Chapter 5 - What Emily Wrote in Invisible Ink
Taylor did not get far.
An officer caught her near the cemetery gate. She fought violently, screaming that the police would get Emily killed.
Daniel took the notebook from her.
“You do not get to make decisions for my daughter.”
“I was trying to trade myself for her.”
“Evelyn asked for you.”
“Exactly.”
Taylor looked toward the officers.
“She doesn’t want Daniel. She wants me.”
Ortiz brought her back inside the ranger station.
“Why?”
Taylor pressed her injured hand against her coat.
“My mother left something inside me.”
Daniel waited.
Taylor shook her head.
“I don’t know how to explain it.”
“Try.”
“When I was a child, Evelyn made me repeat numbers before I slept. Long strings of numbers. She called them prayers. If I forgot one, she punished me.”
“What numbers?”
“I don’t remember.”
Daniel almost laughed at the bitter irony.
“That seems to happen often in your family.”
Taylor accepted the insult.
“My mother knew Evelyn would take me. Maybe she taught me something before she died.”
Ortiz studied the pink notebook.
“Emily may have written more than we can see.”
Several pages appeared blank. Under the ranger station’s ultraviolet emergency lamp, pale words emerged.
Emily had used invisible ink from a children’s detective kit.
Daddy forgets after the tea.
Grandma calls Taylor Number Six.
The man with the scar says Mommy is below the lake.
Taylor is scared of the song.
On another page was a map.
The cabin stood beside a frozen lake. A dotted path crossed the ice toward a small island.
Ortiz photographed every page.
“The cabin may be a diversion,” she said.
Daniel pointed to Emily’s final message.
When the moon is above the chimney, the door under the water opens.
“It’s not a diversion.”
The moon would rise at nine forty.
Less than two hours away.
Ortiz prepared a plan. Uniformed officers would approach through the forest while Daniel and Taylor drove openly to the cabin. A tactical team from the county would secure the road.
“No sirens,” Daniel insisted.
“No unnecessary noise,” Ortiz agreed.
Taylor sat beside Daniel in the vehicle.
For the first twenty minutes, neither spoke.
Then she said, “I did love you.”
Daniel kept his eyes on the road.
“Do not.”
“It started as a lie. I know that. Evelyn put me near your office. She told me what restaurants you liked, what books you read, when you went running.”
Daniel’s hands tightened around the wheel.
“Every accident was planned?”
“At first.”
“The coffee shop?”
“Yes.”
“The charity auction?”
“Yes.”
“The flat tire outside Emily’s school?”
Taylor looked down.
“Yes.”
Daniel felt sick.
“But I stopped reporting to her after we married,” Taylor continued. “I wanted a real life.”
“You helped her drug me.”
“She told me the medicine was for your panic attacks.”
“You put powder into my coffee.”
“I was afraid of what happened when you remembered.”
“What happened?”
“You attacked me once.”
Daniel turned toward her.
“When?”
“Six months ago. You woke in the red room holding a knife.”
“I was in the red room?”
“Evelyn said you had gone there in your sleep. You kept asking for Laura. When I tried to help you, you pushed me against the wall.”
Daniel remembered nothing.
“Did you see the knife?”
“Yes.”
“Was I holding it?”
Taylor hesitated.
“Evelyn was holding it when I entered.”
“Then how do you know I attacked you?”
“I woke on the floor. You were standing over me.”
“With a knife?”
“No.”
Daniel looked back at the road.
“She staged it.”
Taylor began crying silently.
“Maybe.”
The forest road climbed toward Blackridge. Snow covered the trees, swallowing the sound of the vehicles.
At eight thirty-five, the cabin appeared between the pines.
The stone chimney leaned left.
One window glowed red.
Daniel stopped near the gate.
The police teams moved into position beyond sight.
He and Taylor walked toward the front porch.
The door opened before they knocked.
Evelyn stood inside.
She wore the red coat from the hospital security footage.
“Where is Emily?” Daniel asked.
“Safe.”
“Show me.”
Evelyn stepped aside.
Emily sat in the living room beside a fireplace. Her hands were no longer tied. A man with a scar stood behind her.
Daniel recognized him from the hospital.
The man held a gun.
Emily’s eyes met her father’s.
She did not cry.
Evelyn closed the front door.
“The notebook.”
Daniel held it up.
“The key,” she added.
He displayed the silver key.
“And Taylor.”
“I’m here,” Taylor said.
Evelyn smiled.
“You look so much like Margaret when you are frightened.”
Taylor’s face hardened.
“You killed her.”
“Your mother killed herself by believing she could leave.”
The scarred man moved the gun closer to Emily.
Daniel placed the notebook and key on the table.
“Let my daughter go.”
Evelyn opened the notebook and examined the invisible pages beneath a blue light.
“Emily has been more observant than we expected.”
“You locked her in a freezer.”
“I needed to know where she had hidden this.”
“She could have died.”
“Then you would have remembered faster.”
Daniel stepped forward.
The gun clicked behind Emily.
Evelyn raised one hand.
“Your family hides truth inside terror, Daniel. Fear opens doors ordinary memory cannot.”
“What Archive are you looking for?”
Evelyn’s smile faded.
“So Margaret’s tape survived.”
“Not all of it.”
“No. I imagine not.”
She turned to Taylor.
“Sing the prayer.”
Taylor stared at her.
“I don’t remember it.”
“You will.”
Evelyn began humming a melody.
Taylor’s body went rigid.
Her eyes lost focus.
The song had no words, only six descending notes repeated again and again.
Taylor whispered a number.
“Fourteen.”
Evelyn continued humming.
“Twenty-seven,” Taylor said.
The numbers came faster.
“Three. Ninety-one. Eight. Forty-four.”
The floor beneath them vibrated.
Daniel looked toward the fireplace.
A metal mechanism turned behind the stone wall.
The red door in Emily’s drawing appeared beneath the mantel.
Evelyn smiled.
“Your mother did leave the map inside you.”
Taylor swayed.
The red door opened.
A staircase descended beneath the cabin.
From somewhere below came a woman’s voice.
“Daniel?”
May you like
He knew that voice.
Laura.
