Chapter 6 - The Wrong Earring
Victor’s voice became deadly quiet.
“Lock down the hospital.”
Security moved immediately.
Clara picked up the earring without touching it directly and stared.
“This is wrong.”
Victor turned. “What?”
“Serena wore pearls tonight.”
Marcus looked closer.
Clara continued, “She owns diamonds like this, but she wasn’t wearing them.”
“So?”
“So somebody wants us to know Serena took him.”
Victor’s expression changed.
The hospital cameras showed a woman in a dark coat pushing Ethan through a service elevator in a wheelchair. Her face stayed hidden.
But the badge clipped to her chest belonged to a hospital transport employee named Mayra Chen.
Mayra was found fifteen minutes later locked in a linen closet.
“It wasn’t Serena,” she gasped. “It was a man. He took my badge.”
“A man?” Marcus asked.
“He had gloves. Tall. He smelled like cedar cologne.”
Daniel Kline wore cedar cologne.
Victor looked at Marcus.
“Where is Daniel?”
No one knew.
His phone went straight to voicemail.
Clara felt the floor drop beneath her.
Then she remembered Ethan’s stuffed fox.
“His toy.”
Victor stared at her.
“The fox he takes everywhere. I put a little locator tag inside it after he got lost at the museum last month.”
Marcus opened the tracking app on Clara’s phone.
A blue dot moved west across the city.
Victor grabbed his coat.
Marcus blocked him. “You’re not going alone.”
“I’m not asking permission.”
Clara stepped forward.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“Ethan trusts my voice. If he’s scared, I can help.”
Victor stared at her for a long second.
Then nodded once.
They followed the signal to an abandoned private school owned by a Blackwood holding company.
Inside the dark gymnasium, they found the stuffed fox lying alone beneath a basketball hoop.
The tracker had been cut out.
Beside it was a phone.
It began to ring.
Victor answered.
Serena’s voice whispered through the speaker.
“Victor, I don’t have Ethan.”
May you like
Then she started crying.
“Daniel does.”
