Chapter 6 - THE EMPTY CRIB
Victor Blackwood had faced gunfire without blinking.
He had stood in courtrooms while federal prosecutors promised to bury him.
He had walked alone into rooms filled with men who wanted him dead.
Nothing had ever frightened him like the words Ethan’s room is empty.
He did not remember leaving the library.
One second Gabriel stood in front of him.
The next Victor was in the back seat of an SUV speeding toward Blackwood Medical Center.
Lily sat beside him.
Adrian sat opposite.
Serena had been left behind under guard.
Victor had not wanted Lily coming.
She had opened the car door and climbed in before he could stop her.
He had not wasted time arguing.
“Call the hospital again.”
Victor ordered.
Gabriel did.
“No answer from Dominic.”
“Security?”
“Searching every floor.”
“Lockdown?”
“Already activated.”
Victor stared at the city rushing past the window.
“Who moved Ethan?”
“No one authorized.”
Gabriel replied.
Adrian leaned forward.
“That doesn’t mean no one moved him.”
Victor looked at him.
Adrian continued.
“If Raymond has people inside the hospital, your lockdown keeps them inside with Ethan.”
Lily’s stomach tightened.
“Unless they were already outside before the lockdown started.”
Everyone looked at her.
She pulled out her phone.
“When was Ethan last physically seen?”
Gabriel checked.
“A nurse entered at 8:17.”
“Did she see him?”
“Yes.”
“When was the empty room reported?”
“8:29.”
“Twelve minutes.”
Lily said.
“That’s enough time.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“For what?”
“To move him into another room.”
“Another floor.”
“A supply cart.”
“An ambulance.”
Adrian looked at her.
“She thinks like Thomas.”
Lily ignored him.
“Who was the nurse?”
Gabriel gave her the name.
“Rachel Meyers.”
Lily searched her memory.
“I don’t know her.”
Victor looked toward Gabriel.
“Find her.”
They reached the hospital six minutes later.
Victor was out of the SUV before it fully stopped.
The lobby had been sealed.
Patients and staff stared as he crossed the marble floor.
No one approached him.
On Ethan’s floor, chaos waited.
Two nurses were crying.
Security officers filled the hallway.
Dominic Russo stood outside Ethan’s empty room.
Victor walked toward him.
Dominic raised both hands.
“Victor.”
Victor hit him once.
Dominic crashed against the wall.
Guards did not move.
Victor grabbed the front of his jacket.
“Where is my son?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why were you here?”
“To see him.”
“Without calling me?”
“I called you.”
Victor shoved him back.
“You were already here when you called.”
Dominic looked toward Gabriel.
“Tell him.”
Gabriel’s face remained cold.
“Your access card entered the pediatric wing at 8:20.”
Dominic stared.
“That’s impossible.”
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t use my card.”
He reached into his pocket.
Two guards immediately moved.
Dominic slowly removed his wallet.
His hospital access card was inside.
Gabriel took it.
“Could be cloned.”
Adrian said.
Dominic looked toward him.
Shock crossed his face.
“Jesus Christ.”
Adrian gave him a humorless smile.
“Good to see you too.”
Dominic’s expression changed from shock to fear.
That mattered.
Victor saw it.
“You knew he was alive.”
Dominic shook his head.
“No.”
Adrian laughed.
“You always were a terrible liar.”
Victor turned.
“Enough.”
He looked into Ethan’s room.
The crib was empty.
The blue blanket remained.
The stuffed elephant Lily had placed beside Ethan earlier lay on the floor.
Lily walked inside.
Her knees nearly gave out.
Victor saw her.
“Don’t.”
She ignored him.
She crouched beside the crib.
“Someone changed him.”
Victor frowned.
“What?”
“The hospital onesie.”
She pointed to a small white garment in the laundry basket.
“This was the one he wore this morning.”
“So?”
“So if someone planned to hide him, they changed his clothes.”
Victor’s expression sharpened.
Lily picked up the onesie.
A faint smell clung to it.
Not baby soap.
Something floral.
She knew it.
“Serena’s perfume.”
Victor froze.
“That’s impossible.”
Serena had been at the mansion.
Lily smelled the fabric again.
“It’s hers.”
Adrian took it.
His face changed.
“That isn’t perfume.”
“What?”
He smelled it carefully.
“Gardenia oil.”
Victor stared.
Adrian looked at him.
“Elena used the same scent.”
Victor’s throat tightened.
“My wife hated perfume.”
“She did.”
Adrian replied.
“But she used gardenia oil in Ethan’s bath.”
Lily looked at the laundry basket.
“Someone wanted us to think Serena was here.”
Victor’s eyes moved toward Dominic.
Dominic looked furious.
“You think I took him?”
“I think someone copied your access card.”
Victor replied.
“And deliberately left Serena’s scent.”
“Why?”
“To point us at both of you.”
Adrian nodded.
“Exactly.”
Victor stared at him.
“So who benefits from making me distrust everyone?”
Adrian’s answer was immediate.
“Raymond.”
Gabriel entered the room.
“We found Nurse Meyers.”
Victor turned.
“Where?”
“In a medication storage room.”
Lily’s heart dropped.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
Gabriel replied.
“She was unconscious.”
“Drugged.”
“She remembers someone calling her to another room.”
“Then nothing.”
Victor looked at the hallway camera.
“Footage.”
Gabriel hesitated.
Victor’s eyes darkened.
“What?”
“Eleven minutes are missing.”
