Chapter 8 - The Man Who Saved Him
Police located Samuel’s abandoned truck near the hospital parking garage.
Inside, they found multiple identification cards, two prepaid phones, and a maintenance uniform.
Samuel Price was not his real name.
His fingerprints identified him as Samuel Rourke, a former private security contractor who had worked for Victor Hale.
Emily stared at the photograph Lena placed before her.
“He saved Noah.”
“He may have staged the rescue,” Lena said.
“Why?”
“To control where Noah was taken. To gain access to you. To recover the memory card.”
“He could have left Noah in the snow.”
“He may have needed Noah alive long enough to find the card.”
Emily looked through the glass toward her son.
Noah was awake now.
A child psychologist sat beside him, speaking gently.
“He told me a truck almost hit him,” Emily said. “He remembered headlights.”
Lena nodded.
“Rourke may have been following him.”
“Or following Arthur.”
“Possibly.”
Julian sat at the consultation table holding ice against his jaw.
“He was at Daniel’s funeral,” he said.
Emily turned.
“What?”
“I recognize him now. He stood near the cemetery gate.”
Lena wrote it down.
“Did he approach anyone?”
“No.”
Emily remembered dozens of unfamiliar faces at the service.
She had assumed they were business associates of Arthur.
A nurse entered.
“Noah is asking for you.”
Emily went to him.
His color had improved, but he looked smaller beneath the blankets.
She sat at his side.
“Hey.”
“Are Grandma and Grandpa here?”
“No.”
“Did they get arrested?”
“Grandpa is being held while the police investigate. Grandma is speaking with detectives.”
Noah stared at his wrapped hands.
“I should have stayed on the porch.”
Emily leaned forward.
“No.”
“If I stayed, none of this would happen.”
“They put you in danger. You did what you thought would keep you alive.”
“I lost one shoe.”
“That shoe helped someone find you.”
He looked at her.
“The truck man scared me.”
“What happened?”
“I reached the road, and his truck stopped.”
“Did he speak to you?”
“He asked what I had.”
Emily felt her pulse quicken.
“What did you say?”
“I said nothing.”
“What did he do?”
“He searched my backpack.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“He grabbed my arm. Then another car came.”
“What car?”
“A dark one.”
“Did you see who was driving?”
Noah closed his eyes, trying to remember.
“There was a bird on the front.”
“A bird?”
“Like Grandpa’s ring.”
Emily thought of the hawk emblem on Victor Hale’s ring.
“What happened after the car came?”
“The truck man put me near the road and drove away. Then he came back later and called the ambulance.”
So Rourke had not saved Noah by accident.
He had taken him.
Searched him.
Then returned him after failing to find the card.
“Why did you hide the memory card in your sock?”
“Dad’s note said to trust you.”
Emily swallowed tears.
“You were very brave.”
“I was scared.”
“Brave people are scared. They just keep making choices anyway.”
Noah looked toward the door.
“Mom?”
“Yes?”
“Grandma knew the necklace was in my bag.”
“I know.”
“I saw her put something in the pocket before dinner.”
Emily’s jaw tightened.
“Why didn’t you tell Arthur?”
“I did. He said I was lying.”
Noah took a shallow breath.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“When I was in the study, someone called Grandpa.”
“Did you hear the conversation?”
“Only some.”
“What did he say?”
“He said, ‘The boy found Daniel’s camera.’ Then he said, ‘Tell Caroline we have a problem.’”
Emily frowned.
“Caroline?”
Noah nodded.
“Who is Caroline?”
“I don’t know.”
Emily knew only one Caroline connected to the family.
Caroline Vale.
Daniel’s older sister.
She had supposedly died twenty-one years earlier.
A sailing accident.
Her body had never been recovered.
Emily had seen only one photograph of her, displayed in the Pine Hollow library.
Daniel rarely spoke about her.
Arthur refused to discuss her at all.
Emily looked at Noah.
“Are you sure he said Caroline?”
“Yes.”
“And did he speak as though she could hear him?”
“He was talking on the phone.”
Emily stood.
Lena waited outside.
“Arthur called someone named Caroline after learning Noah found the camera.”
Lena looked confused.
“Who is Caroline?”
“Daniel’s sister.”
“Where is she?”
“She died when she was nineteen.”
Julian dropped the ice pack.
“What?”
Emily turned toward him.
“You know something.”
Julian’s face had gone pale.
“Daniel once told me Caroline was alive.”
The corridor seemed to close around them.
“When?”
“Medical school. He was drunk and upset. He said his family had erased her.”
“Why would they do that?”
“He refused to explain. The next morning, he denied saying it.”
Lena asked, “Where would she be now?”
Julian shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Emily remembered the woman in the photograph Noah found.
The stranger standing beside Daniel the night before his death.
“Daniel met a woman before he died.”
She opened the image on her phone.
Julian stared at it.
“I’ve seen her.”
“Where?”
“At the funeral.”
Emily’s heartbeat quickened.
“Who is she?”
“She introduced herself as Clara Mercer.”
The name meant nothing to Emily.
Julian zoomed in on the woman’s hand.
A scar crossed her wrist.
“Daniel once told me Caroline had that scar from falling through a greenhouse window.”
Lena looked toward the police officers.
“Find Clara Mercer.”
A call came through from the forensic laboratory.
Rourke’s abandoned phone contained several recently deleted messages.
Technicians recovered one.
It had been sent less than an hour before the attack on Noah.
The message read:
THE CARD IS WITH EMILY. IF THE BOY WAKES, END IT.
May you like
The sender was saved under a single initial.
C.
