Chapter 4 - The Empty BedLily's bed was empty.

The monitor screamed.

The oxygen tube lay on the mattress.

The window was open.

I froze.

"No."

Officer Harris rushed behind me.

"Lock the floor!"

Security alarms erupted.

Nurses ran through the corridor.

I searched beneath the bed, behind curtains, everywhere.

"Lily!"

No answer.

A nurse pointed toward the service hallway.

"Someone pushed a cart through here!"

I ran.

The service doors slammed shut.

I shoved them open.

A figure disappeared around the corner.

I chased.

"STOP!"

The figure ran faster.

I reached the parking garage.

Nothing.

Only an abandoned medical cart.

On top sat Miss Button.

I stopped breathing.

Someone had taken the doll out of the evidence room.

Someone had taken Lily.

And they had left the one thing that could expose them.

Miss Button.

I picked it up.

There was something new stitched beneath the doll's collar.

A tiny envelope.

Inside was a handwritten note.

Three words.

YOU NEVER LISTENED.

I knew the handwriting.

My father's.

That was impossible.

My father had been dead for six years.

I called Nathan.

"Come to the hospital."

"What happened?"

"They took Lily."

Silence.

Then:

"Who?"

I looked at the doll.

"I don't know."

I turned the envelope over.

A date was written on the back.

Six years earlier.

The date of my father's death.

Nathan arrived twenty minutes later.

He examined the note.

"This isn't old."

"What?"

"The ink is recent."

I stared at him.

"Then why is the date from six years ago?"

"I don't know."

Officer Harris returned.

"We checked every exit. No one matching the suspect entered the building through the front."

"So they used the hospital's internal access."

She nodded.

"Possibly."

"Who had access?"

"Staff. Security. Authorized family."

I thought of Daniel.

My mother.

Then Clara.

I ran back to Clara's room.

She was sitting upright.

A police officer stood beside her.

"Where is Lily?"

She looked at me.

Her face collapsed.

"What?"

"She's gone."

Clara screamed.

"No."

I grabbed her shoulders.

"Did you know this would happen?"

She stared at me.

Then she whispered:

"Michael..."

"What?"

"Daniel wasn't working alone."

"Who was helping him?"

Clara closed her eyes.

"A woman."

"What woman?"

She hesitated.

Then:

"Your father's secretary."

I felt my pulse stop.

"She's been dead for six years."

Clara opened her eyes.

"No."

"Clara..."

"She died six years ago."

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A pause.

"Her name did too."