And for the first time since arriving, genuine fear crossed his face.
Daniel saw it.
That was the moment he realized there was something much larger happening.
Michael wasn’t afraid of the police.
He was afraid of the man at the back door.
Daniel moved toward the interior security door.
“Stay here,” he told Emma.
“Don’t leave Olivia.”
“I won’t.”
He reached the rear hallway.
The stranger stood motionless behind the glass.
Daniel could finally see his badge.
Federal.
Not local.
Daniel unlocked the inner door but kept the exterior door secured.
“Identify yourself.”
The man showed his credentials.
“Special Agent Marcus Hale.”
Daniel frowned.
“Federal agency?”
Hale looked past him.
Toward the girls.
Then he lowered his voice.
“You have no idea what you’ve walked into.”
Daniel stared at him.
“Then start explaining.”
Hale glanced toward the front entrance.
Michael was still standing there.
Watching.
“Not here.”
“Why?”
“Because the man outside isn’t the person you’re supposed to be worried about.”
Daniel looked back at the girls.
Hale’s face had gone pale.
“You need to ask Olivia what she swallowed.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“She may not be able to tell us.”
“She doesn’t need to tell you.”
Hale paused.
“She needs to show you.”
Daniel didn’t understand.
Then Olivia suddenly screamed.
Both men turned.
Emma was holding her sister.
Olivia’s body had gone rigid.
Her eyes were wide.
Her hands were pressed against her stomach.
And she whispered something no one expected.
“It’s moving.”
Daniel rushed back toward them.
Emma looked up at him.
“Officer…”
“What?”
She pointed at Olivia’s stomach.
“Daddy said it would find the other one.”
Daniel froze.
“What other one?”
Emma looked toward the front doors.
Then toward the federal agent.
“I don’t know.”
Olivia began crying.
And from somewhere inside the station, Daniel heard the unmistakable sound of the front door unlocking.
Michael had found another way in.
Part 3 — What the Girls Had Been Carrying
Part 3 — What the Girls Had Been Carrying
The deadbolt turned.
Daniel spun toward the front entrance.
The door opened two inches.
Then stopped against the interior latch.
Michael’s hand appeared through the gap.
“Daniel,” he said calmly.
The officer stared at him.
“You’re going to open this door.”
“No.”
Michael’s voice remained strangely controlled.
“You don’t understand what’s happening.”
“I understand that two children came here asking for protection.”
“They’re confused.”
“Olivia is sick.”
“She has a condition.”
“You said they wandered away after refusing medicine.”
Michael’s eyes shifted.
Just for a second.
That was enough.
Daniel saw it.
“You told dispatch they were missing,” Daniel said.
Michael swallowed.
“They were.”
“You also told them they refused their medicine.”
“Yes.”
“Then why does your daughter say you told her not to tell anyone what you gave Olivia?”
Michael stared at him.
Behind Daniel, Olivia began crying again.
Michael heard it.
His face changed.
Not anger.
Pain.
Real pain.
And for one second Daniel wondered if he had misunderstood everything.
Then Michael said quietly:
“She wasn’t supposed to wake up.”
Silence.
Emma screamed.
Daniel stepped in front of the girls.
Michael’s eyes widened.
“I didn’t mean—”
The sentence died.
The rear agent moved into the hallway.
“Michael Carter,” Hale said. “Step away from the door.”
Michael looked at him.
“You don’t know what you’re doing.”
“I know exactly what I’m doing.”
“No.”
Michael shook his head.
“You don’t.”
Hale’s expression hardened.
“You put your daughter in danger.”
Michael closed his eyes.
“I was trying to save her.”
Daniel looked between them.
“Save her from what?”
Neither man answered.
Olivia suddenly coughed.
Then she vomited onto the floor.
Emma cried out.
Daniel immediately called for medical assistance again.
This time, the dispatcher said an ambulance was one minute away.
Daniel knelt beside Olivia.
“Stay with me.”
Her eyes fluttered.
“Officer…”
“I’m here.”
“Daddy didn’t…”
She struggled to breathe.
“He didn’t want me to swallow it.”
Daniel stopped.
“What?”
Olivia’s lips trembled.
“He made me.”
Emma squeezed her hand.
“But then…”
Olivia stared toward her father.
“He cried.”
Michael’s face collapsed.
The anger disappeared.
The strength disappeared.
He looked like a man who had been carrying something impossibly heavy and had finally dropped it.
“I didn’t have a choice,” he whispered.
Hale stepped closer.
“You always had a choice.”
Michael shook his head.
“No.”
He looked at his daughters.
“You don’t understand what they threatened to do.”
Daniel stood.
“Who?”
Michael said nothing.
“Who threatened you?”
Still nothing.
Then Emma spoke.
“They said they’d take Olivia.”
Everyone looked at her.
Emma wiped her eyes.
“Daddy said bad people would take her if he didn’t do what they wanted.”
Daniel looked at Hale.
Hale didn’t react.
That worried him.
“What people?” Daniel asked.
Emma shook her head.
“They wore masks.”
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where did you see them?”
Emma hesitated.
“On Daddy’s phone.”
Daniel looked at Michael.
Michael lowered his head.
Daniel stepped toward him.
“Give me the phone.”
Michael didn’t move.
“Give me the phone.”
Slowly, Michael held it through the doorway.
Daniel took it.
The screen was cracked.
There was one message open.
No name.
No number.
Only a photograph.
Daniel looked at it.
His stomach turned.
It showed Olivia asleep in a hospital bed.
But the photograph wasn’t recent.
It was dated six months earlier.
Daniel looked at Michael.
“Where was this taken?”
Michael’s eyes filled with tears.
“Children’s Memorial.”
Daniel looked again.
Olivia had been hospitalized six months earlier.
For a severe unexplained illness.
But there was something else in the photograph.
A small mark on her wrist.
A circular bruise.
Daniel looked at Olivia’s wrist now.
There was the same mark.
Fresh.
Almost invisible beneath the sleeve of her hoodie.
He pulled the sleeve back carefully.
Emma gasped.
“That’s where Daddy put it.”
Daniel looked at Michael.
“What did you put inside her?”
Michael shook his head.
“I didn’t know what it was.”
“You gave it to her.”
“They told me it would keep her alive.”
“You don’t know what it was?”
“No.”
Hale finally spoke.
“That is the truth.”
Daniel turned.
“You knew?”
Hale nodded.
“We’ve been investigating the people who supplied it.”
“Then why didn’t you stop this?”
“Because we didn’t know Michael was being forced to participate.”
Daniel stared at him.
“Why were you at my station?”
Hale looked toward the girls.
“Because the moment Olivia arrived here, the people monitoring her knew.”
Daniel felt cold.
“How?”
Hale pointed toward the syringe.
“The syringe isn’t the dangerous part.”
Daniel looked at the evidence envelope.
“What is?”
“The code.”
Daniel frowned.
“The pharmacy code?”