Even Officer Carter, who had returned after taking Vanessa to the station, looked away.
Emma reached for the locket.
I gave it to her.
She pressed it to her chest, holding it beside Bunny.
Detective Ramirez spoke quietly into her phone. “We have probable cause for murder, conspiracy, unlawful surveillance, child endangerment, and evidence of an ongoing exploitation operation. Put every available unit on Vale.”
A second later, Officer Carter’s radio answered with a burst of static.
“Units at St. Agnes have visual. Suspect is inside.”
The old rehabilitation building stood abandoned at the edge of a field, its peeling blue exterior visible beneath the sweep of police headlights. I was not supposed to be there. Detective Ramirez had told me that plainly.
But when they found Adrian’s car in the lot, they also found Claire’s old phone mounted to a monitoring system inside the building, streaming a camera feed from somewhere else.
The feed showed my house.
Emma’s bedroom.
I could not remain behind while officers entered a building containing the man who had watched my daughter sleep for nearly a year.
Detective Ramirez put me in an unmarked car with Officer Carter, a mile from the property, and told me to stay put. Mark stayed beside Emma at the station with a victim advocate, holding paper cups of cocoa neither of them drank.
The radio crackled with clipped voices.
“First floor clear.”
“Equipment room located.”
“Suspect moving east corridor.”
Then a sharp report echoed through the rain.
I lurched forward.
Officer Carter caught my shoulder. “Stay in the vehicle.”
“What was that?”
“Could be a door breach.”
Another voice came over the radio. “Officer down. Repeat, officer down. Medical response needed.”
My body went cold.
Detective Ramirez’s voice cut through the noise. “Vale is armed. Contain the east wing.”
A flash of movement passed behind a second-story window.
Adrian.
He was holding something against the glass.
For one impossible second, I thought it was a child.
Then lightning split the sky and showed me the truth.
It was a small monitor.
Emma’s face glowed on the screen, taken from the camera that had been hidden in her room.
The sight of it ripped the last restraint from me.
I shoved the car door open and ran.
Officer Carter shouted behind me. I heard him follow, but the rain swallowed everything. I crossed the muddy field, slipped once, caught myself against a rusted fence, and reached the shattered side entrance just as a scream tore through the building.
“Daniel!”
It was Adrian’s voice.
He knew I was there.
The corridor smelled of wet plaster and old chemicals. Water dripped through holes in the ceiling. Cables lay across the floor like black veins, leading into rooms filled with screens. On each screen were pieces of stolen lives: bedrooms, kitchens, schoolyards, living rooms. Families eating dinner. Children sleeping. People who had never known they were being watched.
I found Claire’s face on one monitor.
