Chapter 2
The police arrived in less than six minutes.
It felt like an hour.
I kept Lily behind my car while Brenda remained inside.
Every few seconds, Lily glanced toward the upstairs windows.
“What are you looking for?”
She pressed closer to me.
“Mrs. Cole.”
“She cannot hurt you.”
Lily did not answer.
That silence told me she did not believe me.
Two patrol cars stopped at the curb.
Officer Ramirez approached first.
His voice was calm.
“You called?”
“Yes.”
I explained everything as quickly as I could.
The shoes.
The name.
The unknown man.
The seven sleeping bags.
The red box.
Officer Ramirez looked toward the house.
“Are children currently inside?”
“I think so.”
Lily whispered, “Six.”
Ramirez crouched.
“Can you tell me your name?”
Lily froze.
I hated the question immediately.
Her mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Then she whispered, “Which one?”
Ramirez’s expression changed.
He did not push.
“That’s okay.”
His partner went toward the house.
Ramirez asked me to stay with Lily.
A moment later, Brenda appeared in the doorway.
She was smiling.
Actually smiling.
“Officers, thank goodness.”
I stared at her.
The transformation was frightening.
Her rage was gone.
Now she sounded like a concerned suburban mother.
“I believe Maya misunderstood a difficult situation.”
Officer Ramirez said, “We need to check on the children.”
“Of course.”
Brenda stepped aside.
Then she looked directly at Lily.
That smile vanished from her eyes.
Lily immediately lowered her head.
I noticed.
So did Ramirez.
Within minutes, more officers arrived.
One by one, frightened girls were brought outside.
Ava.
Sophie.
Emma.
Grace.
Mia.
Harper.
Their parents had been called.
The girls looked confused.
Two were crying.
One kept asking for her mother.
Every girl was wearing shoes that did not fit.
Different shoes.
Wrong shoes.
A mother named Denise screamed when she saw her daughter Harper wearing pink sandals.
“Those are not hers!”
Another father checked his daughter’s jacket.
“Where is Emma’s coat?”
Suddenly the quiet street exploded into questions.
Parents demanded answers.
Brenda kept repeating the same sentence.
“It was a game.”
A detective arrived.
Detective Lena Brooks.
She listened while officers searched the house.
Then an officer emerged carrying a red metal cash box.
Lily grabbed my arm.
“That one.”
Detective Brooks looked at her.
“You’ve seen it before?”
Lily nodded.
Brenda shouted from the porch.
“That is private property.”
Brooks ignored her.
The box was opened after Brenda finally produced the key.
Inside were envelopes.
Seven of them.
Each envelope contained several items.
A child’s handwritten name card.
A photograph.
A photocopy of some kind of school document.
Emergency contact information.
And a second card with a different name.
Lily’s envelope said:
LILY CARTER.
Beneath it was another card.
CHLOE BENNETT.
I felt sick.
Detective Brooks immediately separated Brenda from everyone else.
“What is this?”
Brenda folded her arms.
“It was part of the game.”
“What game requires children’s emergency information?”
“A memory game.”
“You photocopied school documents for a memory game?”
Brenda looked toward her attorney husband’s empty driveway.
For the first time, she had no answer.
Then one officer came out carrying Lily’s purple sneakers in an evidence bag.
They had been hidden inside a kitchen cabinet.
My anger became almost uncontrollable.
“You took her shoes?”
Brenda said, “The girls exchanged clothing.”
Lily finally looked at me.
“No.”
Everyone went quiet.
Her little voice trembled.
“She made us.”
Detective Brooks approached slowly.
“Made you do what?”
Lily’s fingers tightened around mine.
“Give her our shoes.”
“Why?”
“So he couldn’t tell who was who afterward.”
A chill moved through the crowd.
Detective Brooks immediately asked the parents to step farther away.
She knelt several feet from Lily.
“Who is he?”
Lily began breathing quickly.
I crouched beside her.
“You’re safe.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
“Yes, you are.”
“He said he knew where we lived.”
I felt the ground disappear beneath me.
Detective Brooks kept her voice gentle.
“Did you hear his name?”
Lily thought.
“Mr. Gray.”
Brenda shouted from across the lawn.
“She is inventing this!”
Lily jumped.
I stood.
“Stop yelling at her!”
Brooks turned toward Brenda.
“Do not speak to the child again.”
Then Lily whispered something.
“He picked one.”
Brooks looked back.
“What do you mean?”
Lily pointed toward the house.
“Mr. Gray looked at all of us.”
My stomach twisted.
“He made us stand in a line.”
I struggled to keep my voice steady.
“What happened then?”
“He asked questions.”
“What questions?”
“Our fake names.”
Brooks asked, “Anything else?”
Lily nodded.
“He wanted to know who lived with both parents.”
The parents around us went silent.
“He asked who walked home from school.”
My grip tightened around Lily’s hand.
“He asked who had grandparents nearby.”
Detective Brooks was no longer hiding her alarm.
“And then?”
Lily swallowed.
“He pointed at Chloe.”
I stared at her.
“You?”
She shook her head.
“Not me.”
Then she pointed toward a little girl standing beside her mother.
Sophie.
Seven years old.
Tiny.
Blond braids.
Pink sweater.
Sophie’s mother turned white.
Lily whispered, “Last night Sophie was Chloe.”
Sophie’s mother wrapped both arms around her daughter.
“What did the man say?”
Lily looked at Detective Brooks.
“He said…”
Her voice cracked.
“He said, ‘That one will work.’”
Sophie began sobbing.
Her mother screamed at Brenda.
Police moved between them.
Brenda shouted that everyone was overreacting.
Then Detective Brooks’s phone rang.
She answered.
Her eyes narrowed.
“What?”
She walked away several steps.
I watched her face harden.
When she returned, she looked directly at Brenda.
“We found the vehicle.”
Brenda stopped moving.
Brooks continued.
“A traffic camera recorded a black SUV leaving this neighborhood at 2:17 this morning.”
Brenda said nothing.
“The license plate belongs to a rental company.”
Still nothing.
“But the driver used a real identification card.”
Brooks stepped closer.
“His name is not Gray.”
Brenda’s face went completely blank.
Brooks turned toward me.
“The man who visited this house last night has been investigated twice in connection with attempted child abductions.”
My knees almost gave out.
Lily buried her face against me.
May you like
Then Brooks added one final sentence.
“And according to the rental company, he has not returned the vehicle.”
