Chapter 7 - The Child No One Knew About
The body was not Cole.
It was the other security man, the one Daniel had seen standing near Richard when he first arrived at the house. His name was Marcus Bell, and he had worked for the Bennett family for fourteen years.
He had been found behind the greenhouse with a single wound beneath his ribs. The gold locket lay beside his hand, its chain broken.
Daniel stood behind the police barrier while Elena examined the ground. Mud covered Marcus’s expensive shoes. His phone was missing, but his right hand held a torn scrap of paper.
Elena unfolded it carefully.
There were three letters written in blue ink.
H H B
“Haven House,” Daniel said.
Elena nodded. “Maybe.”
Victoria stood several feet away with Sophie. She had gone pale when she saw Marcus, but she did not look surprised.
“Did you know he was involved?” Daniel asked.
“I knew he worked for Richard.”
“That is not enough.”
“Marcus was one of the men who came to my apartment after Claire disappeared.”
Daniel stepped closer. “What did they want?”
“They wanted the name of the doctor who treated her.”
“You knew she was alive.”
Victoria looked toward the body. “I knew she was alive when I saw her after the crash. I did not know what happened after that.”
“You saw her?”
Victoria’s face tightened with memory. “She was pulled from the ravine before the car caught fire. I found her near the river. She was unconscious, but she was breathing.”
“Why did you not call the police?”
“I did. Deputy Vale arrived before the ambulance. He told me Claire had been taken to Mercy Ridge.”
“And you believed him?”
“I was nineteen. I had blood on my hands and no idea what was happening.”
Daniel heard Sophie crying softly.
He wanted to ask more, but Elena stopped him. “We need to get inside and search the estate again.”
In the study, officers removed the floorboards and catalogued the hidden compartments. The original black ledger was placed in evidence. The second case contained a medical bracelet, a torn hospital gown, and a photograph of a newborn baby wrapped in a white blanket.
On the back of the photograph was written:
Male. Born August 12. Mother: C.B.
Daniel stared at the image.
The baby had a small dark mark beneath his right eye.
Victoria placed a hand over her mouth.
“That was taken at Haven House,” she whispered.
“How do you know?”
“Because Claire sent it to me.”
Daniel turned toward her. “You knew she gave birth?”
“I knew she survived long enough to give birth.”
“Did you know where the baby went?”
Victoria shook her head. “Claire said the child was safe. She never told me the name.”
Sophie took the photograph from Daniel’s hand. “Is he my brother?”
The question left no room for evasion.
Daniel looked at the little face in the picture. The child could have been Claire’s. The shape of the mouth reminded him of her.
“We do not know yet,” he said.
“But Mom knew.”
“Yes.”
“And she was trying to protect him.”
“Yes.”
Sophie wiped her eyes. “Then we have to find him.”
Detective Price entered with a folder. “I found the doctor.”
Everyone turned.
“Dr. Samuel Orton is alive. He now works under another name in Vermont. I have requested an emergency interview.”
“Did he know Claire?” Daniel asked.
“He claims he treated an unidentified woman at Mercy Ridge, but he says the patient died after surgery.”
Victoria shook her head. “He is lying.”
“How do you know?” Elena asked.
“Because Claire told me he was the only doctor she trusted.”
Elena placed the medical bracelet in an evidence bag. “Then he may be the person who knows what happened to the baby.”
They left before dawn.
The drive to Vermont took five hours. Daniel sat in the back with Sophie. She had not spoken much since seeing the photograph. She held the locket chain in her lap. The locket itself remained in evidence, but the broken chain had been returned to Daniel temporarily.
“Do you think he will be scared of us?” she asked.
“Who?”
“My brother.”
Daniel looked at her reflection in the window. “We do not know if he is alive.”
“Mom believed he was safe.”
“That matters.”
“It matters to me.”
At noon, they reached a small medical practice on the edge of a forest. The building was closed, but Dr. Orton was inside. He opened the door only after Elena showed her badge.
He was an old man with shaking hands and a face that seemed to have aged overnight.
When he saw the photograph, he sat down.
“Her name was Claire,” Daniel said.
Dr. Orton stared at him. “You are Daniel.”
“You knew me?”
“I knew who you were. Claire talked about you.”
“Where is she?”
Dr. Orton looked at Sophie. “She was alive when I last saw her.”
Daniel stepped forward. “Where?”
“Haven House.”
“And the baby?”
The doctor folded his hands over his knees.
“The baby was taken.”
Victoria made a strangled sound.
“Taken by whom?” Elