Chapter 13 - The cup contained no water.Only a folded piece of paper.
On it was one sentence.
YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED OUT OF THE BATHROOM.
I couldn't breathe.
Officer Harris swore under his breath.
The station cameras were checked.
At 3:02 a.m., a woman wearing a maintenance uniform entered the children's wing.
At 3:04, she left.
Sophie was gone.
The woman's face was hidden.
But the ring on her finger was visible.
Two black stones.
Ethan's symbol.
I wanted to scream.
Instead, I stood perfectly still.
Because the next thing we discovered was even worse.
The woman had used a valid employee access card.
Someone inside had helped her.
Mark had been right.
There was someone inside the police.
We locked down the station.
Every officer was searched.
Then Harris received a message.
A photograph.
Sophie sitting in a dark room.
Alive.
Unhurt.
And beside her was a clock.
11:45.
The same time as the train reservation.
A voice message followed.
Ethan.
“Bring the journal.”
A second message.
“Bring Rachel.”
A third.
“Come alone.”
I wanted to go immediately.
Harris stopped me.
“You're not going alone.”
“He has Sophie.”
“And that's exactly what he wants.”
Then we noticed something.
The photograph had been taken inside a room with a green wall.
Rachel recognized it.
“The old nursery.”
The childhood house.
The chamber beneath the demolished property.
Ethan had taken Sophie there.
We drove under police escort.
The parking lot was almost empty.
Construction fencing surrounded the area.
The entrance to the foundation was hidden beneath a concrete service hatch.
We broke the lock.
A narrow stairway led underground.
At the bottom was a corridor.
Old wallpaper.
Children's drawings.
Numbers on the doors.
S-01.
S-02.
S-03.
S-04.
Then:
S-05.
Sophie.
The door was open.
Inside sat a small chair.
The same type Sophie used at home.
The wall was covered with photographs.
But one photograph was missing.
A recent one.
Mine.
A microphone crackled above us.
Ethan's voice came through the speakers.
“Congratulations.”
His voice was calm.
“You found where it began.”
I looked around.
“Where is my daughter?”
“In the next room.”
“Let me see her.”
“You will.”
Rachel shouted.
“Ethan!”
A laugh echoed through the speakers.
“Still angry, sister?”
Rachel went white.
“You're supposed to be dead.”
“I was.”
“Then who killed you?”
Silence.
Ethan finally answered.
“No one.”
A door opened at the end of the corridor.
Sophie appeared.
She was holding the stuffed rabbit.
I ran toward her.
A red laser dot suddenly appeared on my chest.
Harris grabbed me and pulled me down.
A gunshot exploded through the corridor.
Concrete shattered above us.
Then Ethan's voice returned.
“Bring me the journal.”
Harris whispered:
“We have maybe seconds.”
I looked at Sophie.
She looked directly at me.
Then she did something I never expected.
May you like
She raised her hand.
And made three small knocks against the door.
