Chapter 4 - The Blue House)
Claire ran up the stairs.
Daniel called her name, but she did not stop.
The second floor hallway was narrow and dim.
Three doors.
One stood slightly open.
Claire pushed it.
A bedroom.
Empty.
The window was open.
Curtains moved in the sea breeze.
On the bed sat an old cassette recorder.
Beside it was a photograph of Claire at age nine.
Claire picked it up.
She knew the picture.
It had been taken at her school recital two weeks before Evelyn disappeared.
Claire wore a white dress.
Evelyn stood beside her.
Richard stood on the other side.
Someone had cut Richard out of this copy.
"Mom?"
No answer.
Daniel entered behind her.
"You heard it too."
"She said my name."
"I know."
They checked the bathroom.
Empty.
Then the closet.
Empty.
Claire approached the open window.
Below, the lawn sloped toward a narrow path along the water.
A gate stood open.
Someone could have left seconds earlier.
Daniel looked down.
"I'll check outside."
"No. Stay."
He looked at her.
"If someone is here, I don't want you alone."
The cassette recorder clicked.
Claire jumped.
A tape began turning.
No one had touched it.
Then Claire realized the machine had been connected to a mechanical timer.
A woman's voice emerged through the old speaker.
Weak.
Older.
But familiar.
"If you are hearing this, Claire, then Anna succeeded."
Claire sat down on the bed.
Daniel stared at the recorder.
The voice continued.
"I don't know how much you have been told. I don't know what you believe about me. I don't even know how old you are now."
Claire began crying silently.
"But I know this. I did not leave you."
Claire pressed a hand to her mouth.
"I never left you."
The tape hissed.
"I tried to come home."
Claire closed her eyes.
"I tried more than once."
A chair creaked downstairs.
Margaret and Lily remained below.
Then the recording continued.
"Your father believed he was protecting you. For a long time I tried to believe that too. But protection and possession can look very similar when fear is involved."
Daniel's face tightened.
"Richard was afraid of what I knew."
Claire leaned closer to the recorder.
"I discovered payments inside Whitmore Industries that were being routed through shell companies. The money did not belong to Richard. It belonged to pension funds, clients and employees. Millions disappeared."
Daniel whispered, "This is what your father mentioned."
The tape continued.
"When I confronted Richard, he told me I was imagining things. When I spoke to a lawyer, that lawyer told Richard."
Claire's stomach dropped.
"Marcus Reed."
Daniel's face went white.
The voice on the tape said the name.
"Marcus Reed."
Daniel stepped back as if struck.
"Marcus arranged the papers that declared me mentally incompetent. Richard signed them. Dr. Henry Mercer admitted me."
Rachel's grandfather.
Claire stared at the recorder.
"I was drugged heavily during the first months. By the time Anna Hale began working at the clinic, I could barely remember what day it was."
Claire could hear Anna crying in the background of the recording.
Then Evelyn continued.
"Anna believed me. That saved my life."
The tape crackled.
"But she could not save me from being transferred."
Claire leaned closer.
"Transferred where?"
The recording answered as if Evelyn had heard her.
"St. Orison."
Daniel frowned.
"I've never heard of it."
"Neither have I."
Evelyn continued.
"It was not a hospital. It was a private residence used for people whose families wanted them to disappear."
Claire felt sick.
"For years, I was moved between facilities under different names. Sometimes I remembered you clearly. Sometimes I could not remember myself."
The voice broke.
"But I remembered your birthday."
Claire began sobbing.
"Every year."
Daniel sat beside her and held her hand.
The recording continued.
"Anna found me again by accident last winter. She brought me here. Dr. Mercer had owned this house before his death. According to Anna, he had spent his final years regretting what he helped do to me."
Claire looked at the door.
"Why isn't she here?"
The tape seemed to slow.
"If I am gone when you hear this, it means someone found us."
Claire stood immediately.
The recording continued.
"Do not trust the official records."
Daniel looked at her.
"Claire."
"Do not trust anyone who tells you Anna died naturally."
Margaret gasped from the doorway.
Claire turned.
Margaret stood there with Lily.
"What did she say?"
The tape continued.
"Anna was frightened before she became ill. She believed someone was following her."
Margaret covered her mouth.
"No."
"She gave Lily the locket because children are often invisible to adults who think they control everything."
Claire looked at Lily.
The child stared at the recorder.
"Inside the locket is more than a photograph."
Claire grabbed it.
She examined the inside.
Daniel leaned close.
"There."
Behind the photograph was a thin metal ridge.
Claire lifted it carefully.
A second compartment opened.
Inside was a tiny brass key.
Claire pulled it out.
Evelyn's voice came from the tape.
"The key opens a deposit box at Bellwater Savings Bank."
Claire stared at the key.
"The box contains proof."
The tape hissed again.
"Proof of what happened to me."
A pause.
"And proof that Richard Whitmore was not the person who made the final decision."
Claire's heart stopped.
Daniel whispered, "What final decision?"
The tape answered.
"The decision to make me disappear permanently."
Claire stared at Daniel.
Evelyn's voice lowered.
"If you want to know who gave that order, find the document Anna called the Red Ledger."
The recording ended.
For several seconds no one moved.
Then a sound came from downstairs.
Glass breaking.
Daniel stood.
Claire looked toward the hallway.
A man's footsteps crossed the first floor.
Margaret pulled Lily close.
Daniel whispered, "Someone is in the house."
Claire closed her fingers around the brass key.
The footsteps stopped.
Then a voice called from below.
"Claire Whitmore."
Not her father's voice.
Not anyone she knew.
"Leave the key upstairs."
Daniel moved toward the door.
May you like
The man below continued.
"And the little girl walks out alive."
