Chapter 5 - The Missing MotherNaomi shoved Elliot back against the wall before the glass had finished falling.
“Down!”
Police rushed toward the broken window. Mr. Alvarez dropped his cane. The flash drive skittered across the floor, landing near Elliot’s shoe.
For one terrible second, nobody moved.
Then Naomi grabbed the flash drive with a gloved hand and put it inside an evidence sleeve.
“Everyone away from the windows,” she ordered.
Elliot looked at the brick. The note tied around it had been printed in thick black letters.
Stop digging, or the baby is next.
The words rearranged the air in the hallway.
Not a threat from someone panicking.
A threat from someone watching.
Elliot’s first thought was Maddie.
His second was Rosie.
He was already moving before Naomi caught his arm.
“Where are you going?”
“The hospital.”
“Not alone.”
“Then keep up.”
By the time they reached Mercy Children’s, two uniformed officers had already been placed outside Rosie’s room. Nora Keene, Elliot’s attorney, stood near the nurses’ station with a leather folder in one hand and fury in her eyes.
“I leave you alone for one morning,” she said, “and you walk into a criminal conspiracy.”
“I didn’t walk into it. It walked into my lobby holding a baby.”
Nora’s expression softened, but only for a moment. “How is Rosie?”
“Ask the doctor.”
Dr. Simms came out before Elliot could find Maddie.
“Rosie is stable,” he said. “Severely dehydrated, underfed, mild hypothermia, but she responded. We’ll keep her admitted.”
“And Maddie?”
“Exhausted. Hungry. No major injuries. But psychologically…” He looked toward a small family waiting room. “She does not believe she is safe.”
Inside the room, Maddie sat on a couch with Elliot’s overcoat still around her shoulders. Dana was nearby, trying not to hover. A sandwich sat untouched on a tray.
Maddie looked up when Elliot entered.
“Did you find my mom?”
The question came so fast it hurt.
“Not yet,” Elliot said.
Her face closed.
“But we found things she left.”
That reopened something.
“What things?”
“Notes. A flash drive. Your school paper.”
Maddie’s cheeks reddened. “You read that?”
“I did. It was very good.”
She looked down. “Mom helped me spell brave.”
Elliot sat across from her. “She was right about what it means.”
Maddie’s lower lip trembled. “Is she dead?”
“No.”
“You don’t know.”
“No,” he admitted. “But I know she planned for you. She left directions. She hid proof. That means she was fighting to come back.”
Maddie squeezed the edge of the coat.
“She told me not to open the door unless she sang.”
“What song?”
Maddie whispered the answer. “You Are My Sunshine.”
Dana turned away, crying again.
Nora stepped into the room. “Maddie, my name is Nora. I’m a lawyer.”
Maddie tensed.
“I don’t take children away,” Nora said. “I help stop adults from doing illegal things.”
Maddie considered this. “Like stealing?”
“Yes.”
“Like stealing paychecks?”
Nora’s eyes flicked to Elliot. “Especially that.”
Maddie looked at Elliot. “Mom said they stole hours.”
“Who?”
“The cleaning company. She wrote down names. Some ladies cried because their checks were too small. One man got hurt and they said he wasn’t an employee anymore.”
Elliot felt his anger become clearer. Cleaner.
“What was the company called?”
Maddie closed her eyes, trying to remember. “Bright… Bright something.”
“Brightline Facility Services,” Nora said.
Elliot turned. “That’s one of ours?”
Nora nodded grimly. “A major vendor. Approved through operations.”
“Martin.”
“Likely.”
Maddie whispered, “Mr. Voss came once.”
The room went silent.
Elliot leaned forward. “To your apartment?”
“No. To the night building. Mom brought me once when the babysitter didn’t come. She made me stay behind the big plants in the lobby. I saw him yelling at her.”
“What did he say?”
Maddie twisted the coat sleeve between her fingers.
“He said poor women should be grateful for cash. Mom said grateful doesn’t feed babies.”
Nora wrote it down.
“Then he saw me,” Maddie continued. “He smiled. I didn’t like it.”
“What did your mom do?”
“She stood in front of me.”
Of course she did, Elliot thought.
Clara Carr, twenty-six years old, underpaid, threatened, raising two daughters, standing in front of powerful men with nothing but a notebook and courage.
Elliot’s phone buzzed again.
Unknown number.
He answered on speaker.
For three seconds, there was only static.
Then a woman’s voice, weak and breathless.
“Is Maddie there?”
Maddie stood so fast the tray fell.
“Mom?”
The voice cracked. “Baby?”
“Mom! Where are you?”
A harsh sound came through the phone. A struggle. A man swore in the background.
Clara’s voice rushed out. “Elliot Whitaker, listen to me. The second copy is—”
The call cut off.
Maddie screamed.
Elliot looked at Naomi. “Trace it.”
“Already trying.”
Nora grabbed the edge of the table. “Second copy?”
Maddie was shaking uncontrollably.
“What did she mean?” Elliot asked gently. “Maddie, did your mom hide another copy?”
Maddie sobbed too hard to answer.
Elliot crouched in front of her. “Listen to me. Your mom just proved she is alive.”
Maddie’s breathing hitched.
“She called you because she knew you were safe enough to answer. That means we can find her.”
Maddie wiped her face with both sleeves.
“She said the second copy?”
“Yes.”
Maddie looked toward Rosie’s hospital room.
“Rosie knows,” she whispered.
Everyone stared.
“What do you mean Rosie knows?” Nora asked.
Maddie’s voice dropped.
“Mom sewed something into her blanket.”
Elliot remembered the faded flower blanket from the lobby. The one the paramedics had replaced.
“Where is it?” he asked.
Dana went pale. “The ambulance team put it in a hospital laundry bag.”
Naomi was already running.
They found the blanket twelve minutes later in a plastic bin near the emergency intake area.
A nurse handed Naomi small scissors. Along one faded seam, beneath a patch of worn pink flowers, Clara had sewn a thin memory card wrapped in plastic.
Elliot looked at it in Naomi’s palm.
The second copy.
Before anyone could speak, a hospital alarm sounded.
Not medical.
Security.
An officer shouted from the hallway.
“Someone tried to enter the infant ward using a stolen badge.”
May you like
Maddie turned white.
And on the security monitor above the nurses’ station, Elliot saw Martin Voss walking toward Rosie’s room.
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