Chapter 9 - The Summer Evelyn Was SevenEvelyn had not thought about Lake Geneva in years.
Not seriously.
The memory existed like an old photograph left too long in sunlight.
Faded.
Incomplete.
She had been seven.
Victoria was only two.
Their parents rented a house near the lake for the summer while Charles negotiated the purchase of the family's second hotel.
One afternoon, Evelyn wandered away from the backyard.
She remembered following music.
A radio playing somewhere among the trees.
Then a boy.
Older than her.
Maybe ten.
Maybe eleven.
He was crying.
There was blood on his shirt.
“Mom?”
Sophie pulled Evelyn back to the hotel suite.
Everyone was watching.
Evelyn sat slowly.
“I found a boy.”
Diane's face changed.
She knew.
Victoria stared.
“What boy?”
Evelyn looked at her mother.
“You told me he was fine.”
Diane sat beside her.
“He was.”
“Who was he?”
“I don't know.”
“You do.”
Diane hesitated.
“His name was Adam.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
The name returned.
Adam.
He had been hiding behind an abandoned boathouse.
He told Evelyn his father was angry.
He said men were looking for him.
Evelyn brought him food from the rental house.
A peanut-butter sandwich.
A bottle of water.
Then Charles found them.
Her father became terrified.
Not angry.
Terrified.
He took Adam inside.
Police came later.
Evelyn remembered being sent upstairs.
“What happened?” Victoria asked.
Diane spoke quietly.
“Adam Hale had been abducted.”
Silence.
Evelyn looked toward the door Preston had left through earlier.
“Hale.”
Diane nodded.
“Preston's brother.”
Everything inside Evelyn went cold.
“Preston had a brother?”
“Yes.”
“What happened to him?”
“He was returned to his family.”
“Then why would Dad mention it thirty years later?”
Diane looked troubled.
“Because Adam disappeared again.”
“When?”
“Six months later.”
“Was he found?”
“No.”
Sophie hugged Buddy tighter.
This story suddenly felt too dark for a child, but she refused to leave.
Evelyn continued.
“What does that have to do with Preston?”
“I don't know.”
Detective Bennett immediately began checking databases.
Adam Hale.
Missing child.
Wisconsin.
The record existed.
Ten-year-old Adam disappeared from his family's home near Milwaukee.
Never found.
Preston had been four years old.
Different age from the boy Evelyn remembered.
Evelyn frowned.
“That doesn't work.”
“What?”
“If Adam was ten and Preston was four…”
She looked at Charles's letter.
“Why would Preston care what happened when he barely remembered him?”
Diane whispered:
“Maybe he remembers more than we think.”
The detective looked at the family.
“Was Charles involved in the original kidnapping investigation?”
Diane shook her head.
“Only because Evelyn found Adam.”
“What about the second disappearance?”
“No.”
“Did Charles keep anything from that summer?”
Diane thought.
Then suddenly looked toward the safe.
She removed a small wooden box.
Inside were photographs.
Old keys.
A silver watch.
And a child's plastic whistle.
Blue.
Evelyn recognized it immediately.
“Adam's.”
“He gave it to you.”
“I forgot.”
“He told you it was lucky.”
Sophie reached toward it but stopped.
“What does it do?”
“It's just a whistle.”
Evelyn picked it up.
Something rattled inside.
Everyone froze.
It shouldn't rattle.
Detective Bennett took it carefully.
The plastic seam was old.
She twisted the base.
It opened.
Inside was a tiny rolled strip of paper.
Diane gasped.
Charles must have discovered it later and hidden the whistle.
The detective unrolled the paper.
A sequence of numbers.
And one name.
Bennett.
Detective Laura Bennett stared.
“No relation,” she said immediately.
Evelyn almost laughed despite everything.
The numbers resembled a bank account.
Diane whispered:
“Charles thought Preston wanted something we've had for thirty years.”
Evelyn looked at the whistle.
“This.”
Maybe.
But why?
A missing boy.
A thirty-year-old account number.
Preston's obsession with the Whitmores.
The fraud.
The marriage.
It was bigger than control of hotels.
Victoria sat beside her sister.
“Do you think Preston married me because of this?”
The question hurt.
Evelyn wanted to say no.
Couldn't.
“We don't know.”
Victoria looked down at her wedding ring.
Then removed it.
She placed it on the table.
Sophie watched.
“Aunt Victoria?”
“Yes?”
“Are you still married?”
Victoria stared at the ring.
“Technically.”
“Do you love him?”
Victoria's eyes filled.
“I thought I did.”
Buddy suddenly lifted his head.
Footsteps approached outside the owner's suite.
Martin Cole had stationed security at the elevator.
Someone knocked.
“Mrs. Whitmore?”
Martin's voice.
Diane opened the door.
He entered quickly.
“Preston left the hotel.”
Detective Bennett stood.
“We know.”
“No.”
Martin looked alarmed.
“He didn't leave through the lobby.”
“What do you mean?”
“His car is still downstairs.”
“Then where is he?”
Martin held up a hotel master key.
“We found this in the service elevator.”
The key belonged to Preston.
Evelyn's pulse accelerated.
Martin continued.
“One of our emergency stairwell cameras caught him going down.”
“How far?”
“He stopped on nineteen.”
Victoria frowned.
“The accounting floor.”
Martin nodded.
Preston hadn't fled.
He was still inside the Whitmore Hotel.
May you like
And now that he knew the audit had been found—
He was destroying whatever evidence remained.
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