Chapter 6 - THE LOCKET
I stared at the silver locket through the plastic evidence bag.
It was a simple heart shape. Inside was a tiny picture of Emma’s mother. I had given it to her on her seventh birthday. She never took it off.
“Where did he get this?” I demanded, my voice shaking. I looked at the detective. “Where did Marcus get my daughter's necklace?”
The detective frowned. “We found it in his overcoat when we searched him. Mr. Brooks, are you sure it’s hers?”
“I’m positive,” I said, a cold dread washing over me.
I pulled out my phone and dialed my sister, Sarah. She had picked Emma up from the neighbor’s house hours ago.
It went straight to voicemail.
I called again. Voicemail.
Panic, sharp and blinding, clawed at my chest.
I turned to David. “Something is wrong. Sarah isn't answering.”
David immediately pulled out his phone and called the precinct. “Dispatch a car to Sarah Brooks’s residence. Now.”
I didn't wait for the police. I sprinted to David’s car, threw it into drive, and tore out of the industrial lot.
The drive to my sister’s house usually took twenty minutes. I made it in ten.
I slammed on the brakes, the car skidding onto her wet driveway. The house was completely dark. No porch light. No lights in the windows.
I ran to the front door and pounded on it.
“Sarah! Emma!”
Nothing.
I twisted the handle. It was unlocked.
I pushed the door open. “Sarah?”
The living room was tossed. A lamp was shattered on the floor. The throw pillows on the couch were scattered.
“Emma!” I screamed, tearing through the house.
I ran into the kitchen.
Sarah was sitting on the floor, holding an ice pack to her head, looking dazed.
“Sarah!” I dropped to my knees beside her. “Where is she? Where is Emma?”
Sarah looked up at me, tears spilling down her cheeks.
“Daniel, I’m so sorry,” she sobbed. “I was making dinner. The doorbell rang. I thought it was you. A man pushed his way in. He hit me... I fell.”
“Who was it?” I grabbed her shoulders. “Who took her?”
“I don't know his name,” she cried. “But Emma knew him. She called him Uncle Marcus.”
My blood froze.
Marcus hadn't been at the warehouse just to burn the books. He had been stalling. He hired someone, or went himself before the warehouse, to take Emma.
But Marcus was in police custody.
My phone buzzed in my pocket.
It was an unknown number.
I answered it, putting it on speaker so Sarah could hear.
“Daniel.”
It wasn't Marcus. The voice was smooth, calm, and terrifyingly familiar.
It was Principal Coleman.
Wait. The police arrested Coleman at the warehouse.
“I'm looking at your daughter, Daniel,” Coleman’s voice crackled. “She has her mother’s eyes.”
“Coleman,” I snarled, my vision going red. “You were just arrested.”
“A man who looks remarkably like me was arrested in the dark,” Coleman replied smoothly. “My brother Richard is very loyal, but he’s not very smart. He’ll take the fall for the embezzlement. But I need the offshore account passwords. The ones Marcus set up.”
The pieces fell into place. The man at the warehouse was Richard, Coleman's brother. The real Principal Coleman had used the chaos to kidnap Emma. He was the mastermind. Marcus was just the corporate inside man.
“Where are you?” I demanded.
“I’m at the school,” Coleman said quietly. “Bring the passwords to my office. If you bring the police, I walk away, and you never see her again.”
He hung up.
I looked at Sarah.
“Call David,” I told her. “Tell him Coleman is at the school.”
May you like
I ran out the door.
I was going back to Brookfield Elementary. And I wasn't bringing money.
