Chapter 9 - The Boy Above the Water
The water tower stood at the northern edge of the camp.
Its rusted metal legs rose above the pine trees, supporting a tank that had supposedly been empty for years.
Daniel, Cole and Reed reached it as lightning flashed across the sky.
The tracker showed Luke nearly forty feet above ground.
A narrow ladder climbed the side of the structure.
Daniel started upward.
Cole grabbed the back of his jacket.
“You do not know who is waiting.”
“I know who needs me.”
He climbed.
The ladder shook beneath the wind. Rain made every rung slippery. Halfway to the platform, Daniel heard movement above.
A small object fell past him.
The green rubber dinosaur footprint.
“Luke!”
Daniel caught it against the ladder.
The tracker had been tied to a length of string.
Luke had not climbed the tower.
Someone had raised the device to mislead them.
“Down!” Daniel shouted.
A heavy metal panel dropped from the platform.
Daniel pressed himself against the ladder as it struck the ground below.
Reed pulled Cole away just before impact.
A man appeared at the top of the tower.
Amos Rusk.
He looked older than the camp photographs, but the deep scar across his cheek was unmistakable.
“You should have stayed home,” Amos called.
“Where is my son?”
“Which son?”
Daniel climbed higher.
Amos began descending from the opposite side.
Reed moved to intercept him, but Amos jumped onto the roof of an old maintenance shed and disappeared among the trees.
Cole ordered officers to pursue him.
Daniel reached the platform.
Inside the tower’s empty tank, he found a child’s blanket and a portable speaker.
Another false location.
But scratched into the rusted floor was a recent message:
GREEN BOX. LAKE HOUSE.
Luke had written some letters backward, but Daniel recognized his handwriting.
“How did he know about the green box?” Cole asked when Daniel returned to the ground.
“He told me he found it in Evelyn’s closet.”
“Then why mention the lake house?”
“He may be telling us where it came from.”
Cole assigned officers to continue searching Black Pine while she, Daniel and Reed drove to Evelyn’s property beside Lake Briar.
The house was dark.
A search warrant arrived electronically as they reached the gate.
Inside, everything appeared perfectly ordered. Family photographs lined the walls, but pictures of Daniel had been removed. In several images, Rebecca’s face had been cut away.
Luke’s overnight bag sat in the kitchen.
His pajamas were still folded inside.
Evelyn had never planned for him to sleep there.
Daniel searched the bedroom closet.
Behind a row of gray coats, he found a loose floorboard.
The hidden compartment beneath it was empty except for a square outline in the dust.
The green box had been removed.
Reed searched the garage and found fresh mud on the tires of a second vehicle.
Cole opened the trunk.
Inside were old camp records, forged custody forms and a child-sized blue coat.
Daniel touched the fabric.
It matched the coat Rebecca wore in the photograph.
Beneath it lay an envelope addressed to him.
The handwriting belonged to Rebecca.
Daniel opened it carefully.
There was no letter inside.
Only a brass key and a photograph of a red door built into a hillside.
On the back, Rebecca had written:
THE FIRST CAMP WAS NOT BLACK PINE.
A sound came from the second floor.
Daniel looked up.
Small footsteps crossed the hallway.
“Luke?”
He ran upstairs.
A bedroom door closed.
Daniel opened it and found the room empty.
The window was locked.
The closet contained only toys.
Then a child whispered from beneath the bed.
“Are you Luke’s dad?”
Oliver Grant crawled into the light.
He was shaking and covered in dust, but he had no visible injuries.
Daniel knelt.
“Yes. Where is Luke?”
Oliver pointed toward the wall.
“The gray lady took him through the door.”
There was no door.
May you like
Only faded wallpaper.
Cole pulled it away and revealed a narrow opening descending beneath Evelyn’s house.
