Chapter 12 - The House at Willow Creek)
Nathan Ward owned a lake house in Willow Creek.
Federal investigators wanted to move slowly.
Claire did not have patience for slowly.
Reed did.
For once she listened.
Nathan had no criminal history.
No known connection to St. Catherine.
No public role in Elias Ward's political career for nearly a decade.
Yet Rebecca had photographed him meeting Voss.
With Lily's photograph between them.
Investigators obtained cell tower records.
Voss's phone had connected near Willow Creek two days before he disappeared.
A search warrant followed.
The lake house was empty.
At first.
Then officers found a hidden basement.
The entrance was concealed behind shelving.
Inside were filing cabinets.
A desk.
A medical examination table.
Claire saw photographs later.
She was grateful Reed had refused to let her attend the search.
The filing cabinets contained records of children.
Some were newborn files.
Others tracked the children years later.
School photographs.
Medical reports.
Addresses.
College applications.
The network had not simply moved babies.
It had monitored them.
Why? Claire asked.
Reed looked exhausted.
Control.
Blackmail.
Liability.
Maybe all three.
Among the files was Lily.
Emma Whitmore.
Her real name appeared at the top.
The file contained photographs from every year of her life.
Claire felt violated looking at them.
Lily at a playground.
Lily entering preschool.
Lily at Rebecca's funeral.
Someone had watched her.
The final photograph had been taken at Greenway Market two weeks before Lily ran to Claire.
Claire's pulse accelerated.
They knew we might meet.
Maybe.
How?
Reed showed another page.
It was Claire's work schedule.
Her shopping receipts.
Routes she regularly drove.
Greenway Market appeared repeatedly.
Someone had monitored Claire too.
The meeting in the store may not have been coincidence.
Did Margaret arrange it?
She says no.
Then who?
Reed turned to another file.
Rebecca.
Shortly before dying, Rebecca had apparently communicated with Nathan Ward.
Emails showed encrypted attachments.
She knew she was sick.
She was building evidence.
Perhaps she arranged for Lily and Claire to cross paths.
But Rebecca had been dead fifteen months.
Someone else had continued her plan.
Claire looked toward Lily, who was drawing at the other end of the safe apartment.
Who?
Reed did not know.
Then a missing child report appeared in the Willow Creek files.
A baby transferred twenty years earlier.
Original mother.
Jennifer Cole.
New identity.
Anna Ward.
Proof.
Anna Ward was not Caroline Ward's biological daughter.
She had been taken from a seventeen year old mother.
But the file contained something stranger.
A handwritten note.
Caroline opposed placement.
Elias proceeded.
Nathan managed documents.
Claire read it twice.
Senator Ward had knowingly obtained a child through the network.
His wife had objected.
Years later Caroline died.
Nathan remained involved.
What happened to Jennifer Cole?
Reed searched.
No current address.
Then an investigator found a Social Security death record.
Jennifer Cole died at age twenty.
Overdose.
Claire whispered.
Did she know who took her baby?
We don't know.
The lake house search uncovered another name.
Dr. Samuel Voss.
A recent entry.
Patient transferred downstairs.
Reed paused.
Claire stared.
Patient.
Police searched the lower structure again.
Behind a false wall was a second room.
Blood.
Zip ties.
An empty chair.
Voss had been held there.
But he was gone.
So was Nathan Ward.
A neighbor reported seeing a dark SUV leave the property before dawn.
Investigators tracked toll cameras.
The vehicle traveled east.
Then disappeared.
That night Lily asked Claire about Margaret.
Can I see Grandma?
Claire hesitated.
The therapist had prepared her for this.
Do you want to?
Lily nodded.
I'm mad at her.
You can be mad.
But I miss her.
You can miss her too.
Children understood emotional contradictions better than adults.
Claire arranged a supervised video call.
Margaret appeared on screen.
She immediately cried.
Lily did not.
Why did you steal me?
Margaret closed her eyes.
Because I was selfish.
You said you saved me.
I lied.
Why?
Because the truth made me ashamed.
Lily looked at Claire.
Then back at Margaret.
Did Rebecca know?
Eventually.
Was she mad?
Very.
Did she still love you?
Margaret began sobbing.
Yes.
Lily hugged her stuffed rabbit.
I still love you too.
Margaret covered her mouth.
But I want to live with Claire and Daniel.
Claire's eyes filled.
Margaret nodded.
I know.
Then Lily asked.
Who is the lady Rebecca called C?
Margaret stopped crying.
Claire leaned forward.
What lady?
Lily explained.
Rebecca sometimes received letters signed C.
Margaret stared at the screen.
Where did you hear that?
I saw one.
Margaret looked toward Claire.
Did Rebecca keep the letters?
We haven't found any.
Margaret's face tightened.
Find them.
Who is C?
Margaret lowered her voice.
Someone who knew what Voss was doing before Emma was born.
Caroline Ward?
Margaret did not answer.
Claire repeated.
Was Caroline helping Rebecca?
Margaret whispered.
Caroline died twelve years ago.
Rebecca couldn't have been receiving letters from her.
Then who was C?
Margaret stared directly into the camera.
Caroline had a sister.
Claire stopped.
No biography of Senator Ward mentioned a sister in law.
What was her name?
Margaret whispered.
Catherine Cole.
Cole.
The same surname as Jennifer Cole.
Claire felt everything align in a frightening new way.
Who is Catherine?
Jennifer's mother.
Anna Ward's biological grandmother.
May you like
And Margaret said the next sentence almost soundlessly.
She's the one who started hunting them.
