Chapter 10 - Beneath the Greenhouse
Adrian wanted to run straight to the greenhouse. Harris stopped him.
“If there's someone hiding there, we go carefully. If it's evidence, we don't trample it. If it's a trap, we don't walk into it.”
Two deputies searched the greenhouse at dawn while Adrian and Mateo waited near the drive. The glass roof held the gray morning like a sheet of ice.
A rusted hatch lay beneath a workbench. Below it was a small storage cellar, once used for seedlings. The deputies found blankets, empty food wrappers, and a rechargeable lantern. No one was inside.
On the wall, a message had been scratched into the paint: DO NOT TRUST KEENE.
Mateo touched his mouth. “Sofia could have been here.”
A deputy found a notebook beneath a loose floorboard. It contained dates, truck numbers, and initials, plus repeated references to the warehouse's old employee transport route.
Nora recognized one entry immediately. “That's the bus my father said he sold after the accident.”
The final page held a drawing of a woman with a crooked smile and a silver heart necklace. Lucy identified her as Sofia. Then she pointed to a line of writing beneath the drawing.
“That's Mom's handwriting.”
The message read: IF I DON'T RETURN, FIND MARA AT THE RIVER CLINIC.
Harris made calls. The River Clinic had operated a confidential support program for displaced workers and their families. Its director, Mara Ellis, was retiring that week.
Adrian was reaching for his keys when his phone rang. The caller identified herself as Mara.
“Don't come to the clinic,” she said. “Your friend Keene has been watching it.”
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“Where is Sofia?”
Mara's breathing shook over the line. “Alive. But she won't be for long if the wrong people find her.”
