Chapter 10 - SOMEONE CAME FOR NOAH INSIDE THE HOSPITALSecurity around Noah doubled.
Richard wanted armed guards.
The hospital refused weapons inside the pediatric wing but stationed officers nearby.
Claire remained missing.
Paul Mercer did not answer calls.
Thomas Avery’s cabin was empty.
David Bennett might be at the mountain lodge.
Police obtained warrants.
Before they could move, someone tried to take Noah.
It happened at 2:17 a.m.
A man wearing hospital scrubs entered the pediatric floor with a valid temporary badge.
He carried a transport chart.
He told a nurse Noah needed imaging.
The nurse checked the system.
An imaging order existed.
Signed electronically by Dr. Collins.
It was fake.
The man reached Noah’s room.
Richard was asleep in the chair beside him.
The door opened.
Something woke him.
Not sound.
Instinct.
He opened his eyes.
A stranger stood beside Noah’s bed.
Richard lunged before thinking.
The man ran.
Hospital security caught him near the elevator.
His name was Eric Sloan.
Former private security contractor.
He refused to speak.
Brooks found $30,000 cash in his car.
And a burner phone.
One text:
BRING THE BOY TO WINTER HOUSE.
Michael read it and turned white.
“David.”
Richard nodded.
Noah began crying when officers questioned him.
Richard stopped them.
“He’s done for tonight.”
Back inside, Noah whispered:
“Grandpa?”
“Yes?”
“Why do they want me?”
Richard wished he could lie.
Instead:
“Because your mom knew something important.”
“Am I in trouble?”
“No.”
“Did Mom do something bad?”
Richard’s chest tightened.
“No. She tried to stop people who were doing bad things.”
Noah thought.
“Like superheroes?”
Richard smiled sadly.
“Something like that.”
“Did they hurt her?”
Richard didn’t answer quickly enough.
Noah understood.
Children often did.
The boy looked at his hands.
“I remember another thing.”
“What?”
“Mom had a box.”
Richard leaned closer.
“What box?”
“Blue.”
“Where?”
“At Grandma’s.”
Richard frowned.
Sarah’s mother, Linda Carter, lived in Maine.
She had moved after Sarah died.
Noah continued.
“She told me if she went away, I should tell Grandpa about the blue box.”
“Which Grandpa?”
Noah pointed at Richard.
His heart stopped.
“Why didn’t you tell me before?”
“I forgot.”
He was three when Sarah died.
Of course he forgot.
A child’s memory had become an archive adults failed to understand.
Richard called Linda immediately.
She answered on the fourth ring.
“Richard?”
“Do you have a blue box that belonged to Sarah?”
Silence.
“Linda.”
Her voice changed.
“How do you know?”
“Noah remembered.”
Linda began crying.
“Oh God.”
“What’s inside?”
“I don’t know.”
“You never opened it?”
“Sarah told me not to.”
“Why?”
“She said someone would come looking.”
Richard looked toward the hallway.
“Has anyone?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
His blood went cold.
“Who?”
“A woman.”
“When?”
“Two days ago.”
“Description?”
“Long brown hair. About forty.”
Claire.
“Did you give it to her?”
“No.”
“Where is it?”
Silence.
“Linda.”
“I moved it.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere Sarah told me.”
“Where?”
Linda was afraid.
Richard could hear it.
Finally she said:
“Your wife’s grave.”
Richard froze.
His wife.
Margaret Bennett.
Michael’s mother.
Dead nine years.
Sarah had hidden something at Margaret’s grave.
“Why there?”
“I don’t know.”
Brooks arranged officers.
Richard and Michael drove to the family cemetery before dawn.
Margaret’s grave stood beneath an old oak.
Behind the headstone, buried inside a waterproof container, they found a blue metal box.
No forced damage.
Claire had not found it.
The brass key from Noah’s dinosaur opened it.
Inside were three things.
A handwritten journal.
A voice recorder.
And a DNA test.
Michael picked it up.
His face changed.
“What?”
Richard asked.
Michael turned it over.
The names:
Sarah Bennett.
And—
David Bennett.
Richard’s heart began pounding.
“What relationship?”
Michael opened it.
Probability of biological parentage:
99.999%.
Richard stared.
David Bennett was Sarah’s biological father.
Which meant the man hunting Noah was not only Richard’s brother.
May you like
He was Noah’s great-grandfather.
And Sarah had apparently discovered the truth shortly before she died.
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