Chapter 10 - the appointment for tomorrow)
Thomas Vane was still alive.
Police confirmed it at six in the morning when his credit card was used at a gas station sixty miles north.
The photograph was a threat.
Or a schedule.
Ava believed someone planned to kill him.
Daniel had mixed feelings.
Thomas had helped destroy his family.
But if Thomas died, answers died with him.
Police traced the transaction to a highway camera.
Thomas's black sedan was visible.
He was not driving.
Silas Keene sat behind the wheel.
Thomas sat in the passenger seat.
His hands appeared to be bound.
"Keene kidnapped him," Daniel said.
"Maybe."
Ava enlarged the image.
"Or Thomas wants us to think that."
Mara was taken to a secure hospital.
Her memories returned in fragments.
The crash at Lake Marrow had been staged.
After escaping Lydia's car with Lily, Mara had hidden her daughter inside an abandoned maintenance building near the lake.
She gave Lily the pendant and instructions about B17.
Then Mara returned toward the road hoping to find help.
Thomas caught her.
Keene sedated her.
They placed her inside her own car.
Lydia intended to drive the vehicle into the lake with Mara inside.
But Mara woke up.
She fought.
The car crashed prematurely.
Mara escaped through the passenger window before the vehicle slid down the embankment.
She ran into the woods.
For almost two days she remained free.
Then she made a mistake.
She contacted Ellen.
Daniel listened.
"Ellen Price?"
Mara nodded.
"She had escaped North House months earlier."
"Then why didn't she go to police?"
"She was terrified."
Mara explained that Ellen had been using B17.
The storage unit was an emergency cache.
Cash.
Clothes.
Evidence.
Mara met her there.
Someone followed.
Keene's people took Ellen first.
Mara escaped again.
The photographs in B17 had been taken during those days.
"Who took them?"
"I don't know."
"How did you eventually end up at North House?"
Mara looked ashamed.
"I went to Thomas."
Daniel stared.
"Why?"
"I thought he would help me."
"He was part of it."
"I didn't know how deeply."
She had known Thomas since childhood.
He had attended birthdays.
Graduations.
Her wedding.
For twenty years he had presented himself as the reasonable person between Mara and Lydia.
Mara trusted him.
Thomas betrayed her.
He drugged her coffee.
When Mara woke, she was inside North House.
Daniel held her hand.
"Why didn't they kill you?"
Mara looked at him.
"Because Lydia couldn't."
"Couldn't?"
"She wanted control. She wanted me silent. But I'm still her daughter."
Daniel thought of the freezer.
"Lydia almost killed Lily."
Mara's face hardened.
"She doesn't love Lily."
Daniel looked at her.
Mara continued.
"My mother doesn't love people. She loves ownership."
Ava entered.
"We found Thomas."
Everyone looked up.
"Alive?"
"For now."
Keene's vehicle had been discovered beside an abandoned church.
Thomas was inside.
Bound.
Unconscious.
Keene was gone.
On Thomas's chest sat an envelope.
Inside was a handwritten message.
ROOM SIX OPENS AT MIDNIGHT.
Daniel looked at Mara.
"Ellen."
Mara became pale.
"If Ellen is still alive, Keene will kill her."
"Where is Room Six?"
Mara shook her head.
"Not North House."
Daniel remembered the wedding photograph.
Ask Ellen about Room Six.
Ava asked, "What is it?"
May you like
Mara looked terrified.
"I think Room Six is where this started."
