Chapter 15 - The Boathouse
Vanessa had escaped through an old utility tunnel leading from the storm cellar to the boathouse.
By the time police found the passage, the boat was already moving across Blackwater Lake.
Rain hammered the water.
Lightning flashed over the trees.
Alvarez ordered the county marine unit to intercept.
Richard wanted to go after her.
Anna stopped him.
“No.”
He looked at her, stunned.
“She tried to kill Leo.”
“And Leo needs his father right now.”
That brought him back.
Leo sat wrapped in a police blanket inside an ambulance, one fist locked around Anna’s shirt.
He would not let go.
Richard climbed in beside them.
For a while, none of them spoke.
Then Leo looked at his father.
“Daddy mad?”
Richard’s face crumpled.
“No, buddy. Not at you. Never at you.”
“Vessa mad.”
“I know.”
Leo leaned into him.
The marine unit found Vanessa’s boat drifting near the western shore twenty minutes later.
Empty.
A blood smear marked the steering console.
Her purse was still inside.
So were her phone and shoes.
Alvarez stared at the scene photographs.
“She may have gone overboard.”
Richard said nothing.
Anna did not believe it.
Vanessa had lied too carefully for too long to end by accident.
At dawn, search teams found footprints on the muddy western bank.
Bare feet.
Fresh.
Vanessa was alive.
And she had reached the road.
Police issued a statewide alert.
Catherine refused to speak after asking for an attorney.
Nolan agreed to cooperate fully.
Then, just after sunrise, Alvarez received a call from the hospital.
The guard injured during the break-in had woken with a clearer memory.
He had seen the intruder’s face.
It was not Vanessa.
Not Catherine.
Not Nolan.
It was Dale Kessler, Catherine’s former driver—the same man who had helped kidnap Leo.
Police searched his apartment.
They found forged passports, cash, burner phones, and a document naming a private airfield forty miles west.
One flight was scheduled to leave at 9:20 a.m.
Passenger name:
Victoria Lane.
The passport photograph belonged to Vanessa.
May you like
Richard looked at the clock.
8:41.
