Chapter 16 - The Yellow CabinThe drive to Big Sur took hours.
Police helicopters could have arrived faster.
But the archive was hidden in a privately owned cabin with a mechanical lock system Anna insisted might destroy the contents if forced.
Lena called it “the most melodramatic family security system in California.”
Anna almost smiled.
Mia stayed with June in a protected vehicle behind the police convoy.
She wasn't supposed to enter.
Again.
This time she didn't argue much.
The yellow cabin stood among redwoods overlooking the ocean.
Small.
Weathered.
Nothing like Sterling wealth.
Mia remembered rain on the windows.
Anna making pancakes.
The guitar on the table.
Her first eleven notes.
Police searched the property.
No Graham.
No sign of forced entry.
Anna led Lena inside.
Mia waited outside.
Ten minutes.
Twenty.
Then Anna came out.
Face pale.
“It's gone.”
Mia's stomach dropped.
“The archive?”
“The compartment is empty.”
“How?”
“The lock wasn't forced.”
Lena looked at Mia.
“Someone had the combination.”
Anna stared toward the cabin.
“The last three notes.”
Mia froze.
“Graham didn't know them.”
“Then someone gave them to him.”
Everyone looked at Charlotte's police transport vehicle parked farther down the road.
Charlotte had been brought because investigators believed she could identify hidden Sterling properties nearby.
Anna walked toward the car.
Lena stopped her.
“Don't.”
Anna ignored her.
Charlotte sat inside behind reinforced glass.
Anna shouted through the open front window,
“You gave him the ending!”
Charlotte stared.
“No.”
“The archive is gone.”
Charlotte's face changed.
“What?”
“Only someone with the final sequence could open it.”
“I didn't know the sequence.”
“You heard Mia play it.”
“The false one.”
Mia remembered.
Correct.
Charlotte hadn't heard real ending.
Who had?
Anna.
Mia.
Julian.
Maybe—
June.
Everyone slowly turned.
June went still.
Mia whispered,
“Aunt June?”
June's face collapsed.
“No.”
Anna stared.
“You knew the song.”
“We grew up together.”
“The last three?”
June looked away.
Anna's voice became cold.
“You knew them.”
June began crying.
“I didn't know what they opened.”
Mia stepped backward.
Nora moved beside her.
June continued.
“Graham called me years ago.”
Anna looked destroyed.
“You talked to him?”
“He said he could clear my debts.”
“What debts?”
“Mom's medical bills.”
Anna laughed bitterly.
“You told me insurance covered them.”
“I lied.”
“How long?”
June's tears fell.
“Seven years.”
Mia's stomach turned.
Another adult with fear.
Another secret.
Anna whispered,
“You gave Graham the ending.”
“Not then.”
“When?”
June covered her face.
“Yesterday.”
Mia stopped breathing.
“Why?”
“He said he had Anna.”
Mia stared.
“He did.”
June looked at her.
“He sent me a photo. He said if I didn't give him the notes, he'd kill her.”
Anna became silent.
June whispered,
“I thought I was saving you.”
There it was.
The sentence.
Again.
Mia started crying.
“Everybody keeps saving people by giving bad people what they want.”
June looked shattered.
“I know.”
Lena asked,
“Where did Graham tell you to send the notes?”
“Encrypted message.”
“Show me.”
June handed over her phone.
Lena examined it.
Then froze.
“What?”
The detective enlarged metadata.
“This message wasn't sent to Graham.”
June looked confused.
“What?”
“It routed through a Sterling corporate server.”
Anna's eyes narrowed.
Victor.
But Victor was under guard.
Unless someone else used the server.
Lena traced the internal access.
One user.
Charlotte Sterling.
Everyone turned toward Charlotte's vehicle.
Charlotte looked back through the glass.
Calm.
Too calm.
Mia's stomach dropped.
Charlotte had lied.
Again.
She had known the real ending.
Maybe not from Mia.
From June.
Anna walked toward the car slowly.
Charlotte's expression changed.
The warm mask disappeared.
Not because Mia was hugging her this time.
Because she knew the game was over.
Anna whispered,
“You sent the message pretending to be Graham.”
Charlotte said nothing.
“You made June give you the ending.”
Still nothing.
Mia stepped closer.
“Why?”
Charlotte finally looked at her.
And smiled.
The same small, sinister smile from the rooftop.
“Because Graham was never the person I was afraid of.”
Mia's blood went cold.
May you like
Charlotte leaned toward the glass.
“I was afraid of what Julian left behind about me.”
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