Chapter 7 - Cabin Nine
Police did not allow Daniel to accompany the tactical team.
He argued.
Ruiz refused.
He argued again.
She refused more firmly.
Rachel finally told him what everyone else was thinking.
“You going there helps no one.”
Daniel hated being helpless.
He hated waiting in a police command vehicle two miles from Blue Heron Cabins while officers moved through the property.
Ethan was at home with Rosa and a uniformed officer stationed outside.
Daniel watched the clock.
4:03.
4:08.
4:16.
No update.
At 4:19, Ruiz’s radio crackled.
Movement.
Cabin nine.
Possible adult male.
Daniel leaned forward.
A second message came.
White cargo van confirmed.
Then.
One male detained.
Daniel’s heart lifted.
“Grant?”
Ruiz listened.
Her expression changed.
“No.”
“Wade.”
Daniel’s stomach dropped.
“Where are the kids?”
Ruiz did not answer.
Radio traffic intensified.
Cabin nine empty.
Cabin ten empty.
Rear trail footprints.
Fresh tire marks.
Grant had moved them again.
Wade had been left behind.
Police arrested him on an outstanding financial-fraud warrant discovered during the expanding investigation.
But Maya and Caleb were gone.
Inside cabin nine, officers found evidence they had been there.
An empty pediatric inhaler box.
A yellow ribbon from Maya’s dress.
Two juice boxes.
And a torn page from a road atlas.
Pine Hollow to Westbridge.
Ruiz believed Grant had planted it.
Daniel agreed.
Too obvious.
Wade refused to talk.
Until Ruiz showed him photographs from the Jefferson house.
Then she mentioned Julia.
Something in Wade changed.
He asked for an attorney.
That alone told Daniel enough.
Julia was not simply a woman who had left.
At 6:30, Ruiz emerged from the interview room.
“Wade made one statement before counsel arrived.”
“What?”
“He said Grant ruined everything when Julia found the ledger.”
“What ledger?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
Daniel thought of Unit 314.
Rebecca’s hidden papers.
Financial records.
“Could the ledger have been in the storage unit?”
“Possibly.”
“Then why didn’t Grant destroy it years ago?”
“Maybe he couldn’t find it.”
Daniel froze.
Maya’s note.
Unit 314.
Perhaps she did not know what was there.
Perhaps Julia had hidden something before disappearing.
Ruiz continued.
“Wade also said something else.”
“What?”
“Grant doesn’t want Maya dead.”
Daniel stared at her.
“That’s supposed to reassure me?”
“No.”
“Because the reason is worse.”
Daniel waited.
“Maya knows where Julia hid the original records.”
Daniel felt cold.
“She’s twelve.”
“She may not know she knows.”
“What does that mean?”
“Children remember places.”
“Objects.”
“Things adults said around them.”
“If Julia hid something and involved Maya without explaining it, Grant may believe she can lead him to it.”
Daniel thought of the storage unit note.
Maya had known exactly where to send them.
“What if she already did?”
“What if Unit 314 was the place?”
Ruiz shook her head.
“Then Grant wouldn’t still need her.”
That was the part Daniel wished she had not said.
At 8:12, Ethan called again.
“Dad.”
“Hey.”
“Did you find her?”
“Not yet.”
Ethan went quiet.
Daniel heard him breathing.
Then Ethan said, “I remembered something.”
“What?”
“The first day I met Maya, she wasn’t printing homework.”
Daniel sat straighter.
“What was she printing?”
“A map.”
“What map?”
“I don’t know.”
“She closed it when I walked over.”
“Think.”
“Ethan, this matters.”
“I know.”
His son’s breathing quickened.
“Don’t rush.”
Daniel softened his voice.
“Picture the library.”
“You’re standing near the printer.”
“What do you see?”
Ethan was silent.
Then.
“There was water.”
“On the map?”
“Yes.”
“A lake?”
“Maybe.”
“And numbers.”
“What numbers?”
“Like coordinates?”
“I don’t know.”
“Was there a name?”
Another pause.
“Bell.”
Daniel frowned.
“Bell?”
“Or Belle.”
“Something Mill.”
Ruiz was already searching.
Belle Mill.
Bell’s Mill.
Old Bell Mill Road.
Then a result appeared.
Bellamy Mill Reservoir.
Twenty-six miles west.
Daniel’s pulse jumped.
“Ethan.”
“Yes?”
“Did Maya ever talk about a reservoir?”
“No.”
“But she talked about a bridge.”
“What bridge?”
“She said her mom used to take them somewhere with a red bridge.”
Ruiz pulled up satellite images.
At the northern end of Bellamy Reservoir stood an abandoned railway trestle.
Painted red.
Nearby was an old textile mill.
Daniel looked at the map.
A building sat beside the water.
Its owner made everything worse.
North Crest Restoration.
May you like
The dissolved company.
Grant’s old shell contractor.
