Chapter 6
We left before sunrise.
Daniel insisted we wait for the detective.
Robert agreed.
I didn’t.
Every minute made my stomach hurt.
“What if Miles gets there first?”
Daniel looked at me from the driver’s seat.
“If somebody is watching the place, that’s exactly why we shouldn’t walk in alone.”
“I know where the box is.”
“And you’re going to show us.”
“What if they find it?”
Daniel reached back and squeezed my knee.
“We’ll handle it.”
Nobody had ever said we’ll handle it and made me believe them.
The detective met us at a gas station outside Bowling Green.
Her name was Detective Lena Ortiz.
She was calm.
Not fake calm.
Real calm.
She didn’t speak to me like I was five.
She asked questions and waited for the answers.
“Do you feel safe going back there?”
I nodded.
“With Daniel.”
Daniel looked out the window.
He didn’t want anyone to see how much that answer affected him.
Miss June’s old house sat at the end of a narrow road.
The grass was high.
Two trash cans had fallen near the porch.
No car.
Detective Ortiz went first.
She knocked.
Nobody answered.
A neighbor came outside.
“Looking for Dean?”
“Dean Carter?” Ortiz asked.
“Yeah.”
“That’s Miss June’s nephew,” I said.
The neighbor nodded.
“He hasn’t been around in a couple days.”
Daniel frowned.
“Do you know where he went?”
“No.”
The woman looked at me.
Then her eyes widened.
“Caleb?”
I recognized her.
Mrs. Landry.
She had given Mom soup once.
“Oh my Lord.”
She rushed down her driveway and hugged me.
“I thought something happened to you.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“You knew him?”
“I knew Sarah.”
“What happened after she died?”
Mrs. Landry glared at the house.
“Dean happened.”
I looked down.
Daniel noticed.
“What did he do?”
“He moved in before Sarah had been buried a week.”
Mrs. Landry lowered her voice.
“Said the lease was in June’s name and everything belonged to the family.”
“It didn’t,” I said.
Mom paid the rent.
Mrs. Landry nodded.
“I know, sweetheart.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Did you see him throw Caleb out?”
“No.”
She looked furious.
“If I had, he wouldn’t have gotten away with it.”
Detective Ortiz asked about the shed.
Mrs. Landry pointed.
“It was broken into last week.”
“When?”
“Maybe Tuesday night.”
My stomach dropped.
That was after I had left.
We walked around the house.
The shed door hung crooked.
Daniel stayed beside me.
Ortiz went in first.
The inside had been torn apart.
Boxes opened.
Old tools on the floor.
A mattress ripped.
“Where was yours?” Daniel asked.
I pointed toward the back wall.
“Under there.”
An old workbench sat against it.
I got on my knees.
Daniel stopped me.
“I’ll do it.”
“There’s a loose board.”
I showed him.
He pulled it away.
Behind the board was a narrow space.
Empty.
My chest tightened.
“It’s gone.”
Daniel swore.
I felt tears immediately.
“No.”
“Caleb.”
“No, no, no.”
He crouched.
“I put it here.”
“I believe you.”
“It had Mom’s stuff.”
“I know.”
“It had everything.”
I started pulling at the other boards.
“Maybe it fell.”
Daniel caught my hands gently.
“Caleb.”
“Let me look!”
I fought him.
Not because I thought he was hurting me.
Because panic was stronger than reason.
“Let me go!”
He released me instantly.
I ripped another board away.
Dust filled my nose.
Nothing.
Then Mrs. Landry called from outside.
“Detective!”
We ran out.
She was pointing toward the fence.
A small security camera faced the shed from her garage.
“I forgot my son installed that.”
Detective Ortiz looked at her.
“How far back does it record?”
“Thirty days, I think.”
Within twenty minutes, we were in Mrs. Landry’s kitchen watching footage.
Tuesday.
11:43 p.m.
A dark SUV pulled behind the house.
One man got out.
Baseball cap.
Heavy build.
He walked straight to the shed.
My skin went cold.
“That’s Miles.”
Daniel stared at the screen.
“You’re sure?”
“He walks like that.”
Detective Ortiz paused the footage.
The man turned enough for the camera to catch his neck.
Snake tattoo.
Daniel stood so fast his chair scraped backward.
Ortiz raised a hand.
“Let me handle this.”
“He took Sarah’s evidence.”
“We don’t know what he took.”
“I do,” I said.
Everyone looked at me.
“He took the blue box.”
The video showed Miles leaving twelve minutes later.
Something was tucked under his arm.
Blue.
Daniel’s hands clenched.
Then another person stepped out of the passenger side.
Vanessa.
Robert whispered, “No.”
She was visible for only five seconds.
But it was her.
Same hair.
Same coat.
She opened the passenger door for Miles.
Then they drove away.
Detective Ortiz copied the video.
“We have enough to bring them both in for questioning.”
“Questioning?” Daniel snapped. “She has been stalking Sarah for years.”
“We need evidence.”
