The Child Who Would Not Be Collected
Chapter 09 - The Child Who Would Not Be Collected
Lucy crossed three backyards before Caleb Rusk saw her.
She climbed through a gap beneath a wooden fence, tore the sleeve of her borrowed coat, and reached a convenience store near the highway.
The cashier found her hiding behind cases of bottled water.
Lucy remembered Mara’s instructions: never trust a uniform, a large car, or an adult who already knows your name.
So when the cashier offered to call police, Lucy refused.
She asked for Naomi Cole instead.
Naomi arrived twenty minutes later with two state officers and a body camera running. Rusk’s vehicle had already disappeared.
The foster agency denied ordering any transfer.
Richard called the attempted abduction a misunderstanding.
Henry heard about it while driving north.
He turned the car around.
At the police station, Lucy sat beneath a gray blanket drinking hot chocolate. When Henry entered, she did not run to him.
“You gave me away.”
“The court took you.”
“You let it.”
The accusation was unfair and completely understandable.
Henry sat across from her.
“I found your mother’s letter.”
Lucy’s hands stopped moving.
“She is alive?”
“I believe so.”
“Where?”
“Vermont.”
Lucy pushed the hot chocolate aside. “Then why are we sitting here?”
Naomi almost smiled.
Henry requested protective custody for Lucy under an independent judge. The attempted transfer and evidence of laboratory tampering weakened Richard’s position. The judge allowed Lucy to remain with Naomi while investigators verified the Vermont clinic.
Richard’s lawyers tried to block the search warrant.
That effort revealed his fear.
North Lake Behavioral Center occupied an old private estate surrounded by pine forest. Its records listed a long-term patient named Anna Mercer, admitted eleven years earlier for severe delusions and identity confusion.
Her date of birth matched Claire’s.
The clinic director claimed Anna had no living relatives and refused all contact.
Rebecca obtained a federal warrant based on unlawful confinement and insurance fraud.
When agents entered the clinic, Anna Mercer’s room was empty.
Her bed was still warm.
A nurse admitted that a transport team removed her less than an hour earlier.
The destination field contained only two words:
PARIS WINTER.
Henry stared at the empty room.
May you like
Richard had moved Claire again.
This time, he intended to make sure no one found her.
