CHAPTER 4 — THE PLAYGROUND
CHAPTER 4 — THE PLAYGROUND
By midnight, Riverside Park was surrounded by police tape.
Floodlights illuminated every path.
Crime scene technicians combed through the grass inch by inch.
Detective Monroe insisted I stay at the command vehicle.
Lily refused.
"If Mommy stays..."
She wrapped herself around my arm.
"So do I."
Nobody could separate us.
The park looked ordinary.
Children's swings.
Slides.
Benches.
Tall oak trees swaying in the summer wind.
Yet every officer there knew its history.
Six years earlier...
Anna Sullivan's body had supposedly been discovered beneath one of those trees.
The case had never been solved.
No witnesses.
No suspect.
Only unanswered questions.
Now Lily had brought them back.
A forensic technician called out.
"Detective!"
Everyone hurried over.
Near the old swing set, someone had recently disturbed the soil.
Fresh.
Within the last twenty-four hours.
The team began digging.
Only a few inches down, the shovel struck metal.
Clang.
A locked steel box.
It was carried carefully to the evidence table.
Inside...
More photographs.
Hundreds of them.
All of me.
Arranged by year.
From five years ago...
Until this morning.
Every movement.
Every routine.
Every holiday.
Every birthday.
Every visit to my parents.
Someone knew my entire life.
Then Monroe lifted the final photograph.
It had been taken today.
Inside the grocery store.
Before Lily ever approached me.
Which meant...
The photographer had been inside the store.
Watching.
Beneath the photographs lay a small notebook.
The first page contained only one sentence.
Subject remains unaware. Continue Observation.
Every page after that described my life in disturbing detail.
Day 114
Subject eats lunch alone every Thursday.
Day 298
Subject cries after visiting cemetery.
Day 601
Subject still wears engagement ring on necklace.
I instinctively reached beneath my shirt.
The silver ring was still hanging there.
Hidden.
No one could have seen it.
Unless...
They had watched me inside my own apartment.
The final page wasn't typed.
It was handwritten.
The ink looked fresh.
Almost wet.
It read:
Phase One complete.
Mother and child reunited.
Phase Two begins tonight.
Before anyone could react—
Every floodlight around the playground shut off simultaneously.
Darkness crashed over the park.
Officers shouted.
Flashlights flicked on.
Then came the unmistakable sound of a child's laughter.
Not Lily's.
Another child.
Somewhere deep among the trees.
Lily's face turned white.
She grabbed my hand so tightly it hurt.
"They found us," she whispered.
A beam of light swept across the woods.
For less than a second...
A woman dressed in white stood between the trees.
Long blonde hair.
Bare feet.
Watching us.
Then she smiled.
And vanished into the darkness.
Detective Monroe sprinted after her with three officers.
But seconds later, a gunshot echoed through the park.
Then another.
May you like
Then Monroe's desperate voice crackled over the radio:
"Officer down! We have an officer down... and the suspect isn't alone!"
