Chapter 9 - The Empty Bedroom
Her bed was made. Her favorite stuffed rabbit lay on the pillow. The guards insisted they had seen nothing. Antonio searched the estate with a desperation that stripped every trace of authority from his voice.
I found a folded note under Mia's teacup. It was written in her careful handwriting: I went to get Mom's other letter. Please don't be mad.
She had left willingly. Someone had convinced her there was another message from Elena.
The estate cameras showed Mia entering a silver car with a woman wearing a green scarf. Lydia Marsh had never left Vermont. Someone was impersonating her.
Antonio received a call from Isabella. She claimed Mia was safe and demanded the contents of room seventeen. Antonio told her she would get everything if she brought his daughter home.
I heard the lie in Isabella's voice. She didn't have Mia. She was trying to learn where the girl had been taken.
We traced the silver car to a disused foundation property on the coast. Antonio wanted to storm it. Helen warned that frightened kidnappers were unpredictable. I asked for five minutes to study the photographs of the building.
Mia had once told me she could always find a kitchen by following the smell of bread. The old property had a commercial kitchen with a rear delivery entrance. If she was inside, she might find her way there.
May you like
I called the building's disconnected office number, which still forwarded to a voicemail service. I left a message only Mia would understand: “Sweetheart, the cinnamon rolls are cooling by the back door.”
Ten minutes later a light blinked twice in the kitchen window.
