Chapter 2 - THE ROOM WITHOUT WINDOWS
Detective Ruiz did not wait until they reached the police station.
She pulled Ethan into an empty executive office three floors below the boardroom.
Margaret followed.
Dr. Hayes stayed with Lily in a secure conference room nearby.
Ruiz closed the door.
“We traced the camera relay to a commercial data service in New Jersey.”
Ethan frowned.
“That isn’t where Amelia is.”
“No.”
“The feed was bounced through it.”
“But our cyber unit recovered part of the connection history.”
Ruiz opened a map on her tablet.
Three locations appeared.
A storage facility in Newark.
A private residence outside Morristown.
And an abandoned rehabilitation hospital thirty miles north.
Ethan pointed to the third.
“That one.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do.”
Ruiz studied him.
“Why?”
Ethan stared at the map.
Because he remembered the building.
Blackwood Industries had owned it eleven years earlier.
Victor had recommended selling it after a failed development proposal.
The property had supposedly been transferred to a healthcare investment group.
Ethan had signed the papers himself.
“What is it?”
Ruiz asked.
“My company used to own that hospital.”
“When?”
“Before the fire.”
Margaret cursed under her breath.
Ruiz tapped the map.
“The legal owner is Northstar Clinical Holdings.”
Margaret already had her phone out.
“I know that name.”
She searched.
Her expression changed.
“It’s one of the shell companies we flagged during the internal trust review.”
Ethan looked at her.
“Owned by?”
“Layered through Delaware.”
“Ultimate beneficiary unknown.”
Ruiz closed the tablet.
“We’re going.”
Ethan headed toward the door.
Ruiz stopped him.
“No.”
He turned.
“My wife is there.”
“Maybe.”
“My wife is there.”
“And if Victor has people inside, you walking through the front door helps no one.”
Ethan’s eyes hardened.
Ruiz stepped closer.
“I know men like you are used to solving problems by controlling the room.”
“This isn’t your boardroom.”
“Give me twenty minutes.”
Ethan wanted to argue.
Then Lily appeared in the doorway.
Dr. Hayes stood behind her.
She had heard enough.
“Is Mommy there?”
Ethan looked at her.
He could not storm a building while his seven-year-old daughter waited alone wondering whether he would disappear too.
He crouched.
“Police are going to check.”
“Are you going?”
“Not inside.”
Lily studied his face.
“Promise?”
“Yes.”
She nodded.
“Okay.”
That single word did more to control Ethan than any detective could have.
Thirty-four minutes later, Ethan sat inside an unmarked SUV parked nearly half a mile from the abandoned rehabilitation hospital.
Ruiz had allowed him closer than she wanted.
Margaret stayed at the manor with Lily.
Dr. Hayes accompanied Ethan in case Amelia required immediate medical care.
The hospital stood behind overgrown trees and rusted fencing.
Most windows were boarded.
A faded sign hung crookedly above the entrance.
NORTH VALLEY RECOVERY CENTER.
Ethan stared at it.
He had visited once before.
Twelve years earlier.
Victor had walked beside him through the unfinished renovation and complained that the project was draining capital.
They sold it six months later.
Or Ethan believed they had.
Ruiz’s radio crackled.
“Entry team in position.”
Another voice answered.
“East corridor clear.”
“Moving to second floor.”
Ethan’s hands tightened.
Hayes watched him.
“Whatever they find, don’t assume the worst.”
“I buried her once.”
“Ethan.”
“I’m not doing it again.”
The radio crackled.
“Detective.”
Ruiz grabbed it.
“Go.”
“We’ve got occupied rooms.”
Ethan leaned forward.
“How many?”
Ruiz did not answer him.
The voice continued.
“Medical equipment.”
“Recently used.”
“Sedatives.”
“Restraints.”
“Multiple patient files removed.”
Ruiz spoke sharply.
“Any subjects?”
A pause.
“One male security guard detained.”
“Another fled through the rear loading area.”
“What about the woman?”
