Chapter 6 - THREE MINUTES OF DARKNESS
Sarah screamed Emily’s name.
Emergency lights flickered red.
Marcus pulled his gun.
“Stay inside!”
Walter heard running in the corridor.
Then a crash.
The officer outside Emily’s room shouted.
“STOP!”
A gunshot exploded.
Sarah threw herself over Emily.
Walter grabbed a metal IV pole.
A shadow entered.
Walter swung.
The intruder ducked and punched him hard in the ribs.
Walter fell.
The man moved toward Emily.
Sarah grabbed a glass water pitcher and smashed it against his head.
He staggered.
Marcus appeared.
“DON’T MOVE!”
The intruder ran.
Marcus chased him.
Thirty seconds later the hospital generators activated.
Walter struggled upright.
Sarah checked Emily.
“You okay?”
Emily was crying.
“Yes.”
Walter looked toward the hallway.
One officer had been shot in the shoulder.
Alive.
Marcus returned furious.
“He got out.”
“Who was he?”
Walter asked.
“Security camera caught part of his face.”
Twenty minutes later they saw the image.
Walter stared at the gray-haired man.
Older.
Thinner.
Scar along his jaw.
But unmistakable.
Daniel.
His brother.
Alive.
Sarah whispered, “Why would he do this?”
Walter stared at the photograph.
“I don’t know.”
His phone vibrated.
A text.
UNKNOWN NUMBER.
YOU SHOULD HAVE TAKEN THE FIFTY DOLLARS AND FORGOTTEN HER.
Attached was a photograph.
Rebecca.
Alive.
She sat tied to a chair.
Today’s newspaper rested beside her.
Sarah started crying.
“Mom.”
Another message arrived.
BRING THE LOCKET.
COME ALONE.
Walter looked at Marcus.
Marcus immediately said, “No.”
Walter read the address.
An abandoned jewelry factory on Chicago’s south side.
“He wants me.”
“He wants the evidence.”
Walter looked at the locket.
“What evidence?”
Sarah suddenly remembered something.
“Rachel never let me open the back.”
Walter frowned.
“The back?”
Sarah pointed inside the locket.
“There’s a second panel.”
Walter examined it beneath the hospital light.
She was right.
A nearly invisible seam ran behind Evelyn’s photograph.
Walter used a tiny screwdriver from his keychain.
Click.
A hidden compartment opened.
Inside was a miniature brass key.
And a strip of paper.
Three numbers.
Marcus stared.
“Locker?”
Walter whispered, “Safe-deposit box.”
“Where?”
Walter recognized the key immediately.
“First Chicago Trust.”
His old bank.
They drove there before dawn.
Box 317 had been untouched since 1997.
The bank manager opened the vault.
Inside was a cassette tape.
Documents.
Photographs.
And a handwritten letter.
Sarah unfolded it.
Her hands shook.
The first line read:
My name is Rebecca Bennett.
If you are reading this, my uncle Daniel has found me again.
Walter sat down.
Sarah continued.
He took me from school.
Rachel helped him.
But Rachel eventually tried to save me.
Daniel kept me because he believed my father destroyed our family.
Sarah looked at Walter.
“What does that mean?”
Walter looked confused.
She continued reading.
He told me Dad caused Mom’s death.
Walter’s face collapsed.
“No.”
Rebecca wrote that Daniel had manipulated her for years.
He told her Walter didn’t want her.
He showed her fake letters.
Fake newspaper stories.
Fake photographs.
When Rebecca became pregnant at nineteen, Rachel helped her escape.
Rebecca gave birth to Sarah.
But Daniel found them again.
Rebecca surrendered herself to him so Rachel could escape with the baby.
Sarah lowered the letter.
“She gave herself up for me.”
Walter covered his mouth.
Marcus examined the photographs.
Then he found one showing Daniel beside a storage warehouse.
On the back:
IF HE TAKES ME AGAIN, LOOK UNDER THE FLOOR OF UNIT 317.
Marcus looked up.
“Different 317.”
They located the warehouse.
Police entered unit 317 at sunrise.
Under the floor they found human remains.
Not Rebecca.
Not Daniel.
Rachel’s old boyfriend.
A private investigator Walter had hired in 1998.
Marcus stared at Walter.
“Daniel didn’t just kidnap your daughter.”
Walter looked at the bones.
“He killed anyone who got close.”
Then Sarah’s phone rang.
Rebecca.
Sarah answered.
“Mom?”
Rebecca whispered, “He knows you opened the box.”
A door slammed behind her.
“Sarah, run.”
The line went dead.
May you like
And Marcus realized Daniel was no longer waiting for Walter to come to him.
Daniel was coming for all of them.
