Chapter 3 - The Woman in the Burned Car
Detective Ortiz reached the top of the stairs first.
The red door would not open.
She pushed against it, then called to the officers on the other side. No one answered.
Her radio released only static.
Daniel ran back to the desk and searched for a release switch. He found wires disappearing behind the wall, but no visible control.
Taylor stood at the bottom of the staircase, trembling.
“You did this,” Daniel said.
“No.”
“You knew the room existed.”
“My mother made me promise never to come down here.”
“And you obeyed?”
“You don’t know what she does to people who disobey.”
Daniel grabbed her shoulders.
“What did she do to Laura?”
Taylor’s eyes filled with tears.
“I never met Laura.”
He showed her the old cabin photograph.
“Your mother did.”
Taylor stared at the picture.
For the first time, her fear appeared genuine.
“That’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“My mother was living in California then.”
“Are you sure?”
“She told me she was.”
Ortiz searched the room while Daniel questioned Taylor.
On a lower shelf, the detective found a battery-powered emergency panel. She removed the cover and connected two wires.
The door released.
They rushed upstairs.
The officers who had been stationed in the living room were unconscious.
Both had small puncture marks on their necks.
The front door stood open.
Snow blew across the hardwood floor.
Evelyn was gone.
So was Laura’s folder.
Ortiz called for medical assistance and backup. Daniel checked the house, but found no sign of Evelyn.
Taylor sat at the kitchen table, staring at nothing.
“Why did Laura say not to trust the police?” Daniel asked Ortiz.
“I don’t know.”
“Was that video recorded recently?”
“We’ll have technicians examine it.”
“She knew we would find the room.”
“Possibly.”
“And she said Evelyn lost control.”
Ortiz removed a glove and rubbed her temple.
“Daniel, I need you to understand that video could have been staged.”
“She is alive.”
“It may be Laura. It may be an old recording. It may have been digitally altered.”
“She was holding a newspaper from after the crash.”
“So was the woman in the photograph.”
“You think Evelyn created fake evidence?”
“I think someone wanted you to find that room.”
Before Daniel could respond, his phone rang.
The hospital.
Emily had disappeared.
A nurse had entered her room after hearing the bathroom faucet running. The window was open. The child welfare officer assigned to the door had been found unconscious inside a supply closet.
A security camera captured Emily walking through the parking lot beside a woman wearing a red coat.
The woman’s face was hidden.
Daniel drove to the hospital with Ortiz following behind him.
In Emily’s room, he found her blanket on the floor and a paper cup filled with melting snow beside the window.
Someone had written a message on the glass.
CABIN. COME ALONE.
Daniel immediately thought of Laura’s warning.
Do not take Emily back to the cabin.
He called the number of the caretaker who managed the old property. It had been vacant since Laura’s uncle died.
No answer.
Ortiz entered the room.
“We’ve issued an alert.”
“She’s going to the cabin.”
“That may be what the abductor wants us to believe.”
“Emily drew it.”
“What?”
“In the notebook. The house with the red door.”
Ortiz pulled up a photograph of the drawing.
“That could be this house.”
“No. Look at the chimney.”
The drawing showed a stone chimney leaning slightly left.
The Blackridge cabin had the same unusual chimney.
Ortiz studied him.
“You cannot go alone.”
“The message says I have to.”
“Kidnappers do not get to set police procedure.”
“Laura told me not to trust the police.”
Ortiz’s expression hardened.
“And you think that includes me?”
“I don’t know what to think.”
“Good. That is the first rational thing you’ve said.”
Daniel looked toward the empty bed.
“I am going to find my daughter.”
“So am I.”
His blood test results arrived while officers examined the room.
The report showed traces of scopolamine and a sedative commonly used before surgery. The doctor explained that repeated small doses could cause confusion, memory loss, suggestibility, and hallucinations.
Daniel had not been imagining his headaches.
Someone had been drugging him.
He drove home long enough to collect winter clothing, a flashlight, and the silver key. Police had sealed the red room, but Daniel slipped past the tape and opened his file.
Inside were medical reports dating back eleven years.
Long before Emily was born.
The earliest report described a car crash Daniel barely remembered. He had been twenty-four. He had woken in a private clinic with no memory of the previous two days.
The physician’s signature was illegible.
The witness listed on the report was Evelyn Shaw.
Another page contained a typed transcript.
SUBJECT D: Do you know where Laura is?
DANIEL: At the cabin.
SUBJECT D: What did she find?
DANIEL: The names.
SUBJECT D: Where are the names?
DANIEL: Behind the red door.
SUBJECT D: Who are you afraid of?
DANIEL: The women who replace mothers.
Daniel’s hands shook.
He had known Evelyn before the photograph.
Before Taylor.
Before Laura’s supposed death.
At the back of the folder was a sealed envelope.
He tore it open.
A letter from Laura was inside.
Daniel,
If you are reading this, they failed to erase everything.
Evelyn is not Taylor’s mother.
The woman you know as Evelyn Shaw has used at least four names. She entered our lives long before you saw her. She chooses families with young daughters, but I still do not understand why.
The accident was not an accident.
The body in my car was not mine.
I tried to reach you, but they made you forget me every time.
Emily remembers because they have not completed her treatment.
Do not let them finish Phase Two.
There was no signature.
Only a symbol drawn at the bottom.
A silver moon beside a red door.
Daniel returned upstairs.
Taylor was gone.
On the kitchen table lay her wedding ring and a short note.
I did not know about Laura.
But I know where my real mother is buried.
Do not follow me.
Daniel searched the garage for his truck keys.
The vehicle was missing.
Taylor had taken it.
He opened the tracking application on his phone.
May you like
The truck was moving north.
Toward Blackridge.
