Chapter 3 - The Hand in the Window
Daniel ran toward the chapel entrance.
The hand disappeared before he reached the steps.
“Luke!” he shouted.
Detective Cole caught his shoulder. “Wait for the team.”
“My son was in that window.”
“You saw a hand. We don’t know who else is inside.”
“I know my own child.”
Daniel pulled free, but Officer Reed stepped in front of the doors.
“We go together,” Reed said. “That is how we bring him out safely.”
The doors opened with a long groan.
The chapel smelled of wet wood and old smoke.
No one stood near the window.
A row of child-sized footprints crossed the dusty floor. Some looked fresh. Others had been preserved beneath years of dirt.
Cole followed them toward a narrow hallway beside the altar.
The hallway led to three small rooms.
The first contained broken chairs.
The second was filled with empty boxes.
The third had been cleaned recently.
A blanket covered the floor. There was a plastic cup of water, several crackers and a red landline phone disconnected from the wall.
Daniel recognized it from Luke’s call.
On the wall, someone had drawn a dinosaur in blue crayon.
Beneath it were the words:
DAD FOLLOWS FOOTPRINTS.
Daniel touched the writing.
“He left this for me.”
Cole examined the door. “There are scratches on the outside lock.”
“Evelyn locked him here.”
A radio message came from the eastern cabins.
“Detective, we located a woman matching Evelyn Hart’s description.”
Daniel rushed outside.
Two officers were escorting Evelyn across the camp. She wore a gray coat and carried a leather handbag. Her silver hair was perfectly arranged despite the rain.
She did not look frightened.
She looked annoyed.
Daniel stopped in front of her.
“Where is Luke?”
Evelyn glanced at the officers. “I came here because I received a message that Daniel had brought my grandson to this dangerous property.”
“You brought him here.”
“That is absurd.”
“We found your car.”
“It was stolen.”
“Luke called me from that room.”
Evelyn looked toward the chapel.
For the first time, her calm expression cracked.
Only slightly.
But Daniel saw it.
“You found the phone,” she said.
Cole stepped closer. “That is an unusual response.”
Evelyn recovered quickly. “I meant that if a phone was found here, someone must have placed it to make me look guilty.”
“Who would do that?”
“My son-in-law.”
Daniel almost laughed.
“My child is missing, and you think I staged this?”
“I think grief has made you unstable for years.”
“You took Luke because he found Rebecca’s bracelet.”
Evelyn’s eyes hardened.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Luke’s tracker moved beneath them.
Daniel held up his phone.
“He’s under this camp.”
Evelyn stared at the screen.
That reaction was enough.
Cole ordered the officers to detain her.
As Reed reached for Evelyn’s arm, the camp’s emergency siren began to wail.
The old metal tower near the dining hall came alive, sending a deep mechanical alarm across the property.
Birds exploded from the trees.
An officer shouted over the radio that smoke was rising from the administration building.
Cole looked toward the black cloud.
“They’re destroying records.”
Half the search team ran toward the fire.
Daniel looked back at Evelyn.
She smiled.
Not because she had escaped.
Because the distraction had begun exactly when she expected it.
Daniel stepped close enough that only she could hear him.
“Who is still inside the camp?”
Evelyn whispered, “You should ask who was inside before Luke arrived.”
Then she turned toward the chapel window.
A child’s face appeared behind the glass.
It was not Luke.
The boy looked older, perhaps eight or nine, with dark hair and a pale face.
May you like
He raised one finger to his lips.
Then he pointed downward.
