Chapter 12
Bear pulled me through the window as the ceiling collapsed.
In my hand was Ruth’s photograph.
“Never do that again,” he shouted.
His anger sounded like fear.
I nodded.
For the first time, he called me Mom.
Only once.
Barely a whisper.
It was enough.
We drove toward Ruth’s assisted-living facility in Kentucky.
When we arrived, her room was empty.
A nurse said a relative had signed her out.
Ruth had no living relatives.
Security footage showed Daniel pushing her wheelchair toward a black van.
Sophie noticed something the adults missed.
“Grandpa’s second wife was driving.”
The woman from the lake-house photographs.
Her name was Caroline.
The facility gave us the destination written on the release form.
A private airport.
We arrived as a small plane prepared to leave.
Bear drove his truck onto the runway.
The pilot stopped.
Daniel emerged from the hangar with Ruth.
Richard and Caroline stood behind him.
Emily ran toward her father.
Richard aimed a pistol at the ground near her feet.
“Don’t come closer.”
Emily froze.
Sophie screamed from the truck.
Richard looked at his granddaughter.
His hand trembled.
Daniel grabbed the weapon.
“Get them on the plane.”
Ruth suddenly drove her wheelchair into Daniel’s legs.
He fell.
Bear rushed him.
Richard fled toward the plane with Caroline.
Federal vehicles entered the airport from both gates.
The bank manager’s report had finally reached the right office.
Daniel escaped through the hangar.
Richard’s plane was blocked.
Agents arrested him and Caroline.
But Daniel took Sophie with him.
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By the time we realized she was missing, his van had disappeared.
On the pavement lay her pink bracelet.
