Chapter 4
The police traced the call to a tower north of the city.
Silver Lake was north.
Detective Ortiz ordered officers toward the area, but she warned Daniel that the signal covered more than forty square miles.
“I’m going,” Daniel said.
“No.”
“She has my daughter.”
“And she wants you frightened enough to make mistakes.”
“I can’t sit here.”
“You can help by telling us everything you know about that cabin.”
“I’ve never been there.”
Ethan tugged Daniel’s sleeve.
“I have.”
Daniel stared at him.
“When?”
“Vanessa took us.”
The hallway fell silent.
“She said we were going camping,” Ethan continued. “You were in Boston.”
Daniel remembered the trip.
Vanessa had sent photographs of the children smiling beside a tent.
He had never asked where they were.
“What happened at the cabin?” Ortiz asked.
Ethan looked at the floor.
“She kept asking Maya about Mommy.”
“What questions?”
“She wanted to know what Maya remembered. Maya said there was a loud noise in the garage. Vanessa got angry.”
“Did she hurt Maya?”
Ethan swallowed.
“She put her in a closet.”
Daniel turned away, fighting rage.
Ortiz placed a hand on Ethan’s shoulder.
“Can you describe the cabin?”
“It’s green. There’s a broken boat behind it. And train tracks near the lake.”
That detail narrowed the search.
Only one section of Silver Lake had tracks close to the water.
Ortiz sent the location to patrol units.
Grant was questioned in another room.
He denied owning a cabin.
Property records showed the land belonged to a company called North Star Holdings.
The blue notebook listed payments to North Star.
Grant’s denial collapsed.
He asked for an attorney.
“You are an attorney,” Ortiz reminded him.
“Then I’m invoking my right to remain silent.”
Daniel paced the courthouse office.
Rebecca approached him.
“The judge suspended the guardianship hearing. Vanessa’s petition is dead.”
“I don’t care about the hearing.”
“I know. But Grant used it to create the opening for the kidnapping. We need to understand how.”
Ethan looked through the office window.
“Dr. Hale told them.”
Daniel turned.
“What?”
“Vanessa used to call Grant after my appointments. She told him everything I said.”
Ortiz requested Hale’s phone records.
Then Daniel’s phone rang again.
Vanessa.
Ortiz signaled for him to answer.
“Where is Maya?”
“She’s safe for now.”
“Let me hear her.”
A rustle followed.
Then Maya whispered, “Daddy?”
“I’m here, sweetheart.”
“I’m in the dark.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“You’re going to be okay.”
“Ethan said you always find us.”
Ethan began crying silently.
Daniel forced his voice to remain steady.
“He’s right.”
Vanessa returned to the call.
“Get the ledger.”
“You know I can’t take evidence from the police.”
“You have friends. You have money. Find a way.”
“What is in the missing pages?”
Vanessa went quiet.
“That’s what this is about, isn’t it?” Daniel said. “Claire removed pages before hiding the notebook.”
“You don’t know anything.”
“You killed her for those pages.”
“I did not kill Claire.”
The answer came too quickly.
Ortiz wrote something on a pad.
Then she held it toward Daniel.
Ask who did.
Daniel’s mouth went dry.
“Did Grant kill her?”
Vanessa laughed once.
It sounded bitter.
“My brother has never had the courage to do anything himself.”
“Then who tampered with the brakes?”
Silence.
A child cried in the background.
Daniel gripped the phone.
“Vanessa, listen to me. Whatever happened years ago, Maya had nothing to do with it.”
“She remembers too much.”
“She was a baby.”
“She remembers the bracelet.”
Daniel looked at Ortiz.
Vanessa continued.
“She remembers my voice. She remembers Grant carrying her. She remembers more every year.”
“You married me to stay close to her.”
“I married you because I deserved the life Claire stole from me.”
“Claire didn’t steal anything.”
“She took my job. She accused me of theft. She ruined my name.”
“Because you were stealing.”
“I was taking what I earned.”
“You stole from children.”
“Those children were going to inherit more money than they could spend in ten lifetimes.”
Maya cried out.
Vanessa snapped at her to be quiet.
Daniel’s control broke.
“If you touch her, I will spend the rest of my life making sure you never see daylight again.”
Vanessa became calm.
“That sounds like a threat. Maybe I should record it for the judge.”
Ortiz shook her head, warning him.
Daniel lowered his voice.
“Tell me where to bring the notebook.”
“You’ll get instructions.”
The call ended.
Ortiz immediately contacted the tactical team.
They had identified three cabins near the train tracks.
Police would approach carefully.
Daniel was ordered to stay at the courthouse.
He lasted twelve minutes.
Then Ethan walked toward the door.
“Where are you going?” Daniel asked.
