Chapter 9 - THE GIRL WHO HAD NO LAST NAME
Briarwood Academy wasn't an academy.
Not anymore.
It had closed five years earlier.
The property sat behind rusted gates surrounded by pine forest.
Reed brought state police.
Federal agents were now involved.
So was an investigator named Agent Naomi Brooks.
She had been quietly investigating missing foster children for eighteen months.
Michael's files gave her what she had never possessed.
A map.
Briarwood was one point on it.
Miller Road was another.
There were eleven more.
Police entered Briarwood shortly before sunset.
Most rooms were empty.
But the basement wasn't.
They found computers.
Records.
Photographs.
And a locked room containing children's belongings organized by year.
Shoes.
Backpacks.
Stuffed animals.
Bracelets.
Names had been removed.
Numbers replaced them.
Agent Brooks found file 17-EM.
Inside was a photograph of a little girl.
Dark hair.
Hazel eyes.
A familiar smile.
She looked exactly like Caleb.
Reed called Daniel into the room.
Daniel saw the photograph.
His knees gave out.
“Emma.”
She was alive.
At least she had been alive when the photograph was taken.
The image was dated only seven months earlier.
Caleb had a sister.
And Victoria Crane had known for thirteen years.
But the file contained something else.
A current placement address.
Not a foster home.
Not an institution.
A private residence.
Owned by Victoria Crane.
By midnight, police surrounded the estate.
But Victoria was gone.
So was Emma.
On the dining room table, they found two plates.
One still warm.
Victoria had left minutes before officers arrived.
Beside the plate was an envelope.
It was addressed to me.
LAURA HAYES.
Inside was a single photograph.
Michael.
Alive.
The date printed on the bottom was two months after his funeral.
My hands stopped working.
Reed caught the photograph before I dropped it.
“No.”
I stared at it.
“No.”
Michael stood beside a white wall.
He looked thinner.
Older.
But it was him.
There was no question.
May you like
On the back, Victoria had written one sentence.
IF YOU WANT THE CHILDREN, FIND YOUR HUSBAND FIRST.
