Chapter 3 - The Barn With No Windows
The deputies reached the south property before noon.
Emma was ordered to remain at Margaret’s house.
She ignored them.
Robert drove.
The road to the property wound through abandoned farmland and thick woods before reaching a rusted chain gate.
A yellow sign read PRIVATE TIMBER LAND.
The lock had been cut recently.
Detective Nathan Cole stood beside his cruiser.
“You should not be here,” he told Emma.
“My husband was photographed here.”
“You’re nine months pregnant.”
“And still his wife.”
Cole looked at Robert.
Robert shrugged.
“She wasn’t staying behind.”
Cole sighed.
“Stay near the vehicles.”
Emma agreed.
She had no intention of keeping that promise.
They followed the gravel road through the trees.
The barn appeared suddenly.
Red metal siding.
No windows.
Large sliding door.
The trail camera that photographed Daniel had been mounted on a pine tree thirty yards away.
Cole examined the lock.
“No forced entry.”
Robert pointed at fresh tire marks.
“Multiple vehicles.”
The deputies opened the barn.
Emma expected machinery.
Instead, she saw an empty concrete floor.
A desk.
A metal chair.
And walls covered with photographs.
Hundreds.
Maybe thousands.
Families.
Children.
Birth certificates.
Newspaper clippings.
Emma walked inside before anyone could stop her.
“Jesus,” Cole whispered.
One wall was almost entirely dedicated to Hayes family members.
Thomas.
Margaret.
Robert.
Daniel.
Daniel’s father, Charles.
Then Emma.
Photographs taken without her knowledge.
Leaving work.
Shopping.
Walking into her doctor’s office.
Sitting on her front porch.
One photograph showed her asleep beside Daniel through their bedroom window.
Emma covered her mouth.
Robert went rigid.
“Who did this?”
Cole began photographing the walls.
Emma moved closer.
Several of her prenatal ultrasound images had been pinned beside the photographs.
Someone had written notes beneath them.
FEMALE CONFIRMED
SUCCESSION FAILURE
SECOND ATTEMPT REQUIRED
Emma stepped backward.
“What does that mean?”
Nobody answered.
Then Robert found the notebook.
It lay inside the desk.
The cover read FAMILY CONTINUITY.
Robert opened it.
Names filled the pages.
Dates.
Marriages.
Pregnancies.
Children.
Medical records.
Emma saw Daniel’s name.
Beside it were two columns.
Current spouse: Emma Carter Hayes.
Expected child: Female.
Status: Noncompliant.
Below that:
Secondary candidate approved.
Emma grabbed the notebook.
“What candidate?”
Cole took it gently.
“Let us process this.”
“No.”
Emma flipped pages.
A photograph fell out.
A young woman.
Brunette.
Maybe twenty-six.
Emma recognized her.
Rachel Wynn.
Daniel’s former college girlfriend.
Emma had met her once at a charity event.
Rachel had moved away years earlier.
Written beneath the photograph:
RH positive.
Hayes-compatible.
Prior relationship advantageous.
Emma felt nauseated.
Robert whispered, “Margaret.”
Emma looked at him.
“You think she made this?”
“I don’t know.”
A deputy called from behind the barn.
“Detective!”
They hurried outside.
A shallow trench had been dug near the tree line.
Fresh dirt.
Cole ordered everyone back.
The deputy knelt and brushed soil aside.
A shoe appeared.
Emma stopped breathing.
Robert grabbed her shoulders.
“Don’t look.”
She pulled away.
“If it’s Daniel, I’m looking.”
They uncovered enough to reveal a body.
Male.
The shirt was stained with blood.
Emma recognized the jacket.
Daniel’s.
She screamed his name.
Then the head was exposed.
Not Daniel.
The dead man was older.
Thin.
Gray-haired.
A scar along his jaw.
Robert stumbled backward.
“My God.”
Thomas Hayes.
The supposedly dead patriarch lay in the dirt behind his own hidden barn.
Actually dead this time.
Cole stared at the corpse.
Emma stared at the face she had seen in the trail photograph.
Daniel had been standing beside Thomas less than forty-eight hours earlier.
Someone had killed him since.
Cole’s radio crackled.
A dispatcher spoke.
The detective listened.
Then looked at Emma.
“Mrs. Hayes.”
“What?”
“We just received a call from your home security company.”
Emma’s heart stopped.
“Why?”
“Someone entered your house fifteen minutes ago.”
“My house is empty.”
May you like
Cole looked toward the road.
“The alarm was disabled using Daniel’s code.”