The same thing had happened when Serena entered Lily’s room.
Lily felt cold.
“Same system failure?”
“No.”
Gabriel replied.
“This time someone manually looped old footage.”
Victor looked at Dominic.
“Who can do that?”
“Hospital IT.”
Dominic replied.
“Security administration.”
“And your office.”
Gabriel added.
Victor looked between them.
Too many people had access.
Too many doors.
Too many loyalties.
Lily stepped toward the wall.
A whiteboard displayed Ethan’s care schedule.
She studied it.
8:00 medication check.
8:15 vitals.
8:30 breakfast.
Then she noticed a small handwritten note.
8:20 - Imaging.
“Victor.”
He turned.
“Was Ethan scheduled for imaging?”
“No.”
Dr. Mercer answered from the doorway.
He had just arrived.
Lily pointed.
“Who wrote that?”
Dr. Mercer examined it.
“Not me.”
Gabriel immediately called radiology.
No imaging had been ordered.
Victor looked at the service elevator.
“Which elevator goes directly to imaging?”
“The east service lift.”
Dr. Mercer replied.
Security footage showed a hospital transporter pushing a covered crib into that elevator at 8:21.
The transporter wore a surgical mask and cap.
His face could not be seen.
The crib exited two floors below.
Then disappeared into another blind spot.
Victor stared at the screen.
“Enhance it.”
The technician zoomed.
The man’s left wrist became visible.
A black tattoo circled it.
Adrian stepped closer.
His face changed.
“I know that mark.”
Victor looked at him.
“What is it?”
“Vale.”
Roman Vale’s organization.
Victor’s eyes became cold.
Gabriel spoke.
“So Roman took Ethan.”
Adrian shook his head.
“Not necessarily.”
“Why not?”
“Because Raymond uses Vale soldiers when he wants Blackwoods blamed.”
Victor turned toward Adrian.
“How do you know that?”
Adrian’s answer was simple.
“Because he used me to arrange it for years.”
Silence.
Lily stared at him.
Victor stepped closer.
“You worked for Raymond.”
Adrian did not deny it.
“For a while.”
“How long?”
“Eight years.”
Victor’s expression became deadly.
“You let me think you were dead for twelve years and spent eight of them working for the man trying to kill my son?”
Adrian met his gaze.
“Yes.”
Victor hit him.
Adrian went down hard.
Lily flinched.
Adrian wiped blood from his lip and laughed bitterly.
“I deserved that.”
Victor grabbed him.
“Where would Raymond take Ethan?”
Adrian looked up.
“If the Vale mark is deliberate, there are three places.”
“Name them.”
“An old meatpacking facility.”
“A warehouse near Calumet Harbor.”
“And St. Agnes.”
Dr. Mercer frowned.
“The abandoned children’s hospital?”
Adrian nodded.
Lily’s stomach turned.
“Which is most likely?”
Adrian looked at the time.
“St. Agnes.”
“Why?”
“Because it has underground ambulance access.”
Victor released him.
“Move.”
Within minutes, the convoy was heading south.
Victor brought Gabriel.
Adrian.
Lily.
And six trusted men whose families had served the Blackwoods for generations.
Dominic remained at the hospital under guard.
St. Agnes had been closed for nine years.
Broken windows lined the upper floors.
Graffiti covered the loading dock.
Victor’s men entered first.
No gunfire came.
That frightened him.
The building was too quiet.
They reached the old pediatric wing.
Lily heard a sound.
A baby crying.
“Ethan.”
She ran.
Victor caught her.
“Wait.”
“That’s him.”
“Wait.”
His men cleared the hallway.
The crying came from room 214.
Victor entered first.
A portable speaker sat on the floor.
Ethan’s cries played through it.
Lily covered her mouth.
A crib stood in the center of the room.
Empty.
On the mattress lay a blue envelope.
Victor opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
Ethan.
Alive.
Wrapped in a gray blanket.
A newspaper lay beside him.
Today’s date was visible.
On the back of the photograph was a message.
BRING THE BENNETT LEDGER TOMORROW AT MIDNIGHT.
NO POLICE.
NO FEDERALS.
NO ARMY OF BLACKWOOD MEN.
Then a final line.
THE NANNY COMES ALONE.
Victor looked at Lily.
“No.”
She stared at the photograph.
“Victor.”
“No.”
“That ledger belonged to my father.”
“We don’t even have it.”
Adrian spoke behind them.
“Yes, we do.”
Everyone turned.
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
“What?”
Adrian looked at Lily.
“Thomas gave it to someone before he died.”
“Who?”
Adrian’s gaze did not move from her.
“You.”
Lily stared at him.
“I was seventeen.”
“I know.”
“I never saw any ledger.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“It wasn’t a book when he gave it to you.”
Lily’s heartbeat changed.
“What was it?”
Adrian looked at the small silver pendant around her neck.
The one Lily had worn every day since arriving at the Blackwood mansion.
“The key your father gave you the night before he died.”
Lily’s hand rose slowly to the pendant.
Her father had told her it opened nothing important.
She had carried it for eight years because it was the last gift he ever gave her.
Adrian stared at it.
“That key opens the place where Thomas Bennett hid enough evidence to destroy every person behind this.”
Victor looked at Lily.
Then at the message demanding she come alone.
The kidnapping had never been only about Ethan.
May you like
It was about her too.
And whoever had taken the baby already knew exactly what hung around Lily’s neck.
