Chapter 1 - THE GIRL WHO REFUSED TO LEAVE
Gideon kept his voice low.
“Norah, I’m not going to hurt you.”
The little girl looked at him, then at the black town car waiting beyond the iron fence.
Snow had collected along Gideon’s shoulders because his coat was wrapped around her instead.
Norah hugged the worn rabbit tighter.
“My mama said strangers can lie.”
“She was right.”
That answer seemed to surprise her.
Gideon nodded toward his driver.
“His name is Thomas. We can call the police, a doctor, anyone you trust. But I can’t leave you freezing on this bench.”
Norah’s eyes dropped.
“Mama said she’d come right back.”
“How long ago?”
She held up both hands, then seemed to lose count.
“When the church bells did the big song.”
Gideon looked toward St. Matthew’s clock tower.
The Christmas service had begun nearly three hours earlier.
His stomach tightened.
“Was your mother sick?”
“No.”
“Did she leave with someone?”
Norah shook her head.
Then stopped.
Something flashed across her face.
Not confusion.
Fear.
Gideon noticed.
“What happened before she left?”
Norah pressed the rabbit’s face against her mouth.
Nothing.
Gideon did not push.
Instead, he called Chicago police and requested medical assistance.
The paramedics arrived first.
Norah’s temperature was dangerously low, but she was conscious.
At the hospital, she refused to let go of Gideon’s sleeve.
A social worker named Lena Morales crouched beside her.
“Do you know your mama’s full name?”
“Mara Bennett.”
“Do you know your address?”
Norah recited it perfectly.
Lena entered the information into her tablet.
Her expression changed.
“What?”
Gideon asked.
“The address is empty.”
Norah looked up.
“No. That’s our apartment.”
Lena turned the screen slightly.
“The building was evacuated this morning after a pipe burst. Several tenants were placed in temporary housing.”
Norah frowned.
“We slept at Mrs. Callahan’s yesterday.”
That explained why no one had immediately reported them missing from the address.
Lena contacted police dispatch.
Mara Bennett.
Thirty-four.
No missing-person report yet.
Then one officer entered the emergency room and spoke quietly to Lena.
She looked at Gideon.
“Someone matching Mara’s description was brought into St. Catherine’s about two hours ago.”
Norah stood so quickly the blanket fell.
“Mama?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“Take me.”
Gideon picked up his coat.
They crossed the city through worsening snow.
At St. Catherine’s, a detective met them outside intensive care.
Detective Elena Ortiz.
She looked exhausted.
“Mr. Vale?”
“Yes.”
“We have an unidentified female admitted after a traffic incident near Grant Park.”
“What kind of incident?”
Ortiz hesitated because Norah was listening.
Gideon understood.
“Norah, why don’t you sit with Ms. Morales?”
“No.”
Her fingers tightened around his hand.
“I want Mama.”
Ortiz led them to the observation window.
The woman inside had dark hair, bruising along one side of her face, and tubes running from beneath the blankets.
Norah made one small sound.
Then she pressed both hands against the glass.
“Mama.”
Gideon closed his eyes.
Alive.
At least she was alive.
The doctor explained Mara had suffered head trauma, broken ribs, and severe blood loss.
She was unconscious.
Her identification and phone were missing.
Police initially assumed a hit-and-run robbery.
“Initially?” Gideon asked.
Ortiz glanced toward Norah.
Then lowered her voice.
“We found security footage.”
“What does it show?”
“A vehicle follows Ms. Bennett into the parking structure.”
Gideon felt Norah’s hand tremble.
Then she whispered:
“The gray car.”
Ortiz turned.
“You saw it?”
Norah immediately went silent.
Gideon crouched.
“You don’t have to tell us anything right now.”
But Norah stared through the glass at her mother.
Then, slowly, she said:
“Mama told me to run to the blue lights.”
Gideon frowned.
“What blue lights?”
“The park.”
The bench.
His bench.
The section of the park decorated every Christmas in memory of Juniper.
Gideon’s pulse changed.
“Why there?”
Norah hugged the rabbit.
“Mama said if the bad man followed her, I should wait under the blue lights.”
Gideon could barely breathe.
“Why?”
Norah looked directly at him.
“Because she said you would come.”
For the first time that night, Gideon understood something terrifying.
May you like
He had not found Norah by accident.
Mara Bennett had sent her daughter to him.
