Chapter 8 - Poppy
Madeline could barely understand Daniel over the blood roaring in her ears.
"What do you mean gone?"
"Preston came with two police officers and a court order. He said you were missing, unstable, maybe suicidal. I tried to stop them."
"Where did he take her?"
"I don't know."
Ruiz was already moving.
The emergency custody order had been filed that morning using the same medical claims Madeline found at the lake house.
Preston had been preparing this long before the poisoning.
By the time they reached the city, his phone was off and Poppy was not at the family home.
Madeline stood in her daughter's bedroom staring at the empty bed.
A tiny purple sock lay on the carpet.
On the desk was a drawing Poppy had made two days earlier: Mommy lying on a couch, Serena holding a cup, Daddy standing behind them.
In Daddy's hand was a black bottle.
Under the picture Poppy had drawn a red square.
Madeline remembered the red room.
Ruiz studied the page. "Kids repeat images when they're trying to explain something."
"She saw him with the bottle before."
"Maybe."
Madeline looked at the stuffed animals lined against the wall.
Poppy's rabbit was missing.
That meant Poppy had taken it with her.
Good.
For some reason, that mattered.
Then Madeline spotted a folded piece of paper beneath the pillow.
It was a note in Preston's handwriting.
You need rest. Stop fighting me. When you're ready to get help, you can see Poppy.
Madeline crumpled it.
"He wants me to look crazy."
"Then don't give him anything he can use," Ruiz said.
A patrol officer entered carrying a tablet.
"Detective, we pulled toll cameras on Mr. Voss's SUV."
Ruiz looked up.
"Where is he going?"
The officer turned the screen around.
The image showed Preston's car heading north.
Toward the lake house.
Madeline's blood went cold.
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Because police had just finished searching that property.
Which meant Preston knew exactly what they had missed.
