Chapter 8 - THE EMPTY CHAIR
Elena did not remember leaving the audio shop.
One second she was holding the phone to her ear, hearing the school secretary say Victor had signed Sophie out.
The next she was in the passenger seat of Daniel’s car, dialing the school again while he drove too fast through downtown traffic.
“Tell me exactly what happened,” she said.
The secretary’s voice shook. “Mr. Ward is still listed as an approved pickup person. He showed identification. Sophie seemed surprised, but he told us you had sent him because of a family emergency.”
“Did she want to go?”
“I—I don’t know.”
“You handed my daughter to a man she did not want to leave with?”
“Elena,” Daniel said quietly.
She covered the microphone and snapped, “Don’t.”
He nodded once.
The secretary apologized again.
It did not matter.
Elena ended the call and phoned police.
Marcus called Rachel.
Daniel called Margaret.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
By the time they reached the school, two patrol cars were already outside.
Sophie’s classroom looked painfully ordinary.
Crayon drawings on the wall.
A half-erased math problem on the board.
A little blue sweater hanging from the back of Sophie’s chair.
Elena touched it.
Still warm.
That nearly broke her.
The principal explained that Victor had picked Sophie up nineteen minutes before Elena’s call. Camera footage showed him alone. He had walked in calmly, signed the sheet, smiled at the receptionist, and left holding Sophie’s backpack.
Sophie had walked beside him.
She had not screamed.
She had not resisted.
“She freezes when she’s scared,” Elena said.
The officer taking notes nodded. “We’re putting out his vehicle information now.”
“He owns three vehicles.”
“We have the plate from the school camera.”
Daniel stood near the office door, saying nothing.
The officer looked at him.
“And you are?”
“Sophie’s father.”
Elena expected questions.
Instead the officer nodded and continued writing.
It was such a small thing that Daniel nearly missed it.
Father.
Not dead man.
Not suspect.
Not complication.
Father.
Elena’s phone rang.
UNKNOWN.
Everyone looked at it.
The officer said, “Answer. Speaker if you can.”
Elena did.
“Where is she?”
Victor’s voice came through calm and clear.
“With family.”
“You took her from school.”
“I picked up my granddaughter from a school where I am authorized to pick her up.”
“Put Sophie on the phone.”
“Elena—”
“Put her on.”
A pause.
Then Sophie’s small voice.
“Mommy?”
Elena gripped the desk.
“I’m here, baby. Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“Is Grandpa with you?”
“Yes.”
“Is anyone else there?”
Another pause.
Victor’s voice cut in. “That’s enough.”
“No!” Elena shouted. “Sophie, listen to me—”
The line went silent for two seconds.
Then Victor returned.
“She’s fine.”
“If you scare her, I swear—”
“You have frightened her more in forty-eight hours than I have in seven years.”
Elena’s nails dug into her palm.
The officer signaled for her to keep him talking.
“What do you want?”
“The tapes.”
Daniel’s head lifted.
Victor continued. “The Caldwell recordings. The documents Margaret stole from my desk. Every copy Daniel has of company records.”
“So you admit you know what was in your drawer.”
“I know my wife committed theft.”
“You want evidence.”
“I want my private property returned.”
Elena laughed, sharp and furious. “You took my child as collateral.”
“I removed Sophie from chaos.”
“Then why are you asking for the tapes?”
Victor was silent.
The officer pointed to a technician who was working on the call trace.
Daniel wrote on a piece of paper and slid it toward Elena.
ASK WHERE.
She ignored it.
“I want to hear her again.”
“You’ll see her when this is over.”
“When what is over?”
“When Mercer leaves.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
Victor’s voice grew colder.
“He should have understood the first time.”
“The first time you tried to kill him?” Elena asked.
The room went still.
Victor did not answer.
“Did you order Pike to burn the warehouse?”
“Elena, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Isaac Bell does.”
The silence that followed was different.
Real.
For the first time, Victor sounded uncertain.
“Isaac is confused.”
“He remembers you.”
“Old men remember whatever frightened people tell them to remember.”
“And Caldwell’s tape?”
Victor inhaled.
There.
He knew about the tape.
Daniel saw it too.
Victor said, “Bring everything to the old South Terminal at four.”
Daniel shook his head hard.
Victor continued. “Come alone.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
“No. You don’t give me instructions anymore.”
A pause.
Then Victor’s voice softened.
“Think carefully. Sophie needs you to be reasonable.”
The line disconnected.
The technician swore under his breath.
“Burner routed weird. We got a general area, not enough.”
Elena looked at the clock.
2:41 p.m.
Seventy-nine minutes.
Daniel said, “You’re not going alone.”
“I know.”
