Chapter 5 - The Empty Bed
Uncle Alan led me out of the dark woods toward a rugged off-road vehicle parked behind an abandoned gas station.
He tossed me a heavy flannel shirt to cover the bright white medical coat and ordered me to get inside.
The tires squealed as he aggressively threw the truck into gear and sped toward the hospital.
"She needs both of you alive to sign the trust fund release papers at midnight," Alan explained while navigating the empty streets.
"But if you are out of the picture, Chloe inherits everything, making her the only obstacle left."
I stared out the window, completely sickened by the depth of my mother's greed.
We arrived at the emergency room entrance just ten minutes later.
The area was swarming with far more police officers than when I had left.
Flashing red and blue lights illuminated the entire front facade of the building.
Alan flashed a private investigator badge at the outer perimeter guards and hurried me inside through a side door.
We rushed down the sterile hallway toward the room where I had left my sister.
The door was wide open, and yellow crime scene tape was stretched across the doorframe.
My heart plummeted into my stomach as I stared into the room.
The hospital bed was completely empty, the sheets heavily wrinkled and trailing onto the floor.
Dr. Cooper was sitting in a chair nearby, holding a bloody ice pack to the side of his head.
"What happened here?" Alan demanded, flashing his badge at the detective questioning the doctor.
Dr. Cooper looked up, his eyes widening in shock when he recognized me.
"A woman claiming to be her mother came in with two armed men dressed as private security," the doctor explained weakly.
"When I tried to stop them from unhooking her monitors, one of them struck me with a baton."
The detective scribbled frantically in his notepad.
"They dragged the unconscious girl out through the basement loading dock before hospital security could intervene," the detective added.
I leaned against the wall, my knees threatening to completely buckle underneath me.
My mother had kidnapped Chloe, and the corrupt officers on Edric's payroll had helped her do it.
Alan pulled out his phone and rapidly typed a series of commands into a heavily encrypted application.
"They think they are completely untraceable," Alan muttered, a grim smile forming on his face.
He turned the screen around to show me a blinking red dot moving quickly across a digital map of the city.
"What is that?" I asked, my hope suddenly reigniting.
"Before I was forced out of your lives, I secretly stitched a micro-GPS tracker into the lining of Chloe's favorite winter jacket," Alan revealed.
The red dot on the screen finally stopped moving, settling at an industrial location near the edge of the river.
"They took her to your father's old engineering firm," Alan said, loading a heavy magazine into a black handgun.
We turned to leave, but the hospital television in the waiting room suddenly broadcasted a breaking news alert.
The news anchor announced that Edric Kaine had just violently escaped police custody during his transport to the county jail.
"He murdered the transport guards and vanished into the city," the anchor reported grimly.
Alan swore loudly, chambering a round into his weapon.
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"Edric is not running away," I realized, a chilling certainty washing over me.
"He is heading straight for the money, too."
