Chapter 16 - THEY TOOK FERN
I remember the empty baby carrier swinging from a stranger’s arm as he disappeared through a service door.
Fern was gone.
Stellan heard me over the radio.
Everything in him changed.
He abandoned the chase for Malcolm and turned back.
“No,” Elias shouted through the comms. “Stay on Malcolm!”
“My daughter is gone.”
“Malcolm ordered it. Catch him and we get her back.”
For two seconds, Stellan stood in the tunnel deciding whether to be a father or a boss.
Then he chose.
“Elias, take Malcolm. I’m coming to Selene.”
He reached me three minutes later.
I hit him in the chest.
“Get her back.”
“I will.”
“You promised this house was safe.”
“I know.”
“You promised.”
His face broke.
“I know.”
Daniel was rushed to surgery.
The kidnapper’s van was found abandoned near the river.
Inside: no Fern.
Only her cream blanket.
I held it against my face and could still smell her baby shampoo.
Stellan stood across the room while police worked.
No one spoke to him unless necessary.
The feared man in Chicago looked useless.
Then a phone rang inside the abandoned van.
Stellan answered on speaker.
Malcolm.
“Now you understand leverage.”
Stellan’s voice was deadly calm. “If she is hurt—”
“She won’t be. I need her alive.”
“For the shares.”
“For the future.”
I grabbed the phone.
“Let me hear her.”
A pause.
Then Fern cried.
My knees gave out.
“Baby! Mama’s here!”
Malcolm returned to the line.
“Bring the original testimony and the ledger to the old Cross lakeside chapel.”
“When?” Stellan asked.
“Sunrise.”
The line clicked.
Elias entered, breathing hard.
“We found Victor’s phone.”
“Anything?”
“A location history.”
He placed the screen on the table.
One place appeared again and again for the last six months.
A private pediatric clinic.
May you like
Dr. Peter Wynn’s clinic.
And Fern had an appointment there at eight the next morning.
