Chapter 12 - Blood on the Threshold
It took seven minutes to reach the high-rise downtown—seven minutes that felt like seven lifetimes in hell.
The building lobby was dead silent. As the elevator doors slid open on the fourteenth floor, the unmistakable, copper smell of gunfire and blood hit my nostrils like a physical punch.
I ran down the carpeted hallway.
Outside apartment 14B, Officer Harris lay slumped against the wall, unconscious, a dark pool of blood seeping from a gunshot wound in his shoulder. Beside him, Officer Davis was down, disarmed and motionless.
"No, no, no!" I screamed, lunging through the splintered, kicked-in door of the apartment.
The living room was torn apart. Furniture was flipped, lamps shattered across the floor, the evidence files scattered like dead leaves.
"Lily!" I shrieked, sprinting toward the inner bedroom. "LILY!"
The bedroom door was hanging off its hinges. The bed was empty, the sheets tangled and torn. Her little teddy bear lay abandoned on the floor, trampled by muddy combat boots.
I fell to my knees, clutching the stuffed toy to my chest, a primal, broken sob tearing out of my throat. I had failed. After everything I promised, after swearing she would never be hurt again, they had taken her.
Then, from the depths of the master bathroom closet, came the faintest, trembling sound.
A tiny, choked sniffle.
I froze, barely daring to breathe.
"Lily?" I whispered, terrified that my mind was playing cruel tricks on me.
The bottom cabinet beneath the bathroom sink creaked open an inch. Two wide, tear-soaked brown eyes peered out from behind the pipes.
"Dad?" she whimpered, her tiny voice shaking with pure terror.
I scrambled across the tiles on my hands and knees, pulling the cabinet doors wide open. Lily threw herself into my arms, burying her face into my chest, her entire body shaking like a leaf caught in a hurricane.
"I hid," she sobbed hysterically. "Just like you taught me! When the bad men made the loud noises, I remembered what you said about checking the closets, and I squeezed inside the pipes and stayed completely quiet!"
I held her with a grip so fierce I felt her tiny heart beating frantically against my ribs. "You did it, baby. You were so brave. You're safe. I've got you. I've got you."
Miller and a team of paramedics rushed through the shattered front door. Seeing Lily alive in my arms, Miller closed his eyes and leaned against the doorframe, letting out a ragged breath of relief.
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"They couldn't find her," Miller murmured in awe. "She outsmarted them."
***