Chapter 6 - THE FALSE KIDNAPPING

Every alarm in the hospital began sounding.

Grant ordered the building sealed.

Security footage showed a man dressed as a respiratory therapist pushing Grace’s bassinet through a service corridor.

Eli walked beside him.

The boy did not appear restrained.

That confused everyone until I noticed the phone pressed against Eli’s ear.

Cole must have been threatening Mara.

Eli had gone willingly to save her.

The fake therapist entered a laundry elevator and disappeared from camera view.

Five minutes later, the elevator opened empty on the basement level.

Grant searched the control panel and found that the elevator had stopped between floors.

Behind a maintenance door, officers discovered a narrow service ladder leading into the hospital’s old utility tunnels.

Cole had studied the building.

He had planned the kidnapping before arriving.

I followed Grant into the basement despite his objections.

A trail of tiny drops led through the tunnel.

At first, I feared it was blood.

Then I touched one.

It smelled sweet.

Infant formula.

Eli had loosened the cap on Grace’s bottle.

He was leaving a path for us.

The trail ended near a storm drainage outlet behind the hospital.

A witness had seen a white delivery van leave the area.

Grant issued an emergency alert.

Twenty-three minutes later, a traffic camera captured the van traveling north.

The driver wore a county deputy’s uniform.

Travis was behind the wheel.

Cole sat in the passenger seat.

Eli and Grace were somewhere in the back.

Grant called every available unit.

Then my phone rang.

The number was blocked.

I answered with shaking hands.

Eli whispered my name.

“Rachel?”

“I’m here.”

“I left the bottle open.”

“We found it.”

“Cole says Mom is alive.”

“Where are you?”

“I don’t know.”

I heard an engine and Grace crying in the background.

Eli lowered his voice.

“There are orange trees outside.”

The call ended abruptly.

Grant looked at the map.

“They’re returning to the citrus farm.”

“Why go back to a place the police already searched?”

“Because they know we won’t expect it.”

Before we reached the property, smoke appeared on the horizon.

The abandoned farmhouse was burning.

Firefighters surrounded the structure.

Near the front door, we found Grace’s purple blanket.

Eli and the baby were nowhere in sight.

Then a firefighter shouted from behind the barn.

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A small cellar door had been uncovered beneath a sheet of burning plywood.

Someone was pounding from the other side.