Chapter 17 - EMMA'S DRAWING
Christopher reached Evelyn's care facility after the police had already sealed every exit.
The building looked calm from outside.
Inside, it was chaos.
Emergency lights glowed red along the third-floor corridor.
Nurses were being interviewed in separate rooms.
A maintenance worker sat against the wall with an ice pack on his temple.
Evelyn's room stood open and empty.
Her wheelchair was gone.
Her cane lay broken beside the bed.
Christopher picked up one half before Ortiz stopped him.
"Do not touch anything."
He let it fall back exactly where it had been.
"Tell me what happened."
Ortiz looked toward the security supervisor.
The man swallowed.
"At 12:46 a.m., the building lost external power."
"Backup generator?"
"Started normally."
"Then why are half the cameras down?"
"Someone physically cut the data trunk serving the third floor."
Christopher stared at him.
"From inside?"
"Yes."
The supervisor showed them footage from the lobby before the outage.
At 12:39, a private medical transport van arrived.
Two people in paramedic uniforms entered carrying a transfer order.
The night receptionist verified a digital authorization that appeared to come from the county court system.
The authorization was fake.
Again.
Eleanor had used the same type of forged process attempted against Emma.
"Faces?"
Ortiz asked.
The footage was clear enough to identify one man.
Juliette's father, Henri Laurent.
Christopher felt a wave of disgust.
The second person wore a cap and mask.
Height and build suggested Daniel Crane.
At 12:45, Henri walked toward the elevator with an empty transport chair.
One minute later, power failed.
At 12:52, the van exited through the service gate.
"License plate?"
The supervisor shook his head.
"Covered."
"Traffic cameras?"
"Police are checking."
Christopher walked into Evelyn's room.
The bed was still warm.
A cup of tea sat untouched beside it.
On the windowsill was a book she had been reading.
A bookmark stuck from the middle.
Christopher opened to the page.
The bookmark was not paper.
It was one of Emma's drawings.
Christopher recognized the purple crayon immediately.
Emma had drawn it during one of her visits earlier that day.
The picture showed three people holding hands beneath a crooked yellow sun.
One had long white hair.
Evelyn.
One had dark curls.
Emma.
One was impossibly tall with arms almost to the ground.
Christopher.
At the bottom, Emma had written DADDY FOUND GRANDMA.
Christopher stared at it until the words blurred.
Ortiz stood behind him.
"We will find her again."
Christopher nodded without turning.
"She survived twelve years of my mother."
"That sounds like someone difficult to keep."
A nurse approached the doorway.
"Mr. Pierce?"
Christopher turned.
She held a sealed plastic bag.
"We found this beneath Ms. Ward's pillow."
Inside was a folded note written in Evelyn's handwriting.
If Eleanor comes for me, do not give her what she wants, even to save me.
Christopher's jaw tightened.
The next line was addressed directly to him.
Kit, this family has sacrificed enough people to protect property.
Do not make me another excuse.
He read the note twice.
Evelyn knew Eleanor would try.
She had prepared for it.
That did not make leaving her in danger possible.
"We are finding her."
Ortiz nodded.
"Yes."
Christopher called Yvette at the hospital.
Emma was awake again despite the hour because the news reports had made nurses uneasy and the increased security had disturbed the floor.
Christopher did not tell her Evelyn had been taken.
He intended to wait until they knew more.
Emma defeated that plan in ten seconds.
"Where is Great-Grandma?"
Christopher looked at Yvette on the video screen.
Yvette gave a helpless little shrug.
"She knows something happened."
Emma leaned closer.
"Her nurse called Miss Yvette."
Christopher closed his eyes briefly.
"Great-Grandma had to leave the hospital for a little while."
Emma's face changed.
"With Grandma?"
Christopher hated how quickly she made the connection.
"We do not know."
"Grandma took her?"
"The police are looking."
Emma pulled her knees to her chest.
"Is Great-Grandma scared?"
Christopher could not lie convincingly anymore.
"Probably."
Emma looked down.
"I know where Grandma goes when she is scared."
Christopher froze.
"What?"
Yvette moved beside her.
"Emma, what do you mean?"
The child frowned.
"The deer house."
Christopher looked at Yvette.
She did not recognize the phrase.
"Tell me about the deer house."
Emma reached for her crayons.
"It has antlers over the door."
She began drawing on a fresh sheet of paper.
"There are trees everywhere."
A square house appeared beneath her purple crayon.
"And a red roof."
She switched crayons.
"Grandma said nobody could hear me there."
Christopher felt cold.
"When were you there?"
"After the boat room."
The North Lake trip.
"Who took you?"
"Grandma and Mr. Crane."
"Why?"
Emma drew a long road.
"Grandma wanted me to practice being away from Daddy."
Christopher's stomach twisted.
"What did that mean?"
Emma shrugged.
"She made me stay in a room by myself until I stopped crying."
Yvette covered her mouth.
Christopher had to grip the edge of a desk.
"How long?"
"I do not know."
"Did you sleep there?"
Emma shook her head.
"Mr. Crane opened the door."
"Did Grandma know?"
"She got mad at him."
Christopher looked at Ortiz.
Daniel Crane had once disobeyed Eleanor to release Emma from isolation.
That might explain some of the bitterness Christopher heard at North Lake.
Not compassion.
But a limit.
Even loyal men sometimes discovered one.
Emma added a shape beside the house.
A stone animal.
"What is that?"
Christopher asked.
"A lion."
Yvette suddenly stood.
"Alder House."
Christopher looked at her.
"What?"
"Your grandfather's old hunting lodge."
