Chapter 2 - THE SEARCH THAT HAD ALREADY STARTED
William struck the emergency release beside the ballroom doors.
Nothing happened.
Isabella remained on the floor, one hand pressed to her back.
“You’re hurting your own case,” she told him.
“My case?”
Outside, alarms began sounding across the estate.
My phone displayed no signal, though the ballroom windows showed a clear afternoon sky. The mansion’s internal system was blocking service.
William used the wall telephone.
A recorded voice answered:
Security lockdown. Missing-child protocol active.
The message had been triggered before we found Ethan.
William stared at Isabella.
“You reported him missing?”
She smiled faintly.
The doors opened only when estate security director Adrian Cole entered a code from the corridor. Two officers followed him.
Isabella immediately began crying.
“She attacked me,” she said, pointing at me. “Emma took Ethan into the walls.”
Ethan tightened his arms around my neck.
Adrian looked at the broken panel, the poker, and Isabella on the carpet.
Then he looked at William.
“Sir, the police are already on their way.”
“Who called them?”
“Mrs. Sterling reported Ethan missing twenty-three minutes ago.”
I had discovered him less than five minutes earlier.
The police separated us when they arrived. A paramedic examined Ethan while a detective photographed the chamber.
Inside were the blanket, bottle, and nothing else visible.
No explanation.
No obvious evidence of how long he had been there.
Isabella claimed she had searched the house after Ethan disappeared and found me breaking into the wall.
William told them what he witnessed.
I described the fingers in the vent.
Ethan refused to speak unless I stayed in sight.
Then an officer returned from the staff corridor carrying a red backpack.
It belonged to Ethan.
They had found it inside my locked housekeeping cabinet.
A typed note lay beneath it.
William Sterling will receive instructions when he is ready to cooperate.
My employee badge had opened the cabinet that morning.
May you like
I had been cleaning the east guest rooms at the recorded time.
But until the system logs were examined, the police had a hidden child, a ransom note, and his belongings inside my locker.
