Chapter 6 - The Photograph After the Disappearance
Daniel could not look away from the date.
Rebecca appeared thinner in the photograph. Her dark hair had been cut to her shoulders, and she wore a blue coat Daniel had never seen.
But it was her.
There was no doubt.
She stood between Evelyn and Pastor Vale beneath the Black Pine sign.
On the back, someone had written:
SHE CHOSE US.
Daniel handed the photograph to Cole.
“This proves she was alive.”
“Three months after the disappearance,” Cole said.
“She never contacted me.”
“She may not have been able to.”
“Or she didn’t want to.”
Cole held his gaze. “Do not let whoever left this photograph decide what you believe.”
The steel gate required a key.
Reed used cutting equipment while the other officers searched the walls.
Daniel called the tracker microphone again.
This time, he heard Luke humming.
It was the same simple tune Rebecca used to sing while rocking him to sleep.
The other child joined in.
Then Luke said, “My mommy knew this song.”
The boy answered, “The blue lady taught it to us.”
Daniel’s heart stopped.
“What blue lady?” he whispered, though the children could not hear him.
The gate opened.
Beyond it, the underground corridor divided into three directions.
The tracker signal came from the central passage.
Cole marked the walls as they moved.
They passed empty rooms containing old desks, broken cots and stacks of records damaged by water.
In one room, Daniel found children’s drawings pinned to a board.
Every picture showed the same woman in a blue coat.
Some children had drawn her opening doors.
Others had drawn her standing beside a white van.
One picture showed her holding hands with a little boy beneath the words:
THE BLUE LADY SAID OUR NAMES MATTER.
Rebecca had been inside the tunnels.
And she had helped the children.
A noise came from the corridor.
Reed raised his flashlight.
A child ran across the opening ahead.
Daniel followed.
“Luke!”
The child disappeared through a door.
Inside was a narrow room filled with filing cabinets. The child was gone, but one cabinet remained open.
Cole examined the folders.
Each was labeled JAMIE BELL.
Dozens of them.
Different birth dates.
Different photographs.
Different counties.
The same name.
Rebecca had been right.
Jamie was not one child.
It was an identity reused whenever Pastor Vale’s network needed someone to disappear from official records.
Daniel opened the newest folder.
The photograph belonged to the dark-haired boy from the chapel window.
His real name was Oliver Grant.
He had disappeared eight months earlier after his mother died. Records claimed he had been transferred to an uncle in another state.
The uncle did not exist.
Cole radioed Oliver’s name to the station.
“We have a second missing child confirmed.”
A speaker crackled above them.
Pastor Vale’s voice filled the underground corridor.
“Detective Cole, you have entered private property without understanding what you have found.”
Cole looked toward a camera mounted in the ceiling.
“We understand enough.”
“You see abandoned files and frightened children. You will construct a story that makes you feel heroic.”
“Release Luke Mercer and Oliver Grant.”
“I cannot release children who are not in my custody.”
Daniel stepped beneath the camera.
“I know Rebecca was here.”
Silence.
Then Vale replied, “Rebecca came willingly.”
“Where is she?”
“She discovered that truth is more complicated than innocence and guilt.”
“Where is my wife?”
Pastor Vale laughed softly.
“You should ask Evelyn why Rebecca stopped trying to come home.”
The lights went out.
A lock slammed behind them.
May you like
Water began pouring into the corridor through openings in the walls.
The camp’s old flood system had been activated.
