Chapter 6 - Where Is Sadie?
Claire broke every speed limit between her house and Sadie’s school.
Mason drove.
Claire couldn’t.
Her hands were shaking too badly.
“Call the police again,” Mason said.
“I did.”
“Again.”
Claire called.
By the time they reached Hawthorne Academy, two Columbus police cruisers were outside.
The school administrator met Claire in the lobby.
“We thought it was you.”
“How?”
“Your authorization was in the system.”
Claire stared at her.
“Did anyone actually see me?”
“No. The substitute receptionist received a call from your office. A driver arrived.”
“Description?”
“Black SUV.”
Claire nearly laughed from panic.
Half the executives in Columbus drove black SUVs.
Mason crouched near the reception desk.
“Cameras?”
The administrator nodded.
Security footage showed Sadie leaving through the east entrance.
Alone.
A black vehicle waited.
A man stepped out.
Sadie hesitated.
Then he showed her something on his phone.
She got inside.
Claire’s knees nearly failed.
“What did he show her?”
Daniel arrived and enlarged the footage.
The phone screen was impossible to read.
Mason watched again.
Then again.
“Stop.”
Daniel froze the video.
Sadie’s hand was visible.
She had signed something before entering.
Mason moved closer.
“What?”
Claire asked.
Mason’s eyes narrowed.
“She signed Mom sent you?”
The man had apparently nodded.
Claire turned away.
Her daughter had trusted him because she trusted her mother.
Her phone rang.
Unknown number.
Everyone froze.
Claire answered.
“Sadie?”
Victor’s voice came through.
“Don’t make this emotional.”
Mason’s face transformed.
Claire put the call on speaker.
“Where is my daughter?”
“Safe.”
“If you touch her—”
“Claire. Listen carefully.”
Victor sounded almost bored.
“You’re going to attend tomorrow’s board meeting. You’re going to approve the Landry transaction and announce that the accessibility division will be transferred into a new subsidiary.”
Claire stared at Mason.
“You kidnapped a nine-year-old girl for software?”
“No. I protected an asset while negotiating with an irrational executive.”
Mason stepped closer to the phone.
“You killed Lily.”
Silence.
Not long.
Maybe two seconds.
But enough.
Victor’s voice changed.
“So that’s who you are.”
Mason’s hands curled into fists.
“You remember me?”
“I remember your sister being difficult.”
Mason lunged toward the phone as if Victor were physically there.
Claire grabbed his arm.
Victor continued.
“Bring Lily’s notebook and whatever Charles Whitmore left behind.”
Claire’s eyes widened.
Victor knew.
“How?”
“You still haven’t understood, Claire. Someone inside your company has been mine for years.”
The call ended.
Daniel immediately began tracing it.
Nothing.
Police took over the room.
Questions.
Phones.
Maps.
Claire barely heard any of it.
Then Mason touched her wrist.
“Claire.”
She looked at him.
He signed.
Think.
It was one of the first signs he had taught her.
She forced herself to breathe.
Sadie was Deaf.
Victor’s people might see that as a disadvantage.
But Sadie noticed everything.
Visual details.
Patterns.
Movement.
She had once identified a waiter from twenty yards away because his shoelaces had been tied differently.
Claire grabbed Mason’s arm.
“Her watch.”
Sadie wore a children’s smartwatch.
Daniel checked.
Disabled.
But Mason shook his head.
“She knows that.”
“What?”
“Owen and Sadie have a game. If their phones ever die, they leave signs for each other.”
“What signs?”
“Stars.”
They returned to the school footage.
Just before entering the SUV, Sadie had dropped something.
A silver star sticker.
Owen kept hundreds of them.
Police searched the route outside the school.
Another star was found at an intersection.
Then another near Interstate 70.
Sadie had been leaving a trail.
For three hours, police followed fragments.
A sticker at a gas station.
Another outside an abandoned warehouse district.
Then the trail stopped.
Claire stood beside a detective staring at a map.
Mason looked at the locations.
“Those aren’t random.”
“What?”
“The stars.”
He connected them mentally.
School.
Intersection.
Gas station.
Warehouse district.
“They’re moving east.”
Claire suddenly remembered something Victor had said months earlier.
Landry Capital owned a private retreat outside Granville.
Officially, it was used for executive conferences.
Unofficially, Victor called it “the farm.”
Police moved.
Claire was told to stay behind.
She refused.
Twenty-eight minutes later, they reached the property.
The house appeared empty.
Front door unlocked.
No vehicles.
Claire ran inside.
“Sadie!”
Nothing.
Mason searched upstairs.
Claire entered the kitchen.
A glass of milk sat untouched.
Beside it was a napkin.
On the napkin, someone had drawn a planet.
Saturn.
Underneath were three letters.
O.W.N.
“Owen,” Mason said behind her.
“No.”
Claire stared.
“Sadie knows Owen’s initials are O.R.”
Mason frowned.
Then understood.
“She’s spelling something else.”
Claire looked around.
O.W.N.
Not initials.
A clue.
Own.
Something Victor owned.
Mason noticed a security monitor.
One camera feed showed a detached building behind the house.
A greenhouse.
Another showed a barn.
Then Claire saw it.
A tiny hand pressed briefly against the barn window.
“Sadie!”
They ran.
Police reached the door first.
Inside, an armed security contractor surrendered immediately.
And behind a locked office door sat Sadie.
Alive.
Claire fell to her knees.
Sadie ran into her arms.
Claire held her so tightly the child squeaked.
Then Sadie pulled back.
Her hands moved frantically.
Claire understood more than she would have six weeks earlier.
Man.
Phone.
Victor.
Company.
Tomorrow.
Then Sadie made a sign Claire did not know.
She looked at Mason.
He translated.
“Recording.”
Sadie reached inside her sock.
She pulled out her smartwatch.
The battery icon showed one percent.
Claire stared.
Sadie smiled.
She had disabled the location service herself so the kidnappers would believe the watch was useless.
But she had left the audio recorder running.
Mason looked at Claire.
“Your daughter just recorded everything.”
Sadie corrected him with rapid signs.
Mason smiled.
“Sorry.”
“What?”
“She says not everything.”
May you like
Sadie held up the watch.
“Only forty-seven minutes.”