Silence.
Ethan could hear his heartbeat.
Then.
“Room 214 is empty.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
Ruiz swore.
“What do you mean empty?”
“The bed is warm.”
“IV line disconnected.”
“Signs of movement within the last hour.”
Ethan opened the SUV door.
Ruiz grabbed his arm.
“Stay here.”
“She was there.”
“We don’t know where she is now.”
“You said the bed is warm.”
“And rushing in won’t put her back in it.”
Ethan pulled away.
Then another transmission came.
“Detective, we found blood near the service elevator.”
Hayes immediately looked at Ethan.
Ruiz saw his expression.
“Not necessarily hers.”
Ethan said nothing.
The radio continued.
“And there’s another room.”
“What room?”
“Basement level.”
“Door is reinforced.”
“Electronic lock.”
“Power still active.”
Ruiz ordered the team downstairs.
Five minutes felt like an hour.
Then the voice returned.
“We need medical.”
Hayes opened the door before Ruiz could speak.
This time she did not stop him.
They entered through a side corridor.
The smell hit Ethan first.
Bleach.
Old plaster.
Medication.
The walls were stained yellow from years of neglect.
Yet recent security cameras had been installed along the ceiling.
Someone had spent money keeping this place functional while making sure the outside looked abandoned.
Room 214 stood open.
Ethan entered.
The bed from the video was there.
The white blanket.
The stainless-steel tray.
A plastic cup.
An IV pole.
He touched the pillow.
Warm.
Amelia had been there.
Possibly less than an hour earlier.
Hayes examined the IV tubing.
“Long-term sedatives.”
He looked at Ethan.
“Whoever held her here wanted her alive but compliant.”
Ethan’s stomach turned.
Ruiz entered holding a clear evidence sleeve.
Inside was a strand of dark hair.
“We’ll test it.”
Ethan stared at the doorway.
“Where is the basement?”
They took the stairs.
The reinforced room was at the end of a concrete hallway.
A tactical officer stood outside.
“We opened it.”
Inside were filing cabinets.
A desk.
Three monitors.
And hundreds of photographs.
Ethan stepped closer.
Most were photographs of him.
Leaving Blackwood headquarters.
Attending charity events.
Walking through airports.
Standing beside Amelia’s grave.
But another wall belonged entirely to Lily.
Lily at age two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Six.
Seven.
Eating breakfast.
Sleeping.
Reading.
Sitting outside the Blackwood mansion.
Ethan’s fists clenched.
Hayes turned away.
Ruiz approached the desk.
“There’s a computer.”
The hard drive had been removed.
But someone had left one piece of paper.
A handwritten note.
Ethan recognized the writing immediately.
Amelia’s.
His breath caught.
He picked it up.
Four lines.
If Ethan finds this, Victor still hasn’t won.
The locket is the first key.
The second key is where we promised forever.
Do not trust the man who saved you from the fire.
Ethan read the final line twice.
Ruiz noticed.
“Who saved you from the fire?”
Ethan looked at her.
He had not been at the hospital when the fire started.
A business meeting in Boston had kept him away.
His private jet had landed three hours after the first emergency call.
But there had been another fire.
Two weeks later.
At Ethan’s family lake house.
Everyone had called it an electrical accident.
Ethan had been asleep.
Smoke had filled the second floor.
Someone had pulled him unconscious through a bedroom window.
The man who saved his life that night had been his head of security.
Marcus Reed.
The same man who now controlled every security camera at Blackwood Manor.
The same man guarding Lily.
Ethan’s blood went cold.
He grabbed his phone.
No answer.
He called Margaret.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then his screen lit up.
A message.
From Marcus.
DON’T COME HOME.
A second message arrived.
This one contained a photograph.
Lily was sitting in Ethan’s study.
Margaret lay unconscious on the carpet behind her.
Marcus stood beside the door.
May you like
And beneath the photograph were six words.
BRING THE LOCKET OR SHE DISAPPEARS AGAIN.
