Chapter 8 - The Story Evelyn Told
Evelyn had been telling people that story for years.
She never accused Daniel directly in public. She did it through suggestions.
Rebecca had been unhappy.
Daniel had controlled the finances.
Daniel had discouraged her investigation.
Daniel had been the last person to speak with her before she disappeared.
None of it was true, but repeated suspicion had damaged friendships, ended business contracts and caused strangers to look at Daniel as if Luke needed protection from him.
Now the same accusation was painted beneath Black Pine.
It was not meant for Daniel.
It was meant for the police.
While officers searched the underground rooms, Cole received a call from the station.
Evelyn’s attorney had arrived with documents claiming Daniel was mentally unstable and had unlawfully denied his grandmother access to Luke.
The documents included statements from a therapist Daniel had never met.
“They prepared this,” Daniel said. “They knew I would come here.”
“They may have planned to make Luke’s disappearance appear like an attempt by you to hide him,” Cole replied.
“Then why bring him to the camp?”
“Because Luke found the bracelet.”
Daniel examined Rebecca’s photograph again.
Her expression seemed calm at first glance, but her left hand was closed tightly at her side.
Rebecca did that when she was frightened and determined not to show it.
Daniel enlarged the photograph on his phone.
A thin cord ran from her sleeve to the ground.
No.
Not a cord.
A phone wire.
Daniel remembered the red landline in the chapel room.
“Rebecca used that phone.”
Cole looked at him.
“What?”
“The phone Luke found wasn’t recently installed. Rebecca connected it years ago.”
They returned to the small chapel room.
Cole removed the landline from the wall. Behind it was a wire leading through a hole in the plaster.
The wire did not connect to the camp’s telephone system.
It connected to a small recording device hidden inside the wall.
The device contained hundreds of audio files.
Most were corrupted.
One was dated the same day as the photograph.
Daniel pressed play.
Rebecca’s voice filled the room.
“My name is Rebecca Mercer. If Daniel hears this, I need him to know I did not leave him or Luke.”
Daniel gripped the edge of the table.
Rebecca continued.
“My mother brought me to Black Pine after I confronted her about the custody files. She said Pastor Vale would explain everything. They took my phone and would not let me leave.”
There was a noise in the recording.
Rebecca lowered her voice.
“The children are hidden beneath the chapel. Some have been here for weeks. They are given new names before being moved. I found Oliver’s predecessor. They call him Jamie even though that is not his name.”
Daniel looked toward Cole.
The recording was four years old.
Rebecca had discovered the repeated identity long before Oliver was taken.
“They know I have been sending evidence to someone,” Rebecca said. “I do not know how long I can keep doing it.”
A door opened in the background.
Rebecca inhaled.
Then Evelyn’s voice sounded.
“Put down the phone.”
The recording ended.
Daniel searched the remaining files.
A second playable recording had been made three days later.
Rebecca sounded weaker but alert.
“Daniel, the silver bracelet contains a key. Find the green box in my mother’s house. Do not trust the photograph. Do not trust the date. And if Luke ever hears the dinosaur song, tell him to follow the wrong footprints.”
The file ended.
Cole looked at Rex.
“Follow the wrong footprints.”
Daniel turned the toy over.
The rubber tracker clip was beneath the tail, where anyone searching would expect it.
But Luke had removed it.
The tracker was now moving away from the main tunnel.
Luke was deliberately leading his captors toward a false route.
“He understood her message,” Daniel said.
“How could he?”
“Rebecca built the dinosaur game before she disappeared.”
The red dot stopped near the camp’s water tower.
May you like
Then it began moving vertically.
Upward.
