Chapter 7 - The Photo Wall
Vale's men never broke through the basement door.
Sirens arrived first.
Local police.
Then hospital security.
Then Alessandro's people.
Too many guns in one quiet Baltimore street.
Vale left before anyone could force the issue.
Nathan did not.
He sat at the kitchen table while I stood across from him.
"Did you give Vale David's route?"
His fingers pressed together.
"Yes."
I slapped him.
He took it.
"Why?"
"I thought Vale was protecting David."
"You were his best friend."
"I was also stupid."
"That isn't enough."
"I know."
Logan slept on the couch under Alessandro's guard.
Nathan looked toward him.
"Vale told me there was a credible threat from Romano. He asked for David's travel schedule so they could shadow him."
"And instead?"
"The crash happened."
"Then you helped David disappear."
"I tried."
"Tried?"
Nathan rubbed his face.
"Romano's crew reached him first."
The black phone rang.
Alessandro.
His voice was weak.
"Bring the boy's original hospital record."
"Why?"
"Because someone accessed it."
I checked from Nathan's laptop.
Logan's newborn chart.
Access history.
Most entries were years old.
One was not.
Twenty-three minutes earlier.
DENISE HARPER.
I stood.
"We need to go."
At Johns Hopkins, the pediatric unit was in chaos.
A Code Amber sounded through the building.
Missing child.
I ran to the staff daycare room where Alessandro's men had been watching Logan.
Empty.
One guard lay unconscious.
A crumpled juice box sat on the floor.
The security feed showed Denise taking Logan by the hand.
He was not fighting.
She leaned down and said something.
I made security enhance the audio.
"Your daddy sent me."
My chest seized.
Logan went with her.
I grabbed my phone.
Tracker.
Nothing.
Then I remembered Captain Bear.
I had stitched a backup Bluetooth tag deep inside one paw months earlier after Logan wandered away in Target.
The signal appeared.
Below us.
Moving.
Alessandro's guard looked at the hospital map.
"Old records tunnel."
A sealed connection beneath the campus.
We ran.
The signal stopped halfway between buildings.
I heard Logan crying.
Then a man's voice.
"Catherine?"
Every muscle in my body locked.
I knew that voice.
Older.
Rougher.
But his.
"David?"
A figure stepped into the emergency light.
My dead husband was holding our son.
May you like
CUT.