“To find Maya.”
“The police are finding her.”
“They don’t know about the tunnel.”
“What tunnel?”
Ethan stopped.
“There’s an old storm tunnel under the tracks. Vanessa showed it to Grant. She said it went behind the cabin.”
Ortiz had already left.
Daniel called her.
She did not answer.
He told Rebecca to stay with Grant and Dr. Hale.
Then he took Ethan to his car.
“This is dangerous,” Daniel said.
“I know.”
“You stay in the car when we arrive.”
“No.”
“That is not a request.”
Ethan looked at him.
“If Maya is in the closet, I know where the key is.”
Daniel stopped arguing.
They drove north.
Rain began before they reached Silver Lake.
The police had blocked the main road two miles from the cabins.
Daniel parked near an abandoned gas station and called Ortiz again.
This time she answered.
“Where are you?”
“Near the lake.”
“I told you to stay back.”
“Ethan knows about a storm tunnel.”
Ortiz went silent.
“Send me your location. Do not move.”
But Ethan was already staring through the rain.
“That’s Dr. Hale’s car.”
A gray sedan sat behind the gas station.
The driver’s door was open.
Bloodless fingers gripped the edge of the seat.
Daniel approached carefully.
Dr. Hale lay on the ground.
He was alive, but barely conscious.
“She lied,” he whispered.
“Vanessa?”
“She said she only wanted the girl for an hour.”
“Where is Maya?”
Hale pointed toward a trail.
“Grant came. They fought. He took the child.”
Daniel’s heart stopped.
“Grant was at the courthouse.”
“He left through the loading dock.”
Daniel called Ortiz.
She confirmed Grant had vanished from the interview room during the confusion. A guard had found a ceiling panel open.
Hale grabbed Daniel’s sleeve.
“He’ll kill Vanessa too.”
“Why?”
“The missing pages.”
“What’s on them?”
Hale struggled to speak.
“Names. Judges. Police. Everyone Grant paid.”
A gunshot echoed across the lake.
Ethan ran toward the trail.
Daniel caught him.
“Stay behind me.”
They moved through the trees until they saw the green cabin.
The front door stood open.
Vanessa was on the porch, one hand pressed against her shoulder. Her face was twisted with panic.
“He took Maya,” she said.
“Where?”
Vanessa pointed toward the old tracks.
“Grant thinks she knows where Claire hid the pages.”
Daniel stepped toward her.
Vanessa grabbed his arm.
“You don’t understand. He won’t let her live after she tells him.”
Ethan pulled away and ran toward a concrete drainage tunnel beneath the tracks.
Daniel followed.
Inside, the tunnel split in two directions.
A child’s sob echoed from the darkness.
Then Grant shouted.
“Tell me where your mother put the envelope!”
Maya cried, “I don’t know!”
Daniel moved toward the voice.
Ethan stopped him.
“He has a gun.”
Daniel looked down.
Ethan pointed to a rusted valve above them.
“At the cabin, Vanessa said this opens the lake drain.”
Daniel understood.
The tunnel floor was dry, but a narrow channel ran through its center.
If they opened the valve, water would rush toward Grant.
It might distract him.
It could also endanger Maya.
Daniel heard Grant shouting again.
“Your mother showed you!”
“No!”
A flashlight beam appeared around the bend.
Daniel lifted Ethan into a recessed space in the wall.
“Stay here.”
He climbed the ladder beside the valve.
It resisted.
He pulled harder.
Metal screamed.
The valve turned.
Water exploded into the channel.
Grant cursed.
Maya screamed.
Daniel ran around the bend.
Grant stood knee-deep in rushing water, holding Maya with one arm and a gun with the other.
“Stop!” Grant shouted.
Daniel did not.
Grant aimed.
Before he could fire, Ethan threw a rock from the darkness.
It struck Grant’s wrist.
The gun fell into the water.
Maya bit Grant’s arm.
He released her.
Daniel lunged forward and caught his daughter.
Grant tried to reach the gun, but the current swept it into a drain.
Police lights flashed beyond the far opening.
Ortiz’s voice thundered through the tunnel.
“Hands where we can see them!”
Grant raised his hands.
Daniel carried Maya toward Ethan.
The children collided in the water and held each other.
Vanessa appeared at the tunnel entrance behind the officers.
She pointed at Grant.
“He planned everything!”
Grant laughed.
“You brought the child here.”
“You forced me.”
“You married Daniel for access to the trust.”
“And you killed Claire!”
Every officer went still.
Grant’s face changed.
Vanessa realized what she had said.
Ortiz stepped closer.
“Who killed Claire?”
Grant looked at Vanessa.
May you like
Then he smiled.
“Ask Daniel’s mother.”
