Chapter 7 - The Daughter Who Vanished
Celeste ordered the men to search Jasmine.
They found no phone because Jasmine had taped it beneath a greenhouse table before Victoria arrived.
Sofia could still hear everything.
Celeste took the photograph from Jasmine’s hand.
For the first time, her composure cracked.
“Where did you get this?”
“From the school archive.”
“The archive does not exist.”
“Then why are you afraid of a photograph taken inside it?”
One of the men stepped forward.
Celeste stopped him with a raised hand.
“You are very much like your father,” she said.
“Is that why you made him disappear?”
Victoria stood behind her mother.
She gave Jasmine the smallest shake of her head.
Not yet.
Celeste folded the photograph carefully.
“Your father was unstable. He believed ordinary infrastructure projects were part of a conspiracy.”
“He recorded you.”
“What exactly did he record?”
Jasmine realized Celeste did not know about the recovered audio.
That ignorance was valuable.
“Enough.”
Celeste’s eyes searched her face.
“You think courage is the same as power. Aaron made that mistake too.”
“What happened to Victoria’s sister?”
Victoria went still.
Celeste turned slowly.
“My daughter has no sister.”
“Her name was…” Jasmine paused.
Victoria had not told her the name.
Celeste waited.
When Jasmine said nothing, she smiled again.
“Exactly.”
She ordered the men to escort Jasmine off the property.
Before leaving, Jasmine looked at Victoria.
Victoria did not look back.
That evening, Sofia recovered part of a second file from the damaged drive.
A student registration record.
WESTBRIDGE PRIMARY DIVISION.
Name: Evelyn Hale.
Date of birth: May 9.
Parent: Celeste Hale.
Status: Transferred.
No transfer destination was listed.
A photograph showed a dark-haired girl with serious eyes.
She looked nothing like Victoria.
“She could be a cousin,” Daniel said.
“Celeste was listed as her mother,” Sofia replied.
Jasmine enlarged the photograph.
Around Evelyn’s neck hung a silver whistle.
The black Crossroad symbol was engraved on it.
“Search missing-person records,” Jasmine said.
“There won’t be any. Victoria said she was erased.”
“Search old newspapers.”
They found a society-page photograph from eleven years earlier.
Celeste attended a charity event with two daughters.
Victoria, age six.
Evelyn, age twelve.
Three months later, Evelyn vanished from every public mention.
Jasmine returned home after midnight.
Elena was waiting in the kitchen.
On the table sat the compass.
Beside it was a sealed envelope.
“You went beneath the school,” Elena said.
Jasmine stopped.
“How do you know?”
“Dr. Mercer called me.”
“He lied to the police.”
“He is trying to keep you alive.”
“He knew Dad.”
“Yes.”
The answer came without hesitation.
Jasmine pulled out a chair.
“Tell me everything.”
Elena touched the envelope.
“Your father discovered children were being used as couriers.”
Jasmine stared at her.
“What?”
“Project Crossroad controlled hidden routes. Routes beneath public buildings. Routes that avoided cameras and police checkpoints. Adults attracted attention, but school groups did not.”
“Students carried packages?”
“Most did not know. Items were placed inside equipment, supply boxes, sports bags. A field trip could move something across the county without suspicion.”
“And Evelyn found out?”
“She followed Victoria into one of the tunnels.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because your father found her.”
Jasmine’s pulse quickened.
“Was she alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where is she now?”
Elena looked down.
“Aaron tried to take her to the police. Before he could, Celeste intercepted them.”
“What did Celeste do?”
“I don’t know. Aaron came home terrified. He gave me the compass and said that if anything happened, I had to protect the last route.”
“You gave the compass to me.”
“He told me to.”
“Why?”
“Because the mechanism only responds to someone in his family.”
Jasmine remembered the hidden door opening beneath the library.
Her father had designed the lock.
“What is the last route?”
Elena pushed the envelope toward her.
Inside was an old county map with several sections cut away.
A handwritten sentence ran across the top.
THE ROUTE ENDS WHERE THE BELLS RING UNDERGROUND.
At the bottom was a date.
The coming Friday.
The day of Jasmine’s disciplinary hearing.
“What happens Friday?” Jasmine asked.
May you like
Elena’s face was full of fear.
“The Crossroad network is being activated again.”
