The first strike of the ram barely moved the reinforced door.
Dust sifted from the ceiling.
Mary heard Lily cry out from the other side.
“You’re okay,” she called. “That noise is us. Stay away from the door.”
Jenkins swung again.
Metal groaned.
Upstairs Thomas shouted until another officer ordered him to stop.
The third blow bent part of the frame.
Still the lock held.
Daniel glanced toward Mary.
“Talk to her.”
Mary moved closer.
“Lily, are you sitting somewhere safe?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Cover your ears if you can.”
“Is Emily there?”
“She’s upstairs.”
“Is she okay?”
“Yes.”
The answer seemed to calm Lily more than any reassurance about herself.
Jenkins struck a fourth time.
The locking plate cracked.
A fifth blow tore the deadbolt loose.
Daniel held up a hand.
Everyone stopped.
He slowly pulled the door outward.
Stale air escaped from the room.
His flashlight entered first.
The space beyond was not what Mary expected.
There were no chains hanging from walls, no obvious instruments of violence, nothing resembling the crude dungeon her imagination had produced.
Instead, somebody had painted the walls pale yellow.
A small bed stood against one side.
There was a dresser.
Children’s books.
Colored pencils.
A moon-shaped night-light.
The careful imitation of a bedroom made the absence of a window more disturbing.
There was no clock.
No outside light.
No second exit.
A child could live there without knowing whether it was morning or midnight.
Lily sat in the far corner wrapped in a faded blanket.
She was painfully thin.
Her blond hair had been cut unevenly around her shoulders.
She stared at the uniforms as though she could not decide whether they were real.
Daniel lowered his flashlight.
“My name is Daniel.”
No response.
“I’m a police officer.”
Lily pulled the blanket tighter.
“We’re here to take you somewhere safe.”
Her eyes filled.
“Is he gone?”
“Who?”
“My daddy.”
Daniel exchanged a glance with Mary.
“Who is your daddy?”
Lily pointed upward.
“The man upstairs.”
“What’s his name?”
“Thomas.”
Nobody spoke for a moment.
Mary approached slowly.
“Lily, I’m Mary.”
The girl studied her uniform.
“Are you Emily’s friend?”
“I hope I can be.”
“Emily said she would tell.”
Mary felt pressure behind her eyes.
“She did.”
Lily’s face crumpled.
For the first time she began crying.
Not loudly.
The tears simply ran down her cheeks.
“She really did it.”
Mary knelt.
“Yes.”
Lily wiped her face with the blanket.
“I thought he caught her.”
Daniel looked around the room.
A calendar hung beside the bed.
Its final marked page was dated three years earlier.
Every day before a certain point had been carefully checked off.
Afterward, nothing.
“Lily,” Daniel asked, “when were you last outside?”
The girl looked confused.
“Outside where?”
“Outside the house.”
“I don’t remember.”
“Do you know what month it is?”
She shook her head.
“The year?”
Another shake.
Mary opened the dresser.
Children’s clothing had been folded with unsettling neatness.
Different sizes.
Some too small for Lily.
Others too large.
She closed the drawer without comment.
“Can you stand?”
Lily pushed herself upward using the wall.
Her knees buckled immediately.
Mary caught her.
The child looked ashamed.
“Sorry.”
“You don’t have anything to apologize for.”
“My legs don’t work good.”
“That’s why we have doctors coming.”
Lily’s eyes widened.
“No hospitals.”
“Why?”
“Daddy said doctors ask questions.”
Mary steadied her.
“Good doctors ask questions because they want to help.”
The girl considered that.
“Will they send me back?”
“No.”
“You promise?”
Mary thought about how carefully promises should be made to children who had been failed by adults.
“Yes. I promise we’re going to protect you.”
Paramedics entered minutes later.
While they examined Lily, Jenkins noticed marks scratched into the inner surface of the steel door.
Hundreds.
Some shallow.
Others deep.
One message had been carved more deliberately than the others.
A request to be found.
Another consisted of a single word.
Mom.
Daniel photographed them.
Upstairs, Detective Susan Carter arrived and took command of the expanding investigation.
She spoke briefly with Brooks before looking at Thomas.
He sat handcuffed under guard, his earlier rage replaced by complete silence.
Carter did not question him immediately.
Instead she walked outside.
Neighbors had gathered behind police tape.
Most wore pajamas or coats pulled over nightclothes.
Red and blue light moved across their faces.
Carter began asking whether anyone remembered other children at the house.
At first everyone said no.
Then Eleanor Watkins, an elderly woman from across the street, raised her hand.
“There was another little girl.”
Carter turned.
“When?”
“Four years ago, maybe.”
“Name?”
Eleanor frowned.
“Hannah. I think.”
“What happened to her?”
“Thomas said her mother took her after some kind of divorce.”
“Did you meet the mother?”
Eleanor’s expression changed.
“No.”
“Did you ever see her?”
“No.”
A man standing nearby spoke.
“There was a boy too.”
Carter looked at him.
“What boy?”
“Years back. I only saw him a couple times.”
“What happened?”
“Thomas said his sister took him out of state.”
“Did you ever meet the sister?”
The neighbor slowly shook his head.
Carter looked toward the house.
One child hidden downstairs was already a major crime.
Now there were names.
Sophie.
Hannah.
An unidentified boy.
And Rebecca, Emily’s mother.
