The first lie arrived with a warm smile, and the second was delivered while my daughter’s blood dried behind the main house. By the time Gary Baxter ordered me off his lawn, I already knew someone inside that property was trapped in deep terror.
I had driven six long hours to surprise my twenty-four-year-old daughter, Hannah, after she suddenly stopped answering my daily calls. Her final message had been strange, reading that she was taking a break and telling me not to come. She never called me Dad in her texts because she always referred to me as Pop.
Gary filled the front entrance in a neatly pressed blue shirt while his broad shoulders completely blocked my view inside.
I had driven six long hours to surprise my twenty-four-year-old daughter, Hannah, after she suddenly stopped answering my daily calls. Her final message had been strange, reading that she was taking a break and telling me not to come. She never called me Dad in her texts because she always referred to me as Pop.
Gary filled the front entrance in a neatly pressed blue shirt while his broad shoulders completely blocked my view inside.
“She went to Europe,” Makayla answered far too quickly.
“Which specific country?” I pressed immediately.
Gary’s artificial smile thinned into a tight line. “This hostile interrogation is the exact reason she avoids you.”
For years, they had treated me like a pathetic former husband who merely repaired home security systems for a living. Gary always condescendingly called me “the handyman” while Makayla let him get away with it. Neither of them knew I had sold my security enterprise for forty-two million dollars, retained control over its forensic division, and spent a decade helping prosecutors uncover major kidnapping, extortion, and financial fraud cases.
I stepped backward as if I felt deeply embarrassed by his harsh words, which made Gary chuckle softly under his breath.
“That is right,” Gary said with total arrogance. “Go back home.”
Then the afternoon wind shifted direction.
From the old disused warehouse behind the main house came a weak metallic clang, followed immediately by a painful, muffled cry.
It was my daughter’s cry.
