Chapter 2 - The Phantom Suspect
I fell to my knees, screaming my daughter's name into the empty room.
The bedsheets were tossed aside, and the IV line had been violently ripped from the machine.
Nurses rushed into the room, their faces etched with absolute panic.
"Lock down the hospital!" Detective Miller roared into her radio.
She hauled me up by my arms, her eyes scanning the hallway.
"They couldn't have gone far," she told me firmly.
"A grown man carrying an unconscious child cannot just vanish."
I forced myself to stop crying and started looking for clues.
I noticed a heavy set of muddy footprints leading toward the fire escape stairwell.
"There," I pointed, sprinting toward the heavy steel door.
We threw the door open and heard the echoing sound of hurried footsteps descending the concrete stairs.
We raced down three flights of stairs, our shoes pounding against the metal grates.
When we reached the underground parking garage, the air was thick with exhaust fumes.
I saw a black sedan speeding toward the exit ramp.
Detective Miller raised her gun and fired two shots at the vehicle's rear tires.
The sedan swerved violently, crashing into a concrete pillar with a deafening crunch.
We ran up to the shattered window of the car.
I ripped the back door open, expecting to find my daughter crying inside.
The back seat was completely empty.
The driver groaned and slowly lifted his head from the deployed airbag.
It wasn't my husband.
It was my husband's sleazy defense attorney, holding a burner phone.
"You're too late," the lawyer coughed, spitting blood onto the dashboard.
"He paid me ten thousand dollars to be the decoy."
I grabbed the lawyer by his expensive collar.
"Where did he take my baby?" I shrieked.
The lawyer just smiled, exposing bloodstained teeth.
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"You should check the roof," he whispered.
"The medical evacuation helicopter was just cleared for takeoff."
