THE GIRL IN THE BASEMENT

Police vehicles surrounded the Cross house within minutes.

The building had been empty since the basement search began. Every officer had left after the property was sealed.

Yet a light now glowed in the blue bedroom.

Daniel remained behind the road barrier while Mara’s team entered through the front and side doors.

They found no one inside.

The blue bedroom window was closed.

The wardrobe had been returned to its original position, concealing the metal door.

On the bed lay a pair of red leather gloves.

A mobile phone had been placed between them.

It began ringing when Daniel entered the room.

Mara answered.

The unknown woman did not waste time.

“You opened something Anna intended to remain closed.”

“Where is Grace?” Mara asked.

“Grace is not your concern.”

“She has been unlawfully confined.”

“Grace was alive because Rebecca followed instructions.”

Daniel stepped closer.

“What did you do to Anna?”

The woman paused.

“You sound like your father when you’re angry.”

Daniel’s father had died when he was twenty-three.

He had spent most of Daniel’s childhood traveling and avoided discussing Evelyn after the hotel fire.

“Who are you?”

“You know.”

“I want to hear you say it.”

The woman laughed softly.

“Some truths should be approached slowly.”

“Are you Evelyn Cross?”

The call disconnected.

The phone contained one photograph.

It showed Grace sitting inside the back of a vehicle. Her dark hair was shorter than in the childhood photographs. A gray blanket covered her shoulders.

She was holding that day’s newspaper.

Behind her, part of a road sign was visible.

Mara enlarged the image.

The sign contained the letters WATER and the number 8.

“Blackwater County Route Eight,” an officer suggested.

There were more than thirty miles of road matching that description.

The vehicle interior offered another clue. A small brass plate beside the rear door displayed the name of a private medical transport company.

Mara contacted the company.

One of its vans had been reported stolen that morning.

Its tracking device had stopped transmitting near an abandoned motel beside Blackwater Lake.

The search team prepared to leave.

Daniel insisted on accompanying Mara.

She refused until he showed her another message that had appeared on the phone.

COME ALONE OR GRACE DISAPPEARS LIKE ANNA.

“That is precisely why you should not come,” Mara said.

“They expect me.”

“They want control.”

“And we can use that.”

Mara studied him.

“You remain in the vehicle unless I tell you otherwise.”

Daniel agreed.

He did not intend to keep that promise if Grace’s life depended on it.

Before they left, Daniel visited Rachel at the county holding facility.

She sat behind reinforced glass wearing plain gray clothing.

Without makeup and careful lighting, she looked older than the woman he married.

More frightened too.

Daniel held the telephone receiver.

“Grace is at Blackwater.”

Rachel’s eyes widened.

“They contacted you.”

“You knew they would.”

“I knew they would search the house after the safe was opened.”

“Who is Evelyn?”

Rachel looked toward the camera in the interview room.

“I can’t say.”

“She already knows we found the name.”

“Names have power only when spoken by someone who can prove them.”

“Is she my mother?”

Rachel closed her eyes.

“When Grace and I were children, Evelyn helped our father move money through dozens of family trusts. She was not the leader of the Circle then, but she understood how it worked.”

“My mother died when I was seventeen.”

“No. She left when you were seventeen.”

“Why?”

“Your father discovered what she was doing.”

Daniel remembered his father’s distant grief and sudden decision to move Daniel across the country after the fire.

“What happened to him?”

Rachel opened her eyes.

“You were told his heart failed.”

“It did.”

“He was forty-nine.”

“You’re lying.”

“I lied to you from the first day we met. That does not mean I am lying now.”

Daniel gripped the receiver.

“Did you approach me because of the house?”

“Yes.”

The answer came without hesitation.

“Evelyn believed Anna had hidden Grace there. I was instructed to marry you if necessary, regain access and locate the chamber.”

“You married me to search my home.”

“Yes.”

“Did you ever care about Lily?”

Rachel’s face tightened.

“I tried not to.”

Daniel felt more anger at those four words than at any of her previous lies.

“What does that mean?”

“It means she left drawings outside my bedroom. She remembered how I drank my coffee. She asked whether I was lonely when you traveled.”

Rachel looked down.

“She made it difficult to remain what Evelyn needed me to be.”

“You locked her in the cold.”

“I thought fear would stop her from returning to the basement. I believed if Evelyn learned Lily had spoken to Grace, she would take Lily too.”

“You could have told me.”

“Anna tried telling you.”

The words struck him.

Rachel continued.

“You loved your wife, but you didn’t believe danger could enter your life. Anna knew you would search for ordinary explanations until it was too late.”

Daniel wanted to deny it.

He could not.

“Help us find Grace,” he said.

Rachel leaned toward the glass.

“The motel is a decoy.”

“How do you know?”

“Because Evelyn used it before.”

“Where will she take Grace?”

“Blackwater has an old ferry terminal. Beneath it is a service tunnel connected to the lake road.”

Daniel rose.

Rachel struck the glass with her palm.

“Wait.”