Inside, forensic technicians began photographing the living room.
One technician brought Carter the damaged wedding portrait.
Rebecca’s face had been deliberately scratched.
Carter studied it for several seconds.
“Find out whether there’s a missing-person report.”
Daniel came upstairs.
“We have another child alive.”
“I heard.”
“She identifies Thomas as her father.”
“Biological?”
“No idea.”
“Condition?”
“Malnourished. Weak. She may have been confined for years.”
Carter looked toward Thomas.
He did not meet her eyes.
“Anything else downstairs?”
“Children’s belongings. Writing. Clothing in multiple sizes.”
Carter exhaled.
“This isn’t starting tonight.”
“No.”
“It’s ending tonight.”
Daniel looked back toward the basement.
“I’m not sure we know that yet.”
Paramedics carried Lily upstairs.
Emily sat wrapped in a blanket beside Officer Kelly.
When she saw Lily, she stood so quickly the blanket fell away.
For a second neither girl moved.
Then Emily whispered, “I called.”
Lily began crying again.
“You did.”
Emily approached cautiously.
“I’m sorry it took so long.”
Lily reached toward her.
Their hands met.
Every adult in the room became quiet.
Thomas looked away.
Mary followed Lily toward the ambulance.
At the doors, the child pulled gently on her sleeve.
“Can I ask something?”
“Anything.”
“Do I get birthdays now?”
Mary stared at her.
“Of course.”
Lily looked uncertain.
“He said downstairs children don’t have birthdays.”
Mary took her hand.
“You’ll have birthdays.”
“How many?”
“As many as you grow old enough to have.”
The faintest smile appeared.
Then Lily looked back at the house.
It disappeared.
“There was another room.”
Mary stopped.
“Where?”
“Behind mine.”
Daniel, standing nearby, turned.
“What kind of room?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can you show us?”
Lily shook her head.
“You can’t see it anymore.”
“Why?”
“Daddy covered it.”
“With what?”
“Concrete.”
Carter had just stepped outside.
She heard the answer.
“When did he do that?”
Lily stared at the house.
“A long time ago.”
“Was someone inside?”
The girl’s breathing quickened.
Mary squeezed her hand.
“You don’t have to force yourself.”
Lily swallowed.
“There was a lady.”
Carter moved closer.
“What lady?”
“I never saw her good.”
“Did you know her name?”
“No.”
“What happened?”
Lily closed her eyes.
“She cried.”
Mary watched her carefully.
“For how long?”
“Lots of nights.”
“And then?”
“Daddy brought the other man.”
Emily suddenly began trembling beside the second ambulance.
Mary looked between the girls.
“What other man?”
Lily whispered, “The one Emily isn’t supposed to see.”
Carter’s expression hardened.
“What did they do?”
“They used loud machines.”
“When?”
“At night.”
“Then what?”
Lily opened her eyes.
“The lady stopped crying.”
Nobody moved.
The ambulance engine idled behind them.
Lily continued staring toward the basement windows.
“After that Daddy made the wall.”
Carter immediately radioed the forensic team.
“No demolition. Nobody touches the rear basement wall until we scan it.”
Brooks joined her.
“You think she’s describing a sealed room?”
“I think we treat it as one until evidence says otherwise.”
Lily was placed inside the ambulance with Emily.
Before the doors closed, Mary leaned in.
“You did well.”
Lily looked puzzled.
“I didn’t do anything.”
“You told us where to look.”
The girl glanced at Emily.
“She’s the brave one.”
Emily shook her head.
“I was scared.”
Mary answered quietly.
“Being scared doesn’t mean you weren’t brave.”
The ambulance departed.
Carter walked toward the patrol vehicle where Thomas sat handcuffed.
She opened the rear door.
“We found Lily.”
Thomas stared ahead.
“She’s alive.”
Nothing.
“We know about the room.”
His jaw moved.
Carter noticed.
“We’re scanning the wall.”
Thomas finally turned toward her.
For the first time since his arrest, he looked tired rather than angry.
“You won’t understand.”
“Try me.”
His gaze shifted toward the house.
“I took care of them.”
Carter felt something cold settle in her chest.
“Who?”
Thomas said nothing.
“How many children, Thomas?”
Silence.
“What happened to Rebecca?”
His face remained still.
“What happened to Sophie?”
Still nothing.
Carter leaned closer.
“We’re going to identify every child who entered that house.”
Thomas looked at her.
Then he spoke in a voice so quiet she almost missed it.
“I loved them.”
Carter shut the patrol-car door.
Near sunrise, specialists arrived with ground-penetrating radar.
The basement wall was scanned in overlapping sections.
Mary and Daniel watched from several feet away while a technician studied the monitor.
Then he stopped.
Brooks stepped closer.
“What?”
The technician ran the scan again.
Same result.
“There’s a cavity behind this section.”
“How large?”
“Approximately eight feet across.”
Daniel looked at the thick concrete.
“Can you tell what’s inside?”
“Not through this.”
Brooks considered the wall.
Then she gave the order.
“Open it carefully.”
Click here to continue reading: PART 5: The Sealed Basement Wall Opens at Dawn, and What Investigators Find Inside Changes the Meaning of Every Missing Name
A Frightened Child Calls 911 With Three Strange Words That Make an Experienced Dispatcher Refuse to Hang Up
Part 4 of 20
