Chapter 9 - The Second Room
Ruiz refused to let Madeline ride with the tactical team.
Madeline went anyway.
She followed in Daniel's car and stopped half a mile from the lake house when police blocked the road.
"You stay here," Ruiz ordered.
"My daughter is in that house."
"And I need you alive when she comes out."
Minutes crawled by.
Then officers entered.
No shots.
No shouting.
Nothing.
Ruiz came back twenty minutes later looking furious.
"They're not there."
Madeline pushed past her.
The house was empty.
Preston's SUV sat in the garage, engine cold.
Poppy's pink jacket lay on the kitchen chair.
"He changed cars," Madeline said.
Ruiz shook her head. "No tire tracks leaving after the SUV arrived."
Madeline looked around.
Something didn't fit.
Then she remembered being twelve weeks pregnant with Poppy, standing in the wine cellar while Preston joked that old-money families loved secret doors.
His father had shown them one behind the back shelves.
Madeline ran downstairs.
The shelves moved when two hidden latches were pressed together.
Behind them was a narrow concrete stairway descending beneath the house.
Ruiz swore under her breath.
The lower level wasn't on any building plan.
It held a generator room, locked storage, and another office.
This one was white, not red.
Inside were boxes of financial records, copied signatures, blank medical forms, and three prepaid phones.
On a folding table sat children's crackers and Poppy's juice box.
"They were here," Madeline whispered.
A small television monitor showed four security feeds from around the property.
One camera pointed toward the boathouse.
The image was dark, but something moved inside.
Ruiz zoomed in.
A woman's face appeared behind the window.
Serena.
Madeline stared at the screen.
"That's impossible. She's in the hospital."
Ruiz grabbed her radio.
Before she could speak, her phone rang.
May you like
She listened for three seconds, then looked at Madeline.
"Serena disappeared from the hospital forty minutes ago."
