Chapter 1 - THE FREEZER
Lily screamed once.
Thin.
Muffled.
Wrong.
I had barely stepped out of the car when I heard it from behind the detached garage.
“Dad!”
I ran.
The garage door stood half open.
Inside, a commercial chest freezer sat against the rear wall.
A steel chain had been looped around both handles.
Padlock.
My daughter’s voice came through the lid.
“Dad! I’m so cold!”
My hands stopped working for half a second.
Then everything moved at once.
I grabbed the bolt cutters hanging beside the workbench.
The chain snapped.
I threw it aside.
The lid resisted.
Ice had formed along the gasket.
I tore it open.
Freezing air rushed into my face.
Lily was curled among bags of frozen food, knees against her chest, short sleeves exposing arms covered in gooseflesh.
She was shaking so hard she could barely reach for me.
“Daddy!”
“I’m here.”
I lifted her.
She weighed almost nothing in my arms.
Her skin was cold.
Her lips looked pale.
I carried her away from the freezer and dropped to one knee.
My suit jacket came off.
I wrapped it around her.
“I’ve got you, baby. You’re safe now.”
She clung to my shirt.
Her whole body trembled against me.
I rubbed her arms through the jacket.
“Look at me.”
She tried.
Her breathing came fast.
Too fast.
“Slow.”
“I’m cold.”
“I know.”
I pressed her against my chest.
“Ambulance is coming.”
I had already hit emergency call on my phone while running.
The dispatcher remained connected on speaker.
“Sir, keep her out of the freezer and use dry insulation. Do not apply direct high heat.”
“I understand.”
I did.
I also understood something worse.
Someone had chained the freezer shut.
Lily could not have locked herself inside.
I looked toward the house.
The kitchen door stood open.
Curtains moved in the breeze.
My wife’s car was in the driveway.
Emma should have been home.
My mother should have been with her.
“Lily.”
She buried her face against me.
“What happened, sweetheart?”
Her fingers tightened.
“Grandma was mad.”
My pulse changed.
“Where is Grandma?”
Lily looked at the house.
Then the freezer.
Fear returned so sharply that I felt it through her body.
“Sweetheart.”
Her eyes met mine.
“She locked me in there…”
Her voice cracked.
“…because I saw what she did to Mom.”
Every violent instinct I had ever learned to control moved behind my ribs.
I kept my voice quiet.
“What did you see?”
Lily opened her mouth.
The back door slammed.
Footsteps.
Fast.
I stood with Lily in my arms.
A shadow crossed the kitchen window.
Someone was running through the house.
I moved toward the garage entrance.
Then stopped.
My daughter came first.
Always.
“Dispatcher.”
“Yes, sir?”
“Someone is inside the residence.”
“Do not enter if you believe there may be danger.”
I looked at Lily.
“Is Mom inside?”
She shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
“What happened after Grandma got angry?”
Lily started crying harder.
“I can’t.”
“Okay.”
I stopped.
No interrogation.
No forcing a traumatized child to relive something because I was desperate.
Sirens sounded at the end of the street.
The shadow disappeared.
Thirty seconds later, Deputy Claire Monroe came through the side gate with another officer.
I raised one hand.
“My daughter was locked in the freezer.”
Monroe looked at the chain.
Then Lily.
“Who did it?”
Lily whispered:
“Grandma.”
“Where is Grandma?”
“I don’t know.”
“Your wife?”
“Missing.”
Monroe’s expression sharpened.
“Name?”
“Emma Hale.”
She radioed immediately.
Medical first.
Search second.
An ambulance pulled in.
Paramedics took Lily from me only after she agreed.
I stayed beside her.
One paramedic checked her temperature.
Pulse.
Breathing.
Mental status.
“She’s alert.”
“Is she hypothermic?”
“Cold stress at minimum. We’ll assess at the hospital.”
Lily reached for me.
I took her hand.
Then Deputy Monroe approached.
“Mr. Hale.”
“Yes?”
“We cleared the first floor.”
“And?”
“No one.”
“Second?”
“Working.”
Then she held something in a gloved hand.
A broken phone.
Emma’s.
Screen shattered.
Found beneath the kitchen table.
My stomach turned.
Monroe said:
“There is also blood on the tile.”
Not enough to tell me whose.
Enough to change everything.
I looked at Lily.
She heard.
Her fingers closed around mine.
“Daddy…”
“I’m here.”
Her eyes moved toward the house.
“Grandma said Mom was never coming back.”
I stopped breathing.
Then Lily whispered one more thing.
“She said you would believe her.”
May you like
That was the first lie my mother had prepared.
And I had no idea yet how many others were waiting inside my house.