“We have evidence.”
“We have pieces.”
Daniel’s voice rose.
“Pieces?”
I touched his arm.
He stopped.
Looked down.
I shook my head.
He understood.
He took a slow breath.
“Fine.”
Ortiz looked at me.
“Caleb, did your mom ever make copies of what was in the box?”
I nodded.
Daniel stared.
“She did?”
“She said never keep only one copy.”
“Where’s the other one?”
“I don’t know.”
He blinked.
“Caleb.”
“She didn’t tell me.”
“Why?”
“She said if I knew, somebody could make me tell.”
Ortiz and Daniel exchanged a look.
Smart.
Terrifying.
Mom had known she was in danger.
Robert sat beside me.
“What exactly was inside?”
“Pictures. Papers. A little recorder.”
“A recorder?”
Daniel leaned forward.
“What kind?”
“Silver.”
“What was on it?”
“Mom talking.”
“About Vanessa?”
I nodded.
“And Miles.”
“What did she say?”
“I don’t know everything.”
“You heard it?”
“Some.”
I closed my eyes.
Memory came back in pieces.
Mom sitting at the kitchen table late at night.
Pressing a red button.
Her voice shaking.
“My name is Sarah Bennett. If anyone finds this…”
I opened my eyes.
“She said she had proof.”
“Proof of what?” Ortiz asked.
“That Vanessa threatened her.”
Daniel rubbed his face.
“Anything else?”
I hesitated.
Mom’s warning returned.
Never tell anyone about the hospital unless it’s Daniel himself.
I looked at him.
“There was a hospital.”
His face changed.
“What hospital?”
“When I was born.”
Robert leaned forward.
“What about it?”
“Mom said something happened there.”
Daniel’s voice softened.
“What?”
“She said Vanessa came.”
Nobody spoke.
Daniel looked at Robert.
“That’s impossible.”
Robert’s face had gone white.
“No.”
“What?”
Robert stared at me.
“The death certificate listed a hospital.”
Daniel stood.
“You said it was fake.”
“The certificate was fake.”
Robert swallowed.
“But the hospital was real.”
Detective Ortiz immediately took notes.
“What hospital?”
“Saint Matthew’s.”
I remembered the name.
“Mom said that too.”
Daniel paced.
“So Vanessa knew where Sarah gave birth.”
“Yes.”
Ortiz looked at me.
“Did Sarah say what Vanessa did?”
I closed my eyes again.
Mom’s voice.
A winter night.
Rain on the windows.
She thought I was sleeping.
She was speaking into the recorder.
“I woke up and my baby was gone.”
My eyes opened.
I looked at Daniel.
“She said someone took me.”
He stopped pacing.
“What?”
“After I was born.”
Robert gripped the table.
I continued.
“Mom woke up and I wasn’t beside her.”
Daniel looked sick.
“What happened?”
“She screamed until a nurse came.”
“Where were you?”
“I don’t know.”
Detective Ortiz asked, “Did she get you back?”
I nodded.
“She said a nurse found me in another part of the hospital.”
“What part?”
I shook my head.
Daniel whispered, “Vanessa.”
Ortiz held up a hand.
“We don’t assume.”
Then her phone rang.
She answered.
Listened.
Her expression changed.
“When?”
Silence.
“Send me the address.”
She hung up.
“What?” Daniel asked.
Ortiz looked at Robert.
“Your wife’s car was found abandoned twenty miles north of Nashville.”
Robert stood.
“Where is she?”
“We don’t know.”
“And Miles?”
“His phone is off.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“They know we found the video.”
Ortiz nodded.
“Possibly.”
My stomach twisted.
Then my phone rang.
Everyone froze.
It was an old prepaid phone Miss June had given me.
Only three people had ever known the number.
Mom.
Miss June.
Dean.
The screen showed UNKNOWN.
Daniel reached for it.
“Don’t answer.”
But something made me.
I pressed the button.
“Hello?”
For three seconds, nobody spoke.
Then a man’s voice said, “Caleb?”
I recognized him instantly.
Miles.
Daniel grabbed the phone and put it on speaker.
“What do you want?”
Miles laughed softly.
“Daniel Harper.”
Daniel’s face turned cold.
“You stay away from my son.”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“On whether you want Sarah’s box back.”
Nobody moved.
Miles continued.
“I have what she left behind.”
Detective Ortiz silently signaled for us to keep him talking.
Daniel clenched his jaw.
“What do you want?”
Miles paused.
Then he said, “Vanessa lied to all of us.”
Robert leaned toward the phone.
“Where is she?”
Miles laughed again.
“You still think your wife is the one running this?”
Robert froze.
“What does that mean?”
“There’s a reason Sarah kept running for nine years.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
“Vanessa.”
“No.”
Miles lowered his voice.
“She was running from someone else.”
I stopped breathing.
Daniel looked at me.
“Who?”
May you like
Miles answered with a name that made Robert collapse into the chair.
“Your father.”
