Chapter 12 - The House With No Porch Light

A new warrant covered the farm's outbuildings after investigators matched Violet's description to land records and corroborating location data. Leah and her team arrived just before midnight. The main house was dark, but a light shone through a basement vent.

Inside, the investigators found stripped medical carts, children's height charts, and boxes of shredded paperwork. The building had been abandoned in haste. In a side room stood six tiny chairs, only three with names written beneath the seats.

NORA. VIOLET. MAISIE.

A fourth chair was newer. Beneath it was a name no one recognized: BENJI.

Leah sent an urgent welfare request to the statewide child protection network, accompanied by appropriate identifying details and evidence. Paul did not touch the chairs. He could hardly look at them.

Dana found a laptop with its drive removed. Behind it, a wall calendar held appointments written in code. Most were crossed out. One date was circled in red: tomorrow.

The farm's peeling wallpaper showed pale blue flowers. Someone had hung a height chart near a doorway, and a child's pencil had marked a day when she reached three feet ten inches. Dana stared at the uneven line. Every object seemed to carry a normal explanation until it sat next to a locked cabinet and a coded appointment calendar. Then normality became the disguise.

At the hospital Elena received an anonymous call. She answered because the number showed as unknown and she feared it could be news of the girls.

“You always liked playing the hero,” Grant said. “Now tell me where you put my records.”

“I don't have them.”

“Then your new police friends had better find them before the people I owe come looking.”

Elena put the call on speaker for Leah, who was standing beside her. Grant's next words chilled them both.

“Tell Paul his brother can only hide for so long.”

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The call ended. Seconds later a photograph arrived on Elena's phone: Richard Hayes seated in a diner booth, holding that day's newspaper.

He was alive. And someone was watching him.