Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN IN THE BASEMENT
Detective Coleman took my phone immediately.
Nobody let me go to Rose's house.
Not alone.
Not with them.
Not at all.
Police surrounded the property within thirty minutes.
I watched through a live video feed from the hospital.
The basement was empty.
No woman.
No ropes.
No Richard.
Only a wooden chair.
And one message painted across the concrete wall.
STOP DIGGING.
Eleanor stared at the screen.
"She's alive."
Coleman wasn't convinced.
"The photograph could be old."
"I know my daughter."
"Mrs. Hale—"
"I know her."
Her voice broke.
"That was Caroline."
The hospital room went quiet.
Then Travis appeared in the doorway.
He looked exhausted.
His shirt was wrinkled.
There was dried blood on one sleeve.
Mine.
He looked at Eleanor.
She recognized him.
"You're Daniel Cole's son."
Travis nodded.
"Yes, ma'am."
"Your father tried to help us."
Travis frowned.
"What?"
Eleanor looked surprised.
"He never told you?"
"Told me what?"
"Your father was the last person who saw Caroline before she disappeared."
Travis sat down slowly.
"My father died believing he caused something terrible."
Eleanor looked at him.
"He tried to save her."
Travis's face changed.
"What happened?"
Eleanor explained.
Caroline had discovered Richard's embezzlement.
Daniel Cole had been a young corporate security investigator.
He helped Caroline copy financial records.
The night she disappeared, Daniel drove her to meet Rose.
But somebody followed them.
Daniel was attacked.
Caroline vanished.
Rose escaped with the baby.
Me.
Travis stared at the floor.
"My father had nightmares about that night."
Then he looked at me.
"Before he died, he gave me something."
"What?"
"A storage key."
Eleanor stood.
"Where?"
Travis swallowed.
"I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"He told me I'd understand when I saw the jade."
Everyone stared at him.
My pulse quickened.
"The pendant?"
Travis nodded.
"He said those exact words."
When I see the jade.
"Where is the key?"
"At my apartment."
Coleman immediately sent two officers.
They returned forty minutes later.
The key opened a private storage locker registered under Daniel Cole's name.
Inside was a metal box.
A cassette recorder.
Several photographs.
And an envelope addressed to:
THE GIRL WITH CAROLINE'S EYES.
Me.
My hands shook as Coleman gave it to me.
Inside was a handwritten note.
Emily,
If you are reading this, then Rose kept her promise.
Richard Bennett is dangerous.
But Richard is not the person you should fear most.
He never planned Caroline's disappearance.
He only helped cover it up.
My heart began hammering.
I kept reading.
The person who ordered Caroline taken was someone Eleanor trusted completely.
Someone who had access to the Hale estate.
Someone who knew about the investigation.
Someone who has spent decades making sure Caroline could never come home.
At the bottom was one final sentence.
The evidence is hidden inside the jade.
I looked at the pendant.
Travis took it carefully.
He examined the metal frame.
Then pressed a tiny notch beside the clasp.
Click.
The jade stone separated from its backing.
Inside was a microfilm strip.
Coleman stared.
"My God."
The microfilm contained bank records.
Names.
Transfers.
Offshore accounts.
And one signature appeared again and again.
Victor Hale.
Eleanor's younger brother.
She stared at the name.
"No."
Her attorney stepped closer.
"Eleanor."
"No."
Victor had been beside her for forty years.
He managed the family foundation.
He attended every Christmas.
Every birthday.
Every memorial held for Caroline.
And according to the records hidden inside my necklace, Victor had stolen more than forty million dollars.
Richard had helped him.
Caroline had discovered them.
Coleman immediately ordered officers to Victor Hale's estate.
They arrived too late.
Victor was gone.
But something was waiting inside his study.
A recently printed photograph.
It showed me leaving the hospital.
Taken less than an hour earlier.
Someone was watching us.
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
A woman's voice whispered.
"Emily?"
My entire body went still.
"Yes?"
She began crying.
Then she said five words.
"I'm your mother, sweetheart."
May you like
A crash sounded behind her.
The line went dead.
