Chapter 4 - THE HOUSE WITH NO BASEMENTThe blackout lasted eleven seconds.
It was enough.
When the lights returned, Eli was gone.
Daniel's pulse slammed into his throat.
“Where is he?”
The nurse spun around.
“He was right here!”
Security cameras showed a nurse walking into the room thirty seconds earlier.
No one else.
Except at 11:31 p.m., a maintenance worker had entered the hallway.
He wasn't wearing the hospital uniform.
He wore a gray jacket and a baseball cap.
His face was never visible.
The camera cut out for six seconds.
When it returned, Eli was gone.
Daniel and Lena locked down every exit.
Twenty minutes later, an orderly found Eli behind a linen cart.
He was shaking.
He had crawled into the space between two cabinets.
“Eli,” Daniel said. “You're okay.”
The boy grabbed his hand.
“The man came.”
“What man?”
“The same one.”
Daniel glanced at Lena.
“Did he touch you?”
Eli shook his head.
“He said Daddy wants you home.”
Daniel's blood ran cold.
The police immediately arrested Aaron Mercer for interfering with an investigation.
But Aaron had already disappeared.
His car was gone from the hospital parking garage.
Melissa remained.
She finally agreed to speak.
She told detectives Aaron had become increasingly controlling over the past year.
“He said Noah belonged to us.”
Daniel stopped writing.
“What does that mean?”
Melissa began crying.
“I thought he meant because we adopted him.”
Lena looked up.
“Adopted?”
“You know he wasn't born to us.”
“But the records say he was.”
“I know.”
Melissa's voice dropped.
“Aaron handled everything.”
“Where did you get the child?”
Melissa closed her eyes.
“An agency.”
“Which agency?”
“I don't remember.”
“You paid them?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
Melissa hesitated.
“Thirty thousand dollars.”
Lena leaned forward.
“Thirty thousand for a three-year-old?”
Melissa shook her head.
“He wasn't three then.”
Daniel felt the room tilt.
“How old was he?”
“Two.”
“Who told you he was legally available?”
“Aaron.”
“Who was the biological mother?”
“I never met her.”
“Who signed the adoption documents?”
“Aaron.”
The pieces were beginning to fit.
Not adoption.
Acquisition.
But there was another problem.
The birth certificate listed Noah as born in County General Hospital.
Daniel drove there before sunrise.
The archive clerk found the original record.
Mother: Elena Ward.
Father: Thomas Ward.
The child was named Noah Ward.
Not Noah Mercer.
Daniel stared at the page.
“Where are the Wards now?”
The clerk searched the records.
Thomas Ward.
Deceased.
Elena Ward.
Missing.
No trace for three years.
Daniel looked at Lena.
“Then the Mercer family didn't lose a child.”
“They took one.”
But the clerk wasn't finished.
“There is one more thing.”
“What?”
The clerk pulled out a sealed envelope.
“This was attached to the birth file.”
Inside was a photograph.
A red basement door.
May you like
On the back, someone had written:
WHEN YOU FIND HIM, DON'T TRUST THE PEOPLE WHO SAY THEY'RE HIS FAMILY.
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