Chapter 7 - WHAT NATALIE HID IN OUR HOMENatalie was alive.
That was the only fact I allowed myself to hold onto.
She had a concussion, dehydration, a fractured wrist, and bruising across her ribs, but doctors believed she would recover.
I wasn't allowed to see her immediately.
Police needed an emergency statement first.
Doctors argued.
Detectives argued.
I paced the hospital hallway until Rebecca sat beside me.
“She’ll want you there.”
“She should've wanted me there before any of this happened.”
Rebecca looked down.
The anger came out before I could stop it.
“She left Lily with an infant.”
“She thought she would be gone twenty minutes.”
“She lied to me for three years.”
“She was terrified.”
“So was Lily.”
Rebecca flinched.
I immediately regretted it.
“This isn't your fault.”
“Some of it is.”
She was right.
Secrets had consequences even when fear created them.
Eventually a nurse opened the door.
Natalie lay in a hospital bed beneath white blankets.
Her face looked smaller than I remembered.
A dark bruise marked one temple.
When she saw me, she began crying.
I stood near the doorway.
For eleven years, she had been the person I knew better than anyone.
Now I realized how much of her life had been hidden behind locked doors.
“Are the kids okay?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Lily?”
“She’s scared.”
Natalie closed her eyes.
“I failed her.”
“You did.”
She nodded.
The words hurt both of us.
I moved closer.
“But she’s safe.”
Natalie started sobbing.
I took her hand carefully.
For several minutes, neither of us spoke.
Finally she whispered:
“I thought I could fix it before you ever knew.”
“That was the problem.”
“I know.”
“You didn't trust me.”
“I trusted you too much.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It does if you know yourself.”
She looked at me.
“If I'd told you Raymond threatened Lily and Noah, what would you have done?”
I had no answer.
Because we both knew.
I would have confronted him.
Immediately.
And Raymond might have used that.
Natalie swallowed.
“I kept thinking I could gather enough proof. Then Hale would arrest everybody, and I would tell you afterward.”
“Life doesn't work like that.”
“I know that now.”
I sat down.
“Hale says the real drive is inside our house.”
Natalie’s eyes widened.
“Price told you?”
“Yes.”
She tried to sit up.
Pain stopped her.
“Daniel, Raymond knows where it is.”
“Then tell Hale.”
“The nursery.”
My stomach tightened.
“Where?”
“The stuffed bear.”
Noah had a giant brown teddy bear beside his crib.
My mother gave it to him when he was born.
Natalie had cut a small opening in the back seam, placed the drive inside, then stitched it closed.
“Why there?”
“Because Raymond was terrified of getting caught searching our house. He'd look in safes, drawers, electronics. He wouldn't tear apart a baby’s stuffed animals unless he knew.”
Now he knew.
Hale immediately ordered officers to the property.
Nobody was allowed to enter until the bomb squad checked the house.
I thought that was excessive.
Then they found the front door rigged with a crude incendiary device.
If police had entered normally, the house might have burned.
Raymond wasn't trying merely to recover evidence.
He was destroying everything.
Officers disabled the device.
The bear was gone.
Someone had already entered through a rear window.
Raymond had beaten them there.
The drive was gone.
Natalie stared at the ceiling when Hale delivered the news.
“Then we lost.”
“No,” Hale said.
“Everything was on that drive.”
“We have the locker materials.”
“Not enough.”
“What was on it?”
“Recordings.”
Natalie had secretly recorded Raymond, Cole, Mercer, and Price.
Not just fraud.
Bribes.
Threats.
Names of officials.
Account numbers.
Dates.
Enough to dismantle the entire network.
“And Raymond has it,” I said.
Hale nodded.
“Unless he destroys it.”
Natalie shook her head.
“He won't.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s insurance.”
Against whom?
Price.
Cole.
Anybody else in the network.
Raymond would use the evidence to protect himself.
Which meant he needed somewhere safe to make copies.
Rebecca entered the room.
“There's one place.”
Natalie looked at her twin.
Both women froze.
“What?” Hale asked.
Rebecca answered.
“Dad’s old machine shop.”
Their father had owned a metal fabrication business outside Shawnee.
The business closed years earlier.
Raymond still had access.
Hale dispatched officers.
Empty.
But investigators found a laptop still warm.
A coffee cup.
Fresh tire marks.
Raymond had been there less than an hour earlier.
On the laptop screen was a flight booking site.
Dallas.
Cancún.
Belize City.
False leads, probably.
Then investigators found a printer tray containing one page.
A bus schedule.
Oklahoma City to Kansas City.
Departure: 6:20 p.m.
Raymond was adapting.
No plane.
No traceable rental car.
Crowded public transportation.
Hale sent teams toward the bus station.
At 5:41, security cameras spotted Raymond entering.
Baseball cap.
Backpack.
Sunglasses.
The drive might be inside the backpack.
Officers moved carefully.
At 5:58, Raymond walked into a restroom.
He never came out.
Police entered.
Empty.
There was a maintenance exit.
Raymond had changed clothes and left through a service corridor.
Again, he disappeared.
At 6:11, my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I looked at Hale.
He nodded and started recording.
I answered.
“Daniel.”
Raymond sounded calm.
“You should've stayed out of this.”
“You kidnapped your sister.”
“She betrayed me.”
“She was terrified of you.”
“She owes me everything.”
“No. That's just what you've been telling yourself.”
Silence.
Then Raymond chuckled.
“You sound brave with police around you.”
“Where are you?”
“You want to know?”
“Yes.”
“Come find me.”
“I'm done playing games.”
“Oh, I think you'll play one more.”
Then he said:
“How's Lily?”
Every muscle in my body went rigid.
Hale leaned closer.
“Don't react,” he whispered.
Raymond continued.
“Sweet girl.”
“If you go near my daughter—”
“There he is. That's the Daniel Natalie was scared to unleash.”
“What do you want?”
“A vehicle.”
“What?”
“Your truck. Full tank. Park it tonight at the old dog-training field where you work. Keys inside.”
“You already have transportation.”
“Not one registered to you.”
“Why does that matter?”
“Because when they find it across the border, people will ask interesting questions.”
He wanted to frame me as an accomplice.
Hale scribbled:
AGREE.
“Fine,” I said.
“Good.”
“Then leave my family alone.”
Raymond laughed.
“You still don't understand.”
“Understand what?”
“The drive isn't my only insurance.”
The line went quiet.
Then another voice came through.
Small.
Crying.
“Dad?”
My heart stopped.
“Lily?”
Hale shot to his feet.
I ran toward the hospital hallway.
“LILY!”
“Dad, I'm scared.”
Then Raymond returned.
“Ten o’clock. Your training field. Come alone.”
The call ended.
I stared at Hale.
“My daughter is supposed to be under police protection.”
He was already on his radio.
Within thirty seconds, the terrible truth arrived.
Lily had never been taken from the safe apartment.
She was still there.
Safe.
Confused.
Watching television.
The voice on the phone had been a recording.
One Raymond must have secretly made earlier.
A trick.
But Hale looked disturbed.
“Why fake a kidnapping?”
I understood before he did.
“To make us focus on Lily.”
I ran back into Natalie’s room.
Rebecca was gone.
The chair beside the window sat empty.
On the floor lay her borrowed hospital visitor badge.
And outside the hospital security camera, footage showed Rebecca climbing into a gray pickup truck.
Behind the wheel was Raymond.
But she wasn't being forced.
May you like
She opened the door herself.
She had gone willingly.
Related Stories
