Chapter 6 - The Trap at the Docks
I dropped the phone and ran wild-eyed toward the back window of Jenna’s house.
The heavy glass back door was unlocked, swinging gently in the afternoon breeze. In the middle of the grass, Lily’s bright yellow hair ribbon lay discarded beside a broken wooden fence panel.
“Jenna!” I screamed, horror tearing through my chest. “JENNA!”
Marcus rushed into the yard, his gun drawn. He examined the tire tracks in the soft mud beyond the broken fence. “A low-profile delivery van,” Marcus reported rapidly. “They didn't break into the front. Julian Vance must have tracked Mark’s car here this morning and slipped in through the rear woods while we were inside.”
I grabbed Marcus by his lapels, my eyes wide with madness. “She has her, Marcus! She has my baby! We have to go to the docks right now!”
“Sarah, listen to me,” Marcus said, taking my hands firmly. “It’s a trap. She’s desperate. Victor Vance knows his entire syndicate is about to be seized by the federal government, and they are using Lily as leverage to force a surrender or buy time to flee the country.”
“I don't care about their syndicate!” I sobbed. “I am getting my daughter back!”
“We go,” Marcus said sternly, “but we go smart. I’m pinging Special Prosecutor Ross and the SWAT command right now. We are putting a satellite grid over those docks.”
Twenty minutes later, Marcus’s black SUV sped down the deserted, rusted industrial corridor along the riverfront.
The old grain docks were a decaying wasteland of rusted iron buildings, rotting wooden piers, and towering concrete silos rising into the gloomy autumn sky. Rain began to fall, slicking the cracked asphalt.
Marcus parked two blocks away behind an abandoned warehouse. “I’m going in on foot through the lower catwalks,” Marcus instructed, handing me a small, hidden earpiece. “You walk straight through the main entrance. Keep her talking. Do not make any sudden movements.”
“What about Mark?” I asked, seeing a silver sedan parked near the silo entrance.
Marcus checked his monitor. “Mark drove here ten minutes ago. He must have received a call from Diane too.”
I stepped out into the pouring rain, my heart hammering like a trapped bird inside my chest. I pulled my jacket tight and walked into the cavernous, dark interior of the main grain silo.
The smell of wet concrete, rust, and old wheat filled the air.
At the center of the vast, hollow building, under a single hanging floodlight, stood Diane, wearing a long trench coat, her hair wild and wet. Beside her was Julian Vance, holding a silenced pistol.
And tied to a wooden chair beneath the light was Lily, her mouth taped shut with silver duct tape, tears rolling down her tiny cheeks.
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Beside them, lying unconscious on the floor with a bleeding head wound, was Mark.
“Mommy!” Lily’s muffled scream echoed through the hollow space as she saw me step into the light.
