Chapter 3 - The Basement Door
The second cage was empty.
That should have relieved me.
It didn't.
Because someone had clearly been inside it.
A blanket lay folded in one corner.
Plastic water bottles sat nearby.
There were scratches along the bottom of the metal door.
Detective Morales refused to let me enter the basement, but he told me enough.
The room had been locked from the outside.
A small security camera pointed toward the cage.
There were folders.
Photographs.
Printed maps.
And several external hard drives.
By sunset, Elena's house was officially a crime scene.
Emily and I were taken to the hospital.
The doctors said she was dehydrated and exhausted but, physically, she would recover.
The emotional injuries were another matter.
A social worker named Rachel sat with us.
She didn't push Emily.
She didn't ask questions like an investigator.
Instead, she gave her apple juice and let her choose a stuffed animal from a cabinet.
Emily picked a small brown dog.
She held it against her chest while the nurse checked her blood pressure.
I sat beside the bed.
Every few minutes, I looked toward the door.
Part of me expected Julian to appear.
He never did.
At 9:15 p.m., Detective Morales arrived.
He had news.
Julian had escaped through the attached garage.
A neighbor's security camera showed him running down an alley and entering a dark sedan.
They believed someone had picked him up.
“Who?”
“We don't know.”
“And Elena?”
“No confirmed sighting yet.”
I looked at Emily.
She was awake.
Listening.
Morales noticed.
“We can talk outside.”
“No,” Emily said.
It was the strongest her voice had sounded all day.
“I want to hear.”
The detective pulled up a chair.
“Okay.”
Emily tightened her arms around the stuffed dog.
Morales spoke gently.
“We found your mother's things in the pool.”
“I know.”
That surprised him.
“You knew?”
Emily nodded.
“Julian threw them in there.”
“Did you see him?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Friday night.”
“Where was your mother?”
Emily's eyes filled with tears.
“I don't know.”
“What happened before that?”
She hesitated.
Then she began.
Friday afternoon, Elena had picked Emily up from school early.
They went home.
Elena told her to pack a backpack.
Not clothes.
Important things.
School papers.
A photograph of her grandparents.
Her favorite necklace.
Medication.
A sweatshirt.
Then Elena told Emily they were going somewhere safe.
They never made it out.
Julian came home early.
He found the bags.
The argument began upstairs.
Emily hid in her room.
“She told me not to come out,” Emily whispered.
“What did Julian say?” Morales asked.
“He asked where she thought she was going.”
“And your mother?”
“She said she was done.”
“Done with what?”
Emily looked at me.
“Watching him hurt people.”
A chill passed through me.
“What people?”
“I don't know.”
Morales leaned forward.
“Did your mother say anything else?”
“She said she had proof.”
“Proof of what?”
Emily shook her head.
Then she remembered something.
“She said she copied everything.”
Morales froze.
“Everything?”
“From his computer.”
“Did she say where she put it?”
“No.”
According to Emily, the argument stopped suddenly.
Then Elena entered Emily's bedroom.
She looked terrified.
She told Emily to hide.
“Where?”
“The laundry room.”
Emily stayed there almost an hour.
Then Julian found her.
He demanded to know where Elena had gone.
Emily truly didn't know.
That was when he locked her in the cage.
“He said I would stay there until I told him.”
My fists tightened.
“He left you outside?”
Emily nodded.
“Overnight?”
“Yes.”
“Did Mom come back?”
“I don't know.”
Saturday morning, Julian carried black bags outside.
Emily watched from the cage.
He threw them into the pool.
Then he walked over to her and said, “This is what happens when people hide things from me.”
I had to stand and walk away.
Not because I was angry with Emily.
Because I was afraid of what my face would show.
Morales gave me a moment.
Then his phone rang.
He stepped into the hall.
A few minutes later, he returned.
“We found Elena's car.”
I stood.
“Where?”
“Parking garage downtown.”
“Was she inside?”
“No.”
“Anything in the car?”
“Not yet.”
Hope and fear collided inside me.
If Elena wasn't in the pool…
If she wasn't in the car…
Then maybe she had escaped.
Emily looked at Morales.
“Check the trunk.”
The detective stared at her.
“Why?”
“Mom told me once that if she ever disappeared, something important would be in the trunk.”
Nobody spoke.
Morales immediately called his team.
Forty minutes later, we had an answer.
Hidden beneath the spare tire was a sealed envelope.
Inside it was a flash drive.
And a handwritten note.
Morales didn't show us the entire message.
But he read the first sentence.
If Daniel is reading this, then Julian knows I found out who he really is.
I felt the hospital room tilt.
Emily looked at me.
“What does that mean?”
“I don't know.”
But the detective clearly suspected.
The flash drive contained hundreds of files.
Financial records.
Photos.
Video clips.
Lists of names.
And documents connecting Julian to something much larger than one household.
Morales wouldn't explain everything that night.
But he told me one thing.
“Julian isn't just an abusive husband.”
“What is he?”
“We think he's been using fake businesses to steal money from vulnerable clients.”
“How?”
“Investment scams. Identity theft. Blackmail. Possibly more.”
I stared at him.
“And Elena discovered it?”
“Yes.”
“Then where is she?”
“We're trying to answer that.”
Emily suddenly sat upright.
“Her bracelet.”
I turned.
“What?”
“Mom's bracelet.”
“What about it?”
“She always wears it.”
“Okay.”
“It has the little silver heart.”
“I remember.”
Emily looked at Morales.
“She told me Dad gave it to her.”
I had.
Years ago.
Before the divorce.
Before everything between Elena and me became complicated.
“What about it, sweetheart?”
“There's something inside.”
Morales leaned closer.
“What?”
“A tracker.”
I blinked.
“What?”
Emily nodded.
“Mom bought one. A tiny one. Julian was checking her phone, so she hid it inside the bracelet.”
“Can you access it?”
Emily looked at me.
“She put the app on my old tablet.”
My pulse jumped.
“Where is the tablet?”
“At your house.”
I didn't remember seeing it.
“Where?”
“In the box under my bed.”
Twenty minutes later, an officer drove to my house.
They retrieved the tablet.
Emily entered the password.
A map appeared.
The tracker was still active.
A blinking dot showed Elena's bracelet nearly sixty miles outside Indianapolis.
In the middle of rural farmland.
Morales immediately radioed the location.
Officers were dispatched.
Emily held my hand.
For thirty unbearable minutes, the dot didn't move.
Then Morales's phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
His eyes met mine.
“They found something.”
I stood.
“Elena?”
He didn't answer immediately.
And that hesitation terrified me.
Finally he said, “They found the bracelet.”
Emily whispered, “Where?”
Morales looked down.
“Inside an abandoned farmhouse.”
“Was Mom there?”
“No.”
Hope disappeared again.
But then Morales continued.
“There was blood.”
Emily began crying.
“And something else.”
“What?”
“A message written on the wall.”
My voice barely worked.
“What did it say?”
May you like
Morales looked at me.
“Tell Daniel to stop looking.”
