Chapter 7 - Evelyn Morgan)
Evelyn Morgan had disappeared thirty years earlier.
That was what Detective Mendez discovered.
One year before Claire's supposed birth.
The dates did not make sense.
Until police pulled the original missing-person file.
Evelyn Morgan, twenty-six, pediatric nurse.
Last seen leaving St. Joseph Medical Center after a night shift.
Vehicle later found abandoned near Lake Briar.
No body recovered.
Claire stared at Evelyn's photograph.
Dark hair.
Gentle eyes.
The woman from her dream.
The woman with blue shoes.
Her mother.
She knew before any DNA confirmation.
Some truths were recognized before they were proven.
Mendez showed another photograph.
Evelyn with a toddler.
A little girl approximately fifteen months old.
The child wore a yellow dress and held the silver bell necklace.
Claire.
The missing-person report listed the child too.
Clara Morgan.
Age: sixteen months.
Missing with mother.
Claire touched the image.
"My name was Clara."
Daniel sat beside her.
Neither of them spoke for a long time.
The case changed overnight.
Robert Bennett was no longer merely a suspect in an old child abuse case.
He became the central figure in a kidnapping investigation.
His DNA proved he was not Claire's biological father.
Investigators searched his financial records.
They found payments to Victor Hale beginning shortly after Evelyn disappeared.
They also found annual payments to three former St. Joseph employees.
Two were dead.
One was alive.
Dr. Harold Crane.
Seventy-nine years old.
Retired pediatric neurologist.
When police visited him, he refused to speak.
Then Claire went.
Dr. Crane lived in a private assisted-living community outside Denver.
He was thin, nearly bald, and connected to portable oxygen.
When Claire entered, he stared at her for almost a minute.
"You look like Evelyn."
Claire sat across from him.
"You knew her."
He closed his eyes.
"I tried not to."
"What does that mean?"
"Knowing people becomes dangerous when bad men need silence."
Claire placed the photograph of Evelyn on the table.
Dr. Crane stared at it.
"You treated Anna Bennett."
His face changed.
"Yes."
"Was she abused?"
He said nothing.
Claire leaned forward.
"Dr. Crane, I spent thirty-two years believing the man who kidnapped me was my father."
His eyes opened.
"He did not kidnap you."
Claire froze.
"What?"
"Robert didn't."
"Then who did?"
Crane's gaze moved toward the window.
"Victor Hale."
Claire's pulse raced.
"Why?"
"Because Evelyn saw too much."
"What did she see?"
Crane breathed slowly.
"Children being transferred."
The word from the index cards.
Transfer.
"What children?"
"Children whose families had failed them. Or children who could be made to appear unwanted."
Claire stared.
Crane continued.
"St. Joseph ran a behavioral research program in the late eighties and early nineties. Officially, it studied trauma in children."
"Unofficially?"
"Some doctors believed memory could be reshaped."
Claire remembered the tape.
We do this until she forgets.
Crane looked ashamed.
"Victor Hale recruited children from unstable homes. Some were temporary wards. Some were runaways."
"Anna?"
"She was never supposed to be part of it."
"What happened to her?"
Crane shook his head.
"I don't know everything."
"Tell me what you know."
He looked at Claire.
"Robert brought Anna to the hospital after midnight. She had severe injuries."
"From him?"
"I believed so."
"Was she alive?"
"Yes."
"Did she recover?"
"Physically, enough to survive."
Claire's heartbeat hammered.
"Then where did she go?"
"Victor offered Robert a solution."
Claire felt sick.
"What solution?"
"A transfer."
Daniel, who had been waiting near the door, stepped closer.
"You're saying our father gave his daughter away."
Crane looked at him.
"He signed papers."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"Who took her?"
"Victor."
Claire asked, "And the dead girl at the funeral?"
Crane closed his eyes.
"There was a child in the morgue. Same age. Similar size. No family had claimed her."
Claire turned away.
Daniel swore under his breath.
Crane continued.
"Evelyn discovered the switch."
Claire looked back.
"Then Victor took her."
"Yes."
"And me."
Crane nodded.
"Evelyn tried to report the program."
"To police?"
"To federal authorities."
"What happened?"
"Victor intercepted her."
Claire's hands trembled.
"Did he kill her?"
Crane whispered, "I don't know."
"Where did he take me?"
Crane looked toward Daniel.
"Robert's house."
"Why?"
"Because Robert owed him."
Claire's stomach turned.
"So I replaced Anna."
Crane said nothing.
That was answer enough.
Robert had lost a daughter.
Victor gave him another child.
A stolen child.
A substitute.
Claire struggled to breathe.
Daniel put a hand on her shoulder.
She did not push it away.
Dr. Crane suddenly reached for a drawer.
He removed an envelope.
"I thought someone might come eventually."
Inside was a photograph.
Six girls stood outside a brick building.
Anna was one of them.
Claire recognized her from the old family photograph.
Anna appeared older.
Maybe ten.
Alive three years after her supposed death.
Behind the girls was a sign.
BRIARWOOD CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER.
Claire looked at Crane.
"What was this place?"
His face filled with fear.
"The place Victor sent the children he couldn't return."
"Does it still exist?"
"No."
"Where was it?"
"That's not the question you should ask."
Claire frowned.
"What should I ask?"
May you like
Crane looked directly at her.
"Ask who paid for it."
