Chapter 7 - THE BROTHER WALTER NEVER KNEW
Police moved Sarah and Emily to a protected floor.
Walter refused protection for himself.
Marcus forced him to accept it.
They spent the morning reconstructing Daniel’s past.
The truth was uglier than Walter imagined.
Daniel had been obsessed with Evelyn before Walter married her.
Letters proved it.
Evelyn had rejected him.
Daniel never forgave Walter.
After Evelyn died from an aneurysm, Daniel convinced himself Walter’s neglect had caused it.
Then he took Rebecca.
Not for money.
For revenge.
“He wanted me to feel what he felt.”
Walter stared at the files.
Marcus nodded.
“And he spent thirty-one years making sure you did.”
Walter looked sick.
Sarah sat across from him.
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have.”
“You were looking for your daughter.”
“My own brother stood beside me.”
Walter’s voice cracked.
“He hugged me at her memorial service.”
Sarah reached across the table.
For the first time, she touched Walter’s hand.
He looked at her.
“We’re going to find her.”
Walter nodded.
Then Marcus entered.
“We have something.”
Traffic cameras had captured the gray SUV.
It traveled north.
They traced it to an abandoned nursing facility near the Wisconsin border.
A tactical team prepared to enter.
Walter wanted to go.
Marcus refused.
Sarah wanted to go.
Marcus refused more loudly.
They waited in a command vehicle.
Gunfire erupted inside.
Walter stood.
Marcus ordered him down.
Minutes felt like hours.
Then officers emerged.
“No Rebecca.”
They found blood.
Rope.
A chair.
And another message.
Walter read it.
YOU WERE ALWAYS TOO LATE.
Sarah kicked the wall.
“Damn him!”
Marcus studied a map.
“He moved her before we arrived.”
“How did he know?”
Sarah asked.
Marcus froze.
Someone had warned Daniel.
Someone inside law enforcement.
Walter remembered the original investigation.
One detective had repeatedly discouraged him.
Detective Harold Price.
Now retired.
Marcus searched his name.
Harold Price had received unexplained payments from Daniel’s shell companies for twenty years.
Marcus whispered, “There’s our leak.”
They arrested Price that afternoon.
The seventy-six-year-old former detective denied everything.
Until Marcus placed Rebecca’s photograph in front of him.
Price looked away.
Walter slammed both hands on the table.
“Where is my daughter?”
Price remained silent.
Walter leaned closer.
“Thirty-one years.”
Price finally looked at him.
“You don’t understand Daniel.”
“Then explain him.”
“He doesn’t want money.”
“I know.”
“He wants you to choose.”
“Choose what?”
Price smiled sadly.
“Your daughter or your granddaughter.”
Walter’s face went white.
Price leaned back.
“He’s building the same moment again.”
“What moment?”
“The day Rebecca disappeared.”
Walter whispered, “I was late.”
“Exactly.”
Price looked at the clock.
“And this time, whichever woman you reach second dies.”
Marcus grabbed him.
“WHERE?”
Price laughed.
“Two places.”
“Where?”
“One is where Evelyn died.”
Walter knew immediately.
Their old lake house.
“And the other?”
Price looked at Sarah.
“The school where Rebecca disappeared.”
Sarah’s phone rang.
Emily’s hospital room.
She answered.
“Hello?”
A nurse screamed through the phone.
“Ms. Carter, Emily is gone.”
May you like
Sarah dropped the phone.
Daniel had taken her daughter.
