Chapter 4 - The Vanishing Act
Panic surged through Sarah’s veins. She glanced at the rearview mirror; red and blue lights were already flashing faintly in the far distance, approaching down the interstate.
“Who are you?” Sarah demanded into the phone, her voice frantic.
“Someone who wants Bianca and Arthur behind bars as much as you do,” the caller answered flatly. “Leave the car. Ditch your cell phone. Walk behind the car wash, through the chain-link fence. There is an alleyway leading to an abandoned diner.”
Sarah didn’t have the luxury of skepticism. She immediately unbuckled Lily, pulled her hood up, and grabbed the medical duffle. Abandoning her own purse and phone in the glove compartment, she slipped out into the freezing night, keeping low behind the row of vacuum bays.
Lily stayed miraculously quiet, clutching Sarah’s neck with tiny, freezing fingers. They squeezed through the rusted tear in the chain-link fence, ducking into the overgrown brush behind the commercial strip. Behind them, two police cruisers swarmed the gas station, tires screeching as officers drew their sidearms around her empty vehicle.
Slipping through the shadows of the muddy alley, Sarah approached the rusted rear entrance of the shuttered diner. The heavy metal door stood slightly ajar, casting a single sliver of warm light across the puddle-covered pavement.
May you like
Sarah pushed it open cautiously, stepping inside the musty kitchen.
Standing beside the stainless steel counter was a woman in a dark trench coat, dripping wet, holding an open umbrella. When she turned around, Sarah gasped. It was Bianca’s former corporate attorney, Clara Vance—a woman who was supposed to have died in a car accident six months ago.
