The Kindergarten Ransom

I leaned against the wall and sneered, "You tore apart a junkyard looking for a rich man's lost watch, but when it came to a living child who had been missing for seven days, there were no leads?"

William fell silent at my accusation. "Ms. Brown, maybe your daughter is still nearby," he said.

For a moment, I couldn't process the suggestion. My daughter had last been seen here. I had searched every cupboard, the bathrooms, and every corner, but there was no sign of her.

"The cameras cover everything except the restrooms. We suspect she was taken through the restrooms. Ms. Brown, give yourself up. The police will get to the truth," William said.

The restroom. I replayed the layout in my head. The kindergarten's bathroom wasn't split by gender. It had only two tiny stalls and a small exhaust fan.

I looked toward the restrooms and couldn't help but feel that something about the fan was nagging at me. However, I couldn't put my finger on what was strange.

I licked my dry lips. "Ten minutes left. I want results. If you can't find my daughter, they all die with her."

William closed his eyes. The detectives signaled the snipers behind. If there was a chance, they could shoot.

"If my daughter were taken through the bathroom, there must be a secret passage linking it to the outside. Dear officers, I hope you find it soon. Even if you arrest me afterward, it will have been worth it," I said.

I had suspected that my daughter was taken through the bathroom from the start. A secret door would have left traces. I was just an ordinary woman. I couldn't find it, so I left it to the experts.

I lowered my gaze. Everything was unfolding exactly as I had planned.

The seconds on the watch ticked on. I waved a little girl over. "Tina, do you want to play a game with me?"

Five minutes left. The police kept talking themselves hoarse; William talked himself hoarse.

"Ms. Brown, don't be hasty. The entire city's force is mobilized for this. Not just us, kind people are helping, too. If you stand down now, your daughter will still be able to see her mom!"

"One minute left. Looks like you haven't found my daughter." With that, I drew back the curtain, used the little girl's body as a shield, and slit her throat with a knife.

The child made no sound. Her head went limp. The clean window glass turned red from the spray of blood.

I stepped back and, with a voice as calm as ice, announced over a loudspeaker, "The first child is dead. You're too slow."

The parents outside screamed and wept. It all happened so fast that no one saw who I had taken with me.

My back was slick with cold sweat. I knew the snipers had me in their sights even though I was hiding behind the wall.

William flung his megaphone and shouted, "You monster! I don't care what pain drove you here. You shouldn't have murdered innocent children! You're surrounded. Surrender now!"

He resorted to force when he couldn't reason with me, but I showed no panic.

"Officer, I rigged the kindergarten with explosives. If you want to avoid a massacre, hurry. I swear, if you find my daughter, I'll surrender immediately. I won't harm anyone else."

…

The moment William heard of the explosives, he almost fainted. Nobody was going to gamble on a madwoman's bluff. Even if they shot Lilian, she might set it off at the very last moment.

"Who is she? How does a woman who can get her hands on weapons and ammunition end up working as a preschool teacher?" someone muttered.

"She was a doctoral student in munitions engineering. After her husband went to prison, she came home and took a job at the kindergarten," another answered.

William asked, "Why did her husband go to prison?"

"Accidental homicide. He got out seven days ago and is missing now," someone answered.

It had been seven days since Lucas Baker's release—and seven days since his daughter disappeared. The coincidence landed like a weight in the room. Did he actually kidnap his own daughter?

Whether it was Lucas or not, they had to find both Lucas and Evelyn. There was no time for them to overthink. A new half-hour countdown began.

Then, the team searching the adjacent restroom came with good news. He exclaimed excitedly, "There's a hidden passage in the bathroom! And there's a child in there."

William looked up and saw a colleague carrying a child out of the restroom, clutching a ripped pink smartwatch. His eyes zeroed in on a detail: the recovered watch matched Evelyn's.

The crowd screamed. William wrapped his coat around Evelyn and shouted at me, "Lilian, you can let them go now. Your daughter has been found!"

I peered through the peephole. The child, bundled in the officer's jacket, hung one arm limply, and on that wrist was the pink smartwatch I had bought for Evelyn.

My heart pounded so hard I wanted to bolt. My hand reached for the doorknob when a message buzzed across my phone. I read it and calmed myself.