Chapter 5 - Someone Was Watching Maya
I reached into darkness.
“Maya?”
Nothing.
Daniel’s flashlight snapped on.
Kitchen.
Empty.
Back door open.
Cold air moving the curtain.
“Maya!”
Evan ran toward the hallway.
Daniel caught him.
“Don’t.”
“She was right here.”
“I know.”
“Then move.”
Daniel shoved the gun into his waistband and checked the back step.
I grabbed the emergency flashlight from the drawer.
My hands would not stop shaking.
“Maya!”
No answer.
Evan went upstairs.
I followed.
Her room empty.
Window locked.
Phone downstairs inside the metal pan.
Shoes gone from the mudroom?
No.
Her boots were there.
That meant she had been taken without them.
Or walked out in socks.
Impossible unless forced.
Then we heard a groan.
Evan.
Not upstairs.
From the lower stairwell.
We ran.
He lay at the bottom near the basement door.
Blood at his hairline.
Maya gone.
Daniel crouched.
“What happened?”
Evan blinked.
“I followed.”
“Who?”
“Shadow. Back door.”
“Did you see face?”
“No.”
He tried to stand.
Fell.
“Stay down.”
I checked his pupils.
Unequal?
No.
Responsive.
“Ambulance.”
Daniel shook his head.
“Not local.”
I stared.
“He may have a concussion.”
“I know.”
“Then stop living like every institution is Paul Mercer.”
Daniel looked at me.
“You saw the camera.”
I hated that he was right.
Evan grabbed my wrist.
“Maya.”
“We’re finding her.”
He looked at Daniel.
“Your friend took her.”
Daniel flinched.
Then my flashlight hit something on the floor.
Maya’s bracelet.
Silver.
Paul had given it to her at sixteen.
One link bent.
A smear of blue paint across the clasp.
Daniel picked it up with a dish towel.
“Don’t touch.”
“You just did.”
“With cloth.”
I almost laughed from panic.
He inspected it.
“Industrial paint.”
Evan sat against the wall.
“From what?”
Daniel shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
A phone started ringing.
Not ours.
From Maya’s coat pocket on the hook.
Old emergency phone.
We had forgotten it existed.
Daniel pulled it out.
Unknown number.
He answered.
“Where is she?”
Mercer’s voice.
Calm.
“Dan.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Paul.”
I grabbed his wrist and put it on speaker.
Mercer sighed.
“You always were dramatic.”
“Where is Maya?”
“With people who won’t hurt her if you do what I say.”
My stomach dropped.
Evan pushed himself upright.
Daniel asked:
“What do you want?”
“Evan’s phone.”
Evan looked at me.
Mercer continued:
“Bring it to me.”
“Where?”
“You’ll get instructions.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“Let me talk to her.”
A pause.
Then Maya’s voice.
“Dad?”
I almost collapsed.
“Maya!”
“Mom?”
“I’m here.”
She breathed hard.
“I’m okay.”
Mercer took the phone back.
Daniel said:
“If you touched her—”
“Don’t be boring.”
Evan whispered:
“You’re my father.”
Mercer went silent.
Every head turned toward Evan.
He looked as shocked by his own words as we were.
Mercer said:
“Who told you that?”
Daniel’s face changed.
I stared.
He knew something.
Evan said:
“Nobody.”
Mercer laughed softly.
“Then you’re guessing.”
“Am I wrong?”
Mercer did not answer.
That silence landed harder than confirmation.
Daniel whispered:
“Paul.”
Mercer continued:
“Midnight. I want the phone and every copy from Richard’s storage.”
“Release Maya first.”
“No.”
“You know I won’t bring originals without proof.”
“Then be creative.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
Mercer lowered his voice.
“Bring me Evan’s phone, or your daughter becomes part of the old case.”
The line died.
I looked at Daniel.
“What did Evan just guess?”
Daniel did not answer.
Evan stood slowly.
“Did my mother sleep with Mercer?”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“I don’t know.”
“You reacted.”
“I reacted because Paul did.”
“That’s not all.”
Daniel turned away.
Evan grabbed his arm.
“Look at me.”
Daniel did.
Evan’s eyeliner had smeared.
Blood ran near his ear.
He looked young.
Scared.
“Am I his son?”
Daniel whispered:
“I never knew.”
“But you wondered.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
My stomach dropped.
“When?”
“The motel.”
“Why?”
“Laura said Paul would never let her disappear because she had something of his.”
“What did you think?”
“Evidence.”
Evan laughed bitterly.
“Maybe she meant me.”
We all went still.
Daniel grabbed the emergency phone.
“Can we trace?”
“No GPS.”
“Mercer will expect police trace attempts.”
I looked at Maya’s bracelet.
Blue paint.
“Industrial.”
Daniel frowned.
“What?”
“The paint.”
He inspected it again.
“Municipal fleet blue.”
“How do you know?”
“Old city service vehicles.”
Evan looked at him.
“Where did Richard die?”
Daniel’s face changed.
“Industrial district.”
“Blue paint?”
“I don’t know.”
I said:
“Find out.”
Daniel called an old records contact outside Mercer’s division.
While he waited, I opened Evan’s phone.
“Show me Laura’s files.”
Evan hesitated.
I stared.
“My daughter was taken for those files.”
He handed it over.
Folders.
Videos.
Scans.
DNA_TEST_UNOPENED.
I stopped.
“What is that?”
Evan went still.
“My mother ordered a kit.”
“You never opened it?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I thought it was about ancestry.”
Daniel took the phone.
“Password?”
Evan gave it.
The report opened.
Paternity section.
Subject:
Evan Richard Cross.
Daniel Miller:
Excluded.
My lungs released without permission.
I had not realized I had been holding my breath.
Maya and Evan were not half-siblings through Daniel.
Evan saw my face.
“Good.”
“Don’t.”
“I know.”
He did not smile.
Daniel scrolled.
Then stopped.
His face emptied.
“What?”
He turned the screen.
Paternal relative match detected.
Close first-degree relationship.
Name:
Paul Mercer.
Evan stared.
“What does that mean?”
Daniel whispered:
“It means Paul may be your father.”
Evan did not speak.
Maya looked at him.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“That was a stupid question.”
“A little.”
For one second, despite everything, they almost smiled.
Then the emergency phone lit again.
One message.
MIDNIGHT. DON’T BE LATE, SON.
Evan stared at the word.
Son.
Not boy.
Not witness.
Not Cross.
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Paul knows exactly what that report says.”
Evan locked the phone.
“And now I know what he’s afraid of.”
“What?”
May you like
“That I can prove he spent nineteen years pretending I belonged to someone else.”
CUT.
