Chapter 1 - THE DOOR
Lily Carter stumbled through Rachel’s front door with one hand gripping the top of a black plastic trash bag tied around her waist.
For one second Rachel did not understand what she was seeing.
Her six-year-old daughter wore a pink sweater.
Bare feet.
No pants.
The large black bag had been wrapped around her lower body like makeshift clothing.
“Mommy!”
Rachel ran.
She dropped to her knees and pulled Lily against her.
The child was shaking so hard her teeth clicked.
“What happened?”
Lily only sobbed.
Then she lifted the back of her sweater.
Rachel saw several pre-existing reddish-purple belt-shaped marks across the child’s back.
Nothing open.
Nothing bleeding.
Still enough to turn Rachel cold.
“Who did this to you?”
Lily shook her head violently.
Then she reached inside the tied plastic waistband.
A small burner phone.
A flash drive.
A folded envelope.
She pushed all three into Rachel’s hands.
“Grandma said I couldn’t tell!”
Rachel’s face drained.
Lily had spent the three days after Christmas with Rachel’s ex-husband Eric and Eric’s mother, Evelyn Carter.
The burner phone rang.
Lily screamed and grabbed Rachel around the waist.
Rachel answered.
“Hello?!”
Someone pounded on the front door.
Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
The entire door shook.
Lily buried her face against Rachel.
“Mommy! Don’t open it!”
Rachel backed away.
“Who is this?”
Eric’s voice came through the burner phone.
“Rachel, don’t let them in.”
Her stomach dropped.
“Eric?”
The pounding became faster.
“Who is at my door?”
“My mother and Grant.”
“Grant who?”
“Grant Wallace. Her operations director.”
“Why?”
“Because Lily has something they need back.”
Rachel looked at the flash drive in her hand.
“What is on this?”
Eric breathed hard.
“I don’t know everything.”
“That is not an answer.”
“I copied what I could.”
“You gave it to Lily?”
Silence.
Rachel’s anger flashed through her fear.
“You used our six-year-old daughter to carry evidence?”
“I panicked.”
The person outside shouted:
“Rachel! Open the door! Lily took private property!”
Evelyn.
Rachel pulled Lily farther from the door.
Eric’s voice dropped.
“Call the police. Do not give them the drive.”
“What did your mother do?”
Eric answered:
“She turned Lily into Case Fourteen.”
Rachel stared at the flash drive.
“Case Fourteen of what?”
Eric whispered:
“The children in the Christmas campaign.”
May you like
And suddenly Rachel understood the black trash bag might not only be something Lily had been forced to wear.
It might be something someone had wanted photographed.
