Chapter 6
I didn't sleep that night.
I sat at my kitchen table watching the seven-second video again and again.
Marcus.
Daniel.
The white van.
The timestamp.
Nothing made sense.
At 6:15 the next morning, Officer Bennett returned.
I handed him my phone.
He watched the video without speaking.
Then he watched it again.
"Mrs. Bennett, when did you receive this?"
"Last night."
"Have you shown Marcus?"
"No."
He nodded.
"Good."
I stared at him.
"Is my husband involved?"
"We're going to investigate that possibility."
The answer frightened me more than a simple yes would have.
I wrapped my arms around myself.
"He said he hadn't seen Daniel in years."
Officer Bennett examined the video.
"That statement may have been false. But we need to confirm when this was recorded and what happened."
I looked at him.
"The timestamp says yesterday."
"Timestamps can be altered."
I desperately wanted that to be true.
But then the officer pointed toward the edge of the frame.
A gas station sign.
The same station near the Cedar Ridge highway.
He asked whether Marcus had been in that area recently.
I remembered something.
The night before we learned about the fire, Marcus had told me he needed to meet his attorney.
He had left for almost two hours.
Had he gone to meet Daniel instead?
My phone began ringing.
Marcus.
Officer Bennett nodded for me to answer.
I put it on speaker.
"Nia?"
I closed my eyes.
His voice sounded exhausted.
"I've been trying to reach you."
"What do you want?"
"Officer Bennett asked me to come to the station."
I glanced at the officer.
He nodded.
Marcus continued.
"Before I go, there's something I need to tell you."
My stomach tightened.
"What?"
"I met Daniel."
I gripped the edge of the table.
"When?"
"Yesterday afternoon."
I stared at Officer Bennett.
Marcus's voice broke.
"He contacted me before I came home. He told me he knew where Lily was."
For a moment, I couldn't breathe.
"You knew she was missing?"
"No. He never said she was missing. He said she needed me."
I closed my eyes.
"And you didn't call me?"
Marcus began crying.
"He told me it was about the old business dispute. He wanted money."
"So you went?"
"Yes."
"What happened?"
"He showed me a picture of Lily."
My voice rose.
"And you still didn't call the police?"
"I thought it was an old picture. I thought he was using her to threaten me."
I wanted to throw the phone across the room.
"Marcus, you saw a man who hated you holding a photograph of your daughter, and you didn't think to ask whether she was safe?"
He said nothing.
I began shaking.
"Did he tell you where she was?"
"No."
"Did you give him money?"
A pause.
"Marcus."
"Two hundred thousand dollars."
Officer Bennett leaned forward.
"Mr. Bennett, do not discuss anything further over the phone. Come directly to the station."
Marcus went silent.
Then he whispered, "Nia, I'm sorry."
I ended the call.
For several minutes, I couldn't speak.
My husband had paid Daniel two hundred thousand dollars.
Without telling me.
Without telling the police.
And most importantly, without even checking whether Lily was safe.
Officer Bennett began making calls.
Investigators needed bank records.
Vehicle footage.
Details of the meeting.
I wanted to collapse.
Instead, I walked into Lily's room.
I sat on her bed.
I held her stuffed bear.
And I made myself a promise.
I would no longer allow Marcus's mistakes to distract me from finding her.
At noon, Officer Bennett called.
He said Vanessa had requested another interview.
This time, she wanted to talk.
I drove to the police station with a family liaison officer.
I wasn't allowed inside the interrogation room.
But Bennett later explained what Vanessa had said.
Daniel had originally planned to blackmail Marcus using private business documents.
Vanessa was supposed to gain access to his accounts and help pressure him into paying.
But after hearing that Marcus had rejected Lily's calls, Daniel developed another plan.
He would convince Lily that helping him could bring her father home.
Vanessa had sent Lily messages pretending to be someone working with Marcus.
She promised a surprise reunion.
Lily believed her.
She left the house expecting to see her father.
Instead, Daniel took her.
I felt physically ill.
"Why would Vanessa admit this now?" I asked.
Officer Bennett's face was grim.
"Because Daniel stopped following their agreement. She's afraid of him."
I looked away.
Vanessa's fear meant nothing to me.
My daughter had been afraid for six nights.
And Vanessa had helped put her there.
The officer continued.
"She also provided information about Daniel's properties."
I leaned forward.
"Where?"
"He has access to a storage facility outside Millbrook."
My heart started racing.
"Is Lily there?"
"We're checking."
I wanted to go with them.
But this time, Officer Bennett was firm.
We couldn't risk alerting Daniel.
We couldn't risk making Lily's situation worse.
So I waited.
Again.
Hours passed.
The sun began setting.
Then my phone rang.
Officer Bennett.
"We searched the facility."
I closed my eyes.
"Please."
"Lily wasn't there."
I felt my hope collapse.
"But we found something important."
"What?"
"A child's drawing. A recent one."
He sent me a photograph.
I opened it.
There was a small house.
A tree.
A woman with long braids.
And a little girl holding her hand.
At the bottom, written in Lily's careful handwriting, were four words.
MOMMY WILL FIND ME.
I began crying.
But then I noticed something strange.
In the corner of the page, Lily had drawn three circles.
Beneath them was a crooked rectangle.
At first, I thought they were balloons.
Then I remembered a conversation from years earlier.
Lily had loved visiting my grandmother's old farm.
Near the farm stood three enormous water towers.
She called them the three giant balloons.
My heart began pounding.
I looked at the drawing again.
Three circles.
A rectangle.
The towers.
And the little rectangular building beneath them.
I called Officer Bennett.
"I know what she's drawing."
His voice sharpened.
"Tell me."
I grabbed my car keys.
"The old pumping station near my grandmother's farm."
May you like
I could barely breathe.
"That's where Lily is trying to tell us to look."
