Chapter 2 - The Girl Behind the Locked Door
The caller demanded the brass key Sarah had sewn into Lily's coat.
Nathan refused to confirm he possessed it, while a state police investigator traced the call.
The voice said Lily would remain alive until morning if Nathan stopped asking about Elizabeth Carter.
Nathan heard a door close and a child softly asking for her brothers.
The call ended before the trace completed.
Caroline Reed told detectives she had concealed Lily in a supply room after spotting a man she recognized from Sarah's past.
The man had worn a hospital maintenance jacket and carried credentials copied from a real employee.
Caroline said she had tried to move Lily to a safer wing, but he intercepted them at the elevator and pushed the child away on a stretcher.
She had resisted and struck her head against the metal frame.
She remembered one word on the man's radio.
'Evergreen.'
Nathan showed Detective Maya Torres the key, then asked the detective to document it as evidence rather than allowing it to disappear into an unrecorded handoff.
Torres photographed the tag and obtained permission to examine the storage site with a warrant.
She also separated Lieutenant Bell from the inquiry pending review of his unusual visit to the mansion.
Across town, Lily woke in a locked bedroom with a paper cup of water beside her.
A woman spoke through the door, promising she would see her mother soon.
Lily recognized the woman's lavender perfume from the terrible night in the kitchen.
She crawled under the bed and found a child's drawing scratched into the wood.
There were two little girls and a house made of glass.
Beneath the drawing, someone had written a name.
May you like
'Elizabeth.'
