Chapter 7 - Daniel's Second Plan
Sarah woke fully the following afternoon.
The hospital room was quiet.
Ethan slept in a chair beside her bed.
Rebecca sat near the window.
Sarah blinked.
"How long?"
"About eighteen hours since the chapel."
Sarah turned toward Ethan.
"He opened it."
Rebecca nodded.
"He saved you."
Sarah began crying.
No sound at first.
Only tears.
Rebecca came closer.
"Sarah, investigators will want to speak with you, but not until the doctors allow it."
"Daniel?"
"Missing."
Sarah closed her eyes.
"Kessler?"
"Also missing."
"Of course."
Rebecca hesitated.
"We found the flash drive."
Sarah looked at her.
"The blue room?"
"Daniel got there first, but Ethan found the hidden compartment."
A faint smile touched Sarah's face.
"My father taught him."
Rebecca explained what was missing.
The original trust amendment.
Her certified copy.
Sarah's expression changed.
"Daniel knows."
"About the trust clause?"
"Not all of it."
Rebecca leaned closer.
"What doesn't he know?"
Sarah looked toward Ethan.
"There's another document."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
Rebecca frowned.
Sarah continued.
"My father changed the arrangement shortly before he died. He didn't trust Daniel."
"Why?"
"He saw something I didn't."
Sarah's voice broke slightly.
"Or something I refused to see."
Ethan woke.
"Mom?"
Sarah held out her hand.
He ran to her carefully.
She wrapped one arm around him.
For several minutes, none of them spoke.
Then Ethan whispered, "Dad said you were dead."
Sarah kissed his hair.
"I know."
"He hit me."
Sarah became still.
"What?"
Rebecca answered.
"At the chapel."
Sarah looked at her son's cheek.
The redness had faded, but a faint mark remained.
Something in Sarah's expression changed.
Fear became anger.
Not loud anger.
Not uncontrolled.
Something colder.
"He touched my son."
Ethan buried his face against her.
Sarah looked at Rebecca.
"Find the second document."
That night, authorities searched Daniel's known properties.
His office was empty.
His passport remained in the house.
His primary accounts were frozen.
Dr. Kessler had abandoned his clinic.
At 11:04, Rebecca received a call.
Daniel.
She answered on speaker while Owen listened.
"Where are you?"
Daniel laughed softly.
"Still acting like you're in control?"
"Sarah survived."
"I heard."
"You tried to bury her."
"No. Kessler told me she was dead."
Rebecca looked at Owen.
The lie was expected.
Daniel continued.
"I panicked. I trusted a doctor."
"You locked the coffin."
"Because seeing her would have traumatized Ethan."
"You restrained her."
"I didn't."
"Sarah identified you."
Silence.
Then Daniel said, "Sarah was sedated and confused."
Rebecca felt rage rise.
"Your son heard her scratching."
"My son is eight."
"Your son is the reason your wife is alive."
Daniel ignored that.
"You took Ethan."
"The court placed him with Sarah."
"I am his father."
"You slapped him at his mother's funeral."
Another silence.
When Daniel spoke again, his voice was harder.
"You need to stop teaching him to hate me."
"You accomplished that without help."
Daniel breathed slowly.
"Tell Sarah I want to negotiate."
"There is nothing to negotiate."
"You don't know what's missing."
Rebecca looked toward the blue room evidence spread across Owen's desk.
"The original trust amendment?"
Daniel laughed.
"Not that."
The call ended.
Rebecca stared at the phone.
Owen frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Before Rebecca could answer, Ethan appeared in the hallway.
He had been listening.
"Mom had another secret."
Rebecca looked at him.
"What secret?"
Ethan walked inside.
"Grandpa's clock."
At the Cole house, a tall grandfather clock stood in the upstairs hallway.
Sarah's father had given it to her.
Ethan remembered one strange afternoon six months earlier.
Sarah had taken the clock apart while Daniel was away.
She placed something behind the wooden panel.
When Ethan asked what it was, Sarah had said, "Something that keeps time from changing the truth."
Rebecca and Owen exchanged a look.
Twenty minutes later, they returned to the house.
The grandfather clock stood where it always had.
Owen removed the rear panel.
Inside was an envelope.
Rebecca opened it.
Not the trust document.
A photograph.
It showed Daniel and Dr. Kessler standing beside a black vehicle outside an isolated property.
On the back Sarah had written an address.
Rebecca recognized the town.
It was forty miles north.
Ethan pointed toward the picture.
"That's the car they used to take Mom."
Owen took the photograph.
"Then this is where they brought her before the funeral home."
Rebecca looked at the address.
If Sarah had been held there, evidence might remain.
May you like
And Daniel had just revealed that something important was still missing.
They had no idea that Daniel was already waiting at the property.
