Chapter 9 - THE EMPTY BED
The window beside Lily’s bed stood open.
Rain swept across the carpet.
A rope hung from the balcony railing.
Two guards assigned to the east lawn had been found unconscious near the hedge.
Neither remembered seeing an intruder.
Grant searched the bedroom with growing panic.
“Lily!”
Her stuffed rabbit lay beneath the bed.
Its left ear had been torn open.
Inside the fabric, I found a folded piece of paper.
Three words were written in Lily’s handwriting.
THE GLASS HOUSE.
Grant knew what she meant.
A mile beyond the estate stood an abandoned greenhouse built by his grandfather.
Lily and Evelyn had called it the glass house.
Police surrounded the structure before entering.
They found no one inside.
A small chair stood in the center of the cracked floor.
Silver duct tape hung from its arms.
Someone had held Lily there only minutes earlier.
On a table rested a phone.
It rang the moment Grant entered.
Renata’s face appeared on the screen.
She was sitting inside a moving car.
Lily was beside her with a strip of tape across her mouth.
Grant gripped the phone so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
“Let her go.”
Renata smiled.
“Bring me the black ledger.”
“I’ll give you anything.”
“You already gave me everything.”
Her smile faded.
“Your name.”
“Where are you taking her?”
“To the place where this began.”
“The boathouse?”
“You have one hour.”
The screen went dark.
Detective Cole immediately began tracing the signal.
Renata had routed the call through several towers.
The location could not be confirmed.
Grant turned toward me.
“I’m taking the ledger to her.”
“No.”
“She has my daughter.”
“That ledger is the only evidence connecting her to Evelyn’s murder.”
“I don’t care about the evidence.”
“You will when she destroys it and kills Lily anyway.”
Grant stared at me.
The truth hurt him, but he knew I was right.
Renata had never intended to honor any agreement.
We needed to make her believe she was receiving the real ledger.
Detective Ramirez created a copy while Cole organized teams around the lake.
Harris was still missing.
Police did not know whether he had escaped or been taken.
As we prepared to leave the greenhouse, I noticed something scratched into the glass beside Lily’s chair.
It was a drawing of a rabbit.
Beneath it was an arrow pointing downward.
Cole lifted a loose floor panel.
Underneath was Lily’s bracelet.
Wrapped around it was a tiny piece of red fabric.
Renata was traveling with the man in the red coat.
Nathaniel.
Grant looked at the cloth.
“She isn’t taking Lily to the boathouse.”
May you like
He looked toward the mountains beyond the estate.
“She’s taking her to the old Whitmore lodge.”