The officer nodded. “Good.”
Daniel looked surprised.
Elena turned to him.
“My father has controlled every room by convincing people they only have two choices. Obey him or lose something.”
Her voice shook, but she kept going.
“I’m done choosing from his menu.”
Police began planning around the South Terminal.
It was an old freight property near the river, once used by Ward Logistics before the company built newer distribution centers. Victor still owned the land through a holding company.
Daniel knew the site.
His father had worked there when Daniel was a child.
“I used to wait in the dispatch office after school,” he said, looking at the map. “There’s a service road behind the loading buildings.”
The detective leading the response shook his head. “You are not approaching from anywhere unless we tell you.”
Daniel did not argue.
That worried Elena more than if he had.
At 3:10, Margaret finally called.
“Elena?”
“Dad took Sophie.”
Margaret went silent.
“He what?”
“From school.”
“No.”
“He wants the tapes and everything you copied.”
“Oh God.”
“Where are you?”
“At Rose’s.”
Rose was Margaret’s older sister, two towns away.
“The police came this morning,” Margaret said quickly. “I told them Victor grabbed me. They wanted me to file for a protective order. I left before he came back.”
“Stay there.”
“Elena—”
“Stay there.”
“Where did he take her?”
“The South Terminal.”
Margaret made a sound that Elena did not understand.
“What?”
“Your father keeps an office there.”
“We know.”
“No. Not the main office. The old dispatch room beneath the east loading dock.”
Daniel turned toward the phone.
Margaret continued. “There’s a basement storage room. Victor used it when auditors came years ago. It has a separate door from the river side.”
Daniel took the phone.
“Margaret, how do you know?”
“Because I carried boxes there for him.”
“What kind of boxes?”
“Records.”
“When?”
“After the fire.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
“Did he keep original company records there?”
“I think so.”
The detective heard enough to change the plan.
Teams moved toward both entrances.
Elena sat in the back of an unmarked vehicle with Daniel beside her, waiting two blocks away.
Waiting was worse than movement.
Every second grew teeth.
At 3:43, her phone buzzed.
Not a call.
A video request.
SOPHIE TABLET.
Elena almost dropped the phone.
“That’s her old tablet,” she said. “It was at my parents’ house.”
Daniel leaned close.
She answered.
The picture shook.
Dark room.
Wood paneling.
Sophie’s face filled the screen.
“Mommy?” she whispered.
“Baby, I’m here.”
“Grandpa went upstairs.”
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can you show me?”
Sophie turned the tablet.
A small office.
Metal shelves.
Boxes.
A green desk lamp.
Daniel pointed at the screen.
“I know that room.”
Sophie whispered, “He said we’re playing quiet.”
“You’re doing so good,” Elena said. “Listen to me. Don’t go anywhere. Don’t try to run. Just stay where you are.”
“I want you.”
“I’m coming.”
Sophie’s eyes filled.
“Grandpa’s mad.”
“I know.”
“He said Dad ruined everything.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Elena continued, “Sophie, is the door locked?”
She looked behind her.
“No.”
“Is there a window?”
“Little one.”
“Do not climb out. Stay inside.”
Footsteps sounded through the tablet.
Sophie’s eyes widened.
“Mommy—”
“Put it down. Hide it if you can.”
The screen tilted.
For half a second, Elena saw the ceiling.
Then Victor’s face appeared.
He picked up the tablet.
His expression was not calm anymore.
“You couldn’t follow one instruction.”
“She called me.”
Victor looked offscreen.
“What did you do?”
Sophie began to cry.
“Don’t you speak to her like that!” Elena shouted.
Victor turned back to the camera.
“Four o’clock. Alone.”
“No.”
His eyes hardened.
Then another voice sounded behind him.
A man.
Rough. Impatient.
“You said nobody knew about this room.”
Victor spun around.
Daniel went completely still.
He knew the voice.
So did Marcus, listening from the front seat.
Owen Pike.
On the tablet, Victor said, “You’re not supposed to be here.”
Pike laughed.
“You stopped paying me. Then Bell starts talking. Then cops start asking questions.”
Victor lowered the device, but not before the camera caught part of Pike’s face.
A scarred chin.
A swollen right hand wrapped in gauze.
The hand Isaac Bell had bitten.
The detective in the front seat grabbed his radio.
“Positive visual on Pike. Move teams now.”
The video shook violently.
Victor shouted, “Get away from her.”
Pike said, “The kid’s the only reason Mercer comes through that door.”
Daniel reached for the handle.
The detective locked the doors.
“No.”
“That’s my daughter.”
“And my officers are going in.”
On Elena’s phone came a crash.
May you like
Sophie screamed.
Then the screen went black.
