Chapter 13 - Beneath Bennett RiverPolice reached Bennett River twenty-three minutes later.
Sarah was ordered to remain at the hospital.
She didn't.
Emma was transferred to a secure pediatric unit under armed protection, and Sarah drove behind a patrol car toward the development.
She hated leaving her daughter.
But Daniel was missing because of secrets that had been circling his family for decades.
Sarah was finished waiting for other people to tell her pieces of the truth.
Bennett River looked eerie at night.
Half-built luxury homes stood along muddy streets beneath construction lights.
The Harpeth River moved black beyond the trees.
Daniel's truck sat near the unfinished clubhouse.
Door open.
No Daniel.
Ortiz met Sarah beside the police command vehicle.
“You were told to stay at the hospital.”
“My husband is here.”
“We don't know that.”
“Linda does.”
Sarah explained the basement.
Ortiz's anger disappeared immediately.
“Show me.”
Linda had sent directions.
The original construction office had stood beneath what was now the clubhouse parking structure.
Old architectural plans revealed a foundation cavity not included in the new blueprints.
Officers found a steel hatch beneath plywood flooring.
Locked.
On the metal surface was a narrow keyhole.
Daniel's father's watch lay on the floor beside it.
Broken.
“They opened it,” Sarah whispered.
A tactical team entered.
The room below smelled of mildew and old concrete.
Nobody was there.
But someone had been minutes earlier.
A portable lamp remained warm.
Dust had been disturbed.
An old safe stood open.
Empty.
Except for one cassette tape.
Ortiz pressed play using equipment brought from the command vehicle.
Robert Miller's voice emerged through static.
“If Wade has reached this room, then I failed.”
Daniel's father had recorded the message twenty-one years earlier.
“I kept copies because I stopped trusting everyone.”
Sarah looked at Ortiz.
“Everyone?”
Robert continued.
“Wade knows Linda helped me hide the records.”
Sarah froze.
Linda had helped Robert?
The story shifted again.
“She told me the affair was over. I believed her.”
Robert described discovering Wade's invoice fraud.
When he confronted him, Linda confessed that Wade had been blackmailing her with evidence of their affair.
But Robert suspected she wasn't telling the whole truth.
“I love my wife,” Robert said. “But I don't know whether she wants Wade gone or simply wants control over him.”
Then:
“If Daniel ever hears this, son, none of what happened is your fault.”
Daniel wasn't there to hear it.
Sarah wished he were.
The tape continued.
“The original ledger is not here.”
Ortiz looked toward the empty safe.
Of course.
“I moved it somewhere Wade would never search.”
Static swallowed several words.
Then Robert said:
“Where Linda first betrayed me.”
The tape ended.
Sarah immediately thought of the affair.
Where had Linda and Wade first met?
She called Linda.
“Where did you first sleep with Wade?”
Silence.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“Sarah—”
“Daniel has been kidnapped. Answer.”
Linda's voice became small.
“A motel.”
“Where?”
“It doesn't exist anymore.”
“Address.”
“Highway 100. Near Bellevue.”
Ortiz searched.
The old Willow Creek Motor Lodge had been demolished fifteen years ago.
A pharmacy occupied the site.
Dead end.
Sarah closed her eyes.
“Where else?”
Linda hesitated.
“We didn't first betray Robert physically.”
“What does that mean?”
“The first time I helped Wade, I gave him information.”
“Where?”
“At Robert's office.”
“The one we're standing under?”
“No.”
“Then where?”
Linda began crying.
“At church.”
Sarah frowned.
“You gave Wade information at church?”
“Our family attended Grace Chapel in Brentwood.”
“What did you give him?”
“Robert's bid documents.”
“Where inside?”
“The nursery.”
Ortiz had been listening.
She was already moving.
Grace Chapel still existed.
Renovated, expanded, but open.
Police reached it at 1:07 a.m.
A side door had been forced.
Sarah's heart pounded.
“They're here.”
Officers entered.
The children's nursery was empty.
A section of drywall had been cut away behind a built-in cabinet.
Inside was a narrow metal case.
Open.
Wade had gotten there first.
But a security camera outside the church captured the vehicle leaving.
A dark SUV.
License plate visible.
Ortiz radioed the number.
Then Sarah noticed something on the nursery floor.
Blood.
Fresh.
Several drops.
More leading toward the side exit.
“Daniel?”
Forensics couldn't know yet.
Sarah followed the trail until Ortiz stopped her.
Near the doorway lay a torn piece of fabric.
Sarah recognized it.
Daniel's shirt.
Her phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered instantly.
Daniel's voice.
“Sarah.”
She nearly collapsed.
“Where are you?”
“I don't know.”
He sounded weak.
“Are you hurt?”
“Listen to me.”
“Daniel—”
“Wade has the ledger.”
Sarah closed her eyes.
“What does he want now?”
“He says the ledger isn't enough.”
“What else?”
“Account access.”
“What account?”
“Offshore money.”
Sarah frowned.
“I don't understand.”
“Neither did I.”
His breathing quickened.
Then he whispered:
“The money they've been stealing from my company isn't missing.”
“What?”
“It was never Wade's plan to spend it.”
“Then why steal it?”
Daniel's answer came just before someone ripped the phone away.
“To buy my company without me knowing.”
The line died.
Sarah stared into the dark church.
May you like
Wade hadn't been robbing Daniel.
He had been quietly acquiring him.
Related Stories