Martin, on speakerphone, heard her.
"That property was sold."
Yvette shook her head.
"The land was transferred to a conservation company."
Martin began typing.
"Which company?"
"I do not remember."
Christopher did.
"Alder Preservation Trust."
Martin went silent.
Then keys clicked rapidly.
"You are right."
"Who owns it now?"
"A shell company controlled by Adrian."
Ortiz was already calling state police.
Emma held up the drawing.
"There is a little road behind it too."
Christopher leaned toward the screen.
"Where does it go?"
"To a tiny house where the man fixes cars."
Yvette remembered.
"Caretaker cottage."
Ortiz relayed the detail.
Police began moving toward Alder House from two directions.
Christopher looked at Emma.
"Sweetheart, you helped us."
Emma's eyes filled.
"Will Great-Grandma come back?"
Christopher wanted to promise.
He forced himself to choose truth instead.
"We are going to do everything we can."
Emma nodded slowly.
"That is what Dr. Ellis says when she is worried."
Christopher almost smiled.
"Dr. Ellis is smart."
"You said smart people get tricked."
"They do."
Emma looked at her drawing.
"Then do not let Grandma trick you."
Christopher carried those words with him as he left the facility.
Alder House sat ninety miles northwest, surrounded by protected forest and old logging roads.
Police helicopters could not approach without warning everyone inside.
The first units established a perimeter two miles out.
Ortiz refused to let Christopher go closer than the command post.
This time he did not argue.
Emma had asked him not to be tricked.
Charging into a house full of desperate people would be exactly the kind of predictable behavior Eleanor expected.
At 3:31 a.m., thermal imaging confirmed six people inside the main lodge.
One appeared to remain seated in an upstairs room.
Evelyn.
Two moved regularly between the ground floor and garage.
Three stayed in the central living area.
A seventh heat source appeared near the caretaker cottage.
Police could not identify anyone visually because every curtain was closed.
Ortiz's phone rang.
The number belonged to Henri Laurent.
She put it on speaker.
"Mr. Laurent."
His voice trembled.
"I want protection."
Christopher felt rage flare.
Juliette had said the same thing.
Ortiz remained calm.
"Where are you?"
"Alder House."
"Is Evelyn Pierce alive?"
"Yes."
Christopher exhaled.
"Is she injured?"
"Not badly."
"What does that mean?"
"Daniel grabbed her when she fought the transfer."
Christopher's fists tightened.
"Who else is there?"
Henri whispered.
"Eleanor. Adrian. Daniel. Charles Fenwick."
"Samuel Hargrove is in custody," Ortiz said.
Henri sounded surprised.
"Then Eleanor does not know."
Christopher looked at Ortiz.
That mattered.
"Why are you calling?"
"Because she is going to kill us."
Henri's breath shook.
"All of us."
"Explain."
"She has passports and cash in the garage."
"For how many people?"
"Two."
Christopher understood immediately.
Eleanor and one other person.
Everyone else was disposable.
Henri continued.
"Adrian thinks they are all leaving together."
"Who gets the second passport?"
Ortiz asked.
"Daniel."
Christopher almost laughed.
Eleanor had chosen the man who did the dirty work over her own brother-in-law.
"Does Daniel know?"
"Yes."
"Does Adrian?"
"No."
Ortiz looked at Christopher.
The fracture inside the house was an opportunity.
"What does Eleanor want from Evelyn?"
"A signature transferring the founder share."
"Has she signed?"
"No."
A faint sound came through the phone.
Henri whispered urgently.
"I have to go."
"Wait."
"She is coming."
The line went dead.
Ortiz immediately contacted negotiators.
Christopher stared at the lodge through a long-range camera feed.
One upstairs window glowed.
A shadow crossed the curtain.
Then another.
At 3:44, the front door opened.
Adrian stepped onto the porch.
He held a handgun in one hand.
His other hand was raised.
Police spotlights flooded the entrance.
"Drop the weapon!"
Adrian looked toward the tree line.
For several seconds, he did not move.
Then he placed the gun on the porch and kicked it away.
"I want to speak to Christopher."
Ortiz shook her head.
"No."
Adrian shouted.
"Christopher!"
His voice carried through the night.
"Your grandmother is alive."
Christopher stayed behind cover.
Adrian laughed bitterly.
"For once in your life, stop letting women decide what you are allowed to hear."
Ortiz looked at Christopher.
"Do not take the bait."
Christopher remembered Emma.
Do not let Grandma trick you.
"I am not moving."
Adrian shouted again.
"Eleanor has wired the lodge."
Everyone at the command post froze.
Ortiz grabbed the radio.
"Hold entry."
Adrian raised both hands higher.
"She has enough accelerant in the basement to burn every document and every person inside."
Christopher stared at the house.
"Why are you telling us?"
Adrian laughed.
"Because I just discovered my passport is not in the garage."
The front door behind him opened.
Daniel Crane appeared.
He raised his gun toward Adrian's back.
Christopher saw it before Adrian did.
"Down!"
Adrian turned.
A shot cracked through the trees.
Adrian fell from the porch.
Police opened fire toward the doorway.
Daniel disappeared inside.
The front door slammed shut.
Ortiz's radio exploded with voices.
Adrian crawled behind a stone planter, blood darkening his shoulder.
Officers rushed forward under cover and dragged him away.
Christopher stared at the upstairs window.
A face appeared behind the glass.
Evelyn.
Her hands were pressed against it.
Then Eleanor stepped into view behind her.
Christopher's mother looked down toward the police lights.
Even at that distance, he could see her smile.
May you like
Then the upstairs curtain caught fire.
