Chapter 13 - The Second Basement
Daniel gave the phone to Brennan.
Police analyzed the image.
The stone wall did not match the farmhouse basement.
Clara remembered the message.
You are looking in the wrong basement.
Rebecca searched property holdings connected to Carter Family Holdings.
Seven addresses.
Three commercial.
Four residential.
One stood out.
An abandoned textile mill purchased twenty-six years earlier.
Briarwood Mills.
It had multiple underground storage rooms.
Brennan obtained a warrant.
Daniel was ordered to remain home.
He hated every second.
At 10:42 p.m., police entered the mill.
At 10:51, Brennan texted.
We found the room.
Daniel stared at the phone.
10:56.
No update.
11:03.
11:11.
Clara sat beside him.
Noah slept upstairs under Jen's supervision.
Daniel couldn't breathe properly.
At 11:18, Brennan called.
"She's alive."
Daniel closed his eyes.
"Mom?"
"Yes."
"Is she hurt?"
"Bruised. Dehydrated."
"Marjorie?"
"Gone."
Daniel cursed.
"Anyone else?"
Brennan hesitated.
"Yes."
Daniel stood.
"Who?"
"We found another woman."
His stomach dropped.
"Anna?"
"We don't know."
"What does she say her name is?"
Brennan paused.
"Margaret."
Daniel looked at Clara.
"How old?"
"Mid-thirties."
Daniel frowned.
"That doesn't make sense."
Marjorie's daughter would be older.
"She's not the Margaret from the records."
"Then who is she?"
"She says she's Margaret's daughter."
Clara stood.
Daniel whispered, "Anna had a child."
"Apparently."
"Where has she been?"
Brennan's voice lowered.
"Daniel, this woman says she's lived on Carter-controlled properties most of her life."
Daniel's skin crawled.
"Against her will?"
"We're still determining that."
"Where is her mother?"
"She says Margaret died fourteen years ago."
Daniel closed his eyes.
"How?"
"She won't say yet."
Clara asked, "What's the woman's name?"
Daniel repeated the question.
Brennan answered.
"Rachel Pike."
Pike.
The biological father's surname.
Daniel felt suddenly cold.
"What does she want?"
"She asked for you."
"Me?"
"Specifically."
"Why?"
Brennan paused.
"She says Thomas Carter was the only person who tried to help them."
Daniel gripped the phone.
"And my mother?"
"Rachel refuses to speak while Evelyn is nearby."
"Why?"
May you like
Another pause.
"Because Rachel says Evelyn was the reason they never escaped."
