Chapter 9 - Someone Came Back
For the rest of the day, Emma pretended to become weaker.
It was not difficult.
Although she had stopped taking the replacement medicine, the earlier doses continued to leave her exhausted and dizzy. She moved slowly, spoke softly, and allowed Jason to believe she had accepted his explanation.
Jason relaxed as the afternoon progressed.
He packed his suitcase for the lodge, changed into a dark jacket, and spent twenty minutes arranging his hair in the bathroom mirror.
His hidden phone rang twice.
Both times, he stepped outside to answer.
At three forty-five, he entered the nursery.
Noah was awake inside the crib. Emma sat beside him, gripping the arm of the rocking chair.
Jason placed the dark tablet on the medicine table.
“I need to see you take it before I leave.”
Emma stared at it.
“You said your mother wasn’t coming.”
“She isn’t.”
“Then who will check on us?”
“I’ll call Mrs. Alden.”
“You cut the landline.”
Jason’s expression changed.
Emma reached into the diaper bag and removed the original prescription bottle.
“You hid this downstairs.”
Jason looked from the bottle to her face.
“Where did you find it?”
“The same place I found Caroline’s security code.”
He stepped toward her.
Emma held up her phone.
“I sent pictures of everything.”
It was a bluff. The weak signal had allowed only one message to leave.
Jason did not know that.
“To who?”
“Caleb.”
Jason’s face drained.
“You didn’t.”
“He answered.”
“That isn’t possible.”
“He said he was already on the mountain.”
Jason grabbed his suitcase.
“You’re lying.”
“Stay and find out.”
For a moment, Emma thought he might.
Then his hidden phone rang.
Jason looked at the screen.
His mother.
He answered.
Emma heard Valerie’s voice immediately.
Leave now. The lodge cameras must record your arrival before five.
Jason ended the call.
He reached for Noah.
Emma moved between them.
“Don’t touch him.”
“He’s my son.”
“Then act like his father and call an ambulance.”
“You don’t need one.”
“Something is wrong.”
“You’re panicking.”
“I can’t feel my hands.”
The words finally unsettled him.
Jason looked toward the dark tablet.
For one second, guilt appeared in his eyes.
Then he pulled his jacket from Emma’s grasp.
“Stop ruining my birthday. Mom said you’ll be fine.”
He walked out.
Emma followed as far as the doorway before her strength failed. Her phone slipped from her hand and landed on the rug.
Jason looked back.
He could still have helped her.
Instead, he continued downstairs.
The front door closed.
His pickup truck started.
Emma crawled toward the phone but could not reach it.
The nursery door remained open.
She heard the truck drive away.
Then the front door opened again.
Slow footsteps crossed the cabin and climbed the staircase.
A shadow stopped in the doorway.
Emma looked up in terror.
“Emma,” the man said. “Don’t move. Jason never told you what he put inside your medicine.”
The stranger stepped into the light.
He was older than the man in the hidden photograph, and the scar beside his temple had deepened. His coat was wet from the mountain mist.
“Caleb.”
He crouched beside the medicine bottle.
“What’s inside isn’t what your doctor prescribed.”
“What did he give me?”
“I don’t know yet, but we need to preserve it.”
He called emergency dispatch from a satellite phone.
As he spoke, the basement security system chimed.
The lower garage door opened.
Caleb moved to the window.
A black SUV emerged from beneath the house and disappeared through the trees.
“I thought Jason was the only person here,” Emma whispered.
Caleb ended the call.
“So did I.”
He looked down at the silver key Jason had dropped beside the medicine table.
“This key belonged to our father.”
“Jason said Richard died.”
Caleb closed his fingers around the key.
“Jason has said a lot of things.”
Sirens sounded faintly beyond the mountain.
Caleb opened the nursery closet and found the attic access panel.
“You used the crawlspace?”
“Yes.”
“Good. That means you can still think clearly.”
“Will Noah be safe?”
Caleb looked toward the crib.
“He will be now.”
Another sound came from downstairs.
The old landline rang.
Caleb and Emma stared toward the hallway.
The wire had been cut.
Yet the ringing continued.
Caleb answered using the kitchen extension.
A distorted voice spoke through the receiver.
“You were supposed to stay gone.”
Caleb gripped the phone.
“Who is this?”
The caller laughed softly.
Then the line disconnected.
May you like
Caleb checked the display.
The call had come from the lodge where Jason’s birthday dinner was beginning.
