lunches.
He called his mother every Sunday.
He cried when our dog died.
He was not a criminal.
But Emily had been my closest friend.
She had never lied to me about anything important.
Except having a child.
And being alive.
I looked at the flash drive.
“We need to see what’s on this.”
Marcus nodded.
“Not on any networked computer.”
The superintendent had given Marcus the key to a tiny maintenance office before we escaped.
But police were searching the building now.
Marcus knew a retired forensic accountant named Helen Brooks.
Twenty minutes later, we were in the back room of a laundromat she owned on the West Side.
Helen was sixty-eight and looked like someone’s gentle grandmother.
Then she opened an evidence-processing laptop protected with enough security to frighten me.
“You two look terrible,” she said.
Marcus handed her the drive.
“Nice to see you too.”
She inserted it.
Dozens of folders appeared.
Bank statements.
Transaction records.
Photographs.
Audio files.
Lists of names.
Helen stopped smiling.
“What did you bring me?”
“The reason I lost my badge.”
She opened a spreadsheet.
Millions had moved through dormant accounts over eight years.
Money went from businesses to charities.
Charities to consulting firms.
Consulting firms to private accounts.
One recipient appeared repeatedly.
T. Vance.
Another.
R. Hale.
Then another name.
D. Carter.
I stopped breathing.
“No.”
Helen looked at me.
“What?”
“Search Daniel Carter.”
She did.
A folder appeared.
We opened it.
My husband’s photograph filled the screen.
Underneath it was a title.
CONSULTANT 7.
Payments totaling $640,000.
I sat down.
“That’s not possible.”
Marcus scrolled through the transfers.
“They started six years ago.”
Before Emily disappeared.
Before Sophie started kindergarten.
Before Daniel claimed his small logistics company suddenly became profitable.
All those years.
I had never questioned the vacations.
The renovated kitchen.
The new truck.
Daniel said business was good.
I believed him.
Helen opened an audio file.
A man’s voice filled the room.
Richard.
“Michael is becoming a problem.”
Another man answered.
Vance.
“Then solve it.”
A third voice spoke.
My husband.
“I’m not hurting anyone.”
My hand covered my mouth.
Richard laughed.
“No one asked you to. You move the package, Daniel. That’s all.”
The recording ended.
I couldn’t breathe.
Marcus crouched beside me.
“Sarah.”
“He knew.”
“Maybe not everything.”
“He worked for them.”
“Yes.”
I stood so fast the chair fell backward.
“He took Noah.”
“We still don’t know that.”
I called Daniel again.
This time he answered.
“Sarah.”
“Where is Sophie?”
Silence.
“Where is our daughter?”
“She’s safe.”
“Put her on.”
“I can’t.”
My blood turned to ice.
“Daniel.”
“I need you to listen.”
“Where is Noah?”
Another silence.
That was my answer.
“You have him.”
“I didn’t know who he was.”
“You kidnapped a five-year-old!”
“I didn’t kidnap anybody!”
His voice cracked.
“Richard told me the boy’s mother stole money from the bank. He said police needed help finding him before someone dangerous did.”
“You believed that?”
“I owed Richard.”
“How much?”
Nothing.
“How much, Daniel?”
His breathing grew heavier.
“Sarah, there are things about our life you don’t understand.”
“I understand six hundred and forty thousand dollars.”
He stopped breathing.
“How do you know that?”
“I found the records.”
“Where?”
“That’s what you care about?”
“No. Listen to me. If you found those files, you are in danger.”
“I was already in danger because of you.”
“Sophie is with my mother.”
Relief nearly dropped me to my knees.
“Is she safe?”
“Yes.”
“Where’s Noah?”
“At the cabin.”
Emily was right.
“Is he hurt?”
“No. God, Sarah, no. I’m not a monster.”
“You took a child from a bank.”
“I thought I was protecting him.”
“From me?”
“From whoever set that fire.”
I closed my eyes.
Maybe Daniel was lying.
Maybe not.
“Is Richard there?”
“No.”
“Vance?”
“No.”
“Then leave Noah and walk away.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because I found something in his pocket.”
My pulse jumped.
“What?”
“A photograph.”
“What photograph?”
“Emily and Michael Hale.”
The hospital photograph.
No.
There had been another copy.
Daniel lowered his voice.
“Richard told me Michael died in a robbery.”
“He did.”
“No.”
Daniel sounded terrified now.
“I drove Michael the night he died.”
The room went silent.
“What?”
“I was supposed to take him to the airport.”
My legs weakened.
“He had a suitcase. He said he was leaving the country.”
“Was Emily with him?”
“No.”
“What happened?”
Daniel started crying.
I had heard my husband cry only twice.
“Someone hit us from behind.”
My heart pounded.
“When I woke up, Michael was gone.”
“You never told anyone?”
“Vance was the first officer at the hospital.”
Marcus’s face changed.
Daniel continued.
“He told me Michael had been shot during a robbery downtown.”
“But you knew that wasn’t true.”
“Yes.”
“Why did you stay quiet?”
“Because Vance showed me a picture of you.”
My breath stopped.
“What?”
“You were leaving work. He said if I wanted my girlfriend to keep getting home safely, I would forget what happened.”
Nine years ago.
Before we married.
Daniel had been threatened with my life.
Then Richard had begun paying him.
“What were the payments for?”
“Moving sealed cases.”
“What was inside them?”
“I never looked.”
“Cash?”
“Sometimes.”
“Drugs?”
“I don’t know.”
Marcus cursed quietly.
Daniel whispered, “I wanted out years ago.”
“So why didn’t you leave?”
“Because you worked for Richard. Because every day I thought if I made one wrong move, he would hurt you.”
I felt sick.
“You could have told me.”
“I was ashamed.”
“No. You were afraid.”
“Yes.”
I looked at Marcus.
“Can you get Noah out?”
“I’m trying.”
“Trying?”
“I locked him in the bedroom because he kept running.”
Anger exploded through me.
“You locked a five-year-old in a room?”
“He has food. Water. He’s okay.”
“Open the door.”
“I can’t.”
“Daniel.”
“I’m not at the cabin anymore.”
My blood froze.
“Where are you?”
“I went to get Sophie.”
“You said she was with your mother.”
“She was.”
“Was?”
Daniel’s voice dropped to a whisper.
“Richard got there first.”
My knees buckled.
Marcus caught me.
“What happened?”
“He has Sophie.”
I couldn’t speak.
May you like
Daniel cried.
“He said he’ll trade her for Emily’s evidence.”
