Chapter 15 - Gone From the Nursery
"Lily! Behind you!"
Victor's voice blasted through the nursery speaker.
Lily spun.
A man in black was halfway through the window.
She grabbed Ethan and ran into the hallway.
The officers rushed in.
The intruder dropped back onto the exterior ledge and disappeared down a maintenance ladder.
Police found the ladder, a rope, and a hospital ID badge with Dr. Pike's photograph.
Victor abandoned the theater meeting and raced home.
"You were right," he told Lily when he saw her. "Human eyes."
She was still shaking.
"Don't congratulate me. Find him."
The estate search expanded into the woods.
At 8:03 p.m., a police dog found Dr. Pike hiding in an empty gardener's shed.
He surrendered immediately.
Grant and Serena were nowhere nearby.
In interrogation, Pike folded within an hour.
He admitted falsifying Ethan's medical records and prescribing sedatives Serena used to create episodes of unusual sleepiness. He claimed he never hurt Ethan directly.
Lily's response was cold.
"You helped someone build a lie around a baby. Don't call that harmless."
Pike then gave police the piece they needed most.
Serena planned to leave the country that night.
"With Grant?" Victor asked.
Pike shook his head.
"Grant thinks he's leaving with her. He's not."
"What does that mean?"
"She needs someone to take the blame for Olivia."
Victor stared at him.
"Did Grant cause the crash?"
Pike looked away. "He followed her. Serena told him to scare her into stopping. He says he never touched her car."
"And you believe him?"
"No."
Police searched Grant's known properties.
Nothing.
Then Mara called.
She had remembered a storage unit Serena used under a fake business name.
Detectives forced it open.
Inside were suitcases, cash, fake IDs, and a child car seat.
There was also a printed itinerary for a private flight departing at 1:10 a.m.
Passenger names:
Serena Vale.
Grant Keller.
And Ethan Blackwood.
Victor's face hardened.
"She still thinks she's taking him."
A detective pointed to the departure airport.
Not Blackwood's private field.
A small regional strip forty miles north.
Victor looked at the clock.
12:02 a.m.
Then Lily's phone buzzed.
A photograph appeared from an unknown number.
It showed Grant tied to a chair.
Behind him stood Serena.
May you like
Her message contained six words.
BRING ETHAN OR GRANT TELLS NOTHING.
