Chapter 6 - Silas Crowe
The emergency generator activated within seconds.
Security guards rushed into the room.
Mara’s bed was empty.
The window stood open.
A rope hung from the frame.
Harrison ran toward it.
Mara was not outside.
Instead, he found one of his guards unconscious beneath the bed.
A secret maintenance panel had been opened behind the medical cabinet.
The passage connected to the service elevator.
Someone had taken Mara while the lights were out.
Lucy began screaming.
“You promised.”
Harrison caught her shoulders.
“I will bring her back.”
“You promised she was safe.”
The elevator camera captured a man in medical clothing pushing Mara’s bed into the underground garage.
He removed his mask before entering a vehicle.
Harrison recognized him immediately.
Silas Crowe.
Harrison called the ranch.
Silas’s phone was disconnected.
His office had been emptied.
Three ranch trucks were missing.
Evelyn had also disappeared.
A message arrived on Harrison’s phone.
It showed Mara unconscious in the back of a truck.
Silas’s voice played over the image.
Bring the brass key to the northern line cabin.
Come alone.
No police.
No guards.
Or your daughter disappears for another nine years.
Harrison stared at the key Lucy had given him.
He finally remembered where he had seen it.
His father kept an identical key on his watch chain.
After his death, the key vanished.
The northern line cabin had belonged to him.
Harrison prepared to leave.
Lucy stepped in front of the door.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“Mom said the key needs two people.”
“What does that mean?”
“She said Hart blood opens the first lock.”
“Bennett blood opens the second.”
Lucy pulled a leather cord from beneath her sweater.
A second brass key hung from it.
Daniel had given it to Mara before he disappeared.
The keys were nearly identical.
Together, they formed the shape of the Hart family brand.
Harrison called Sheriff Mercer despite Silas’s warning.
He shared the location but ordered him to remain outside the ranch boundary until Harrison gave a signal.
Then he looked at Lucy.
“You stay in the truck.”
She folded her arms.
“That is what adults say before they leave children alone.”
“You are eight.”
“And I kept Tommy alive for four days.”
Harrison had no answer.
They reached the northern cabin before dawn.
The door was open.
Inside, Silas waited beside an empty chair.
Mara was not there.
“You brought the girl,” he said.
May you like
“Good.”
“We need her blood.”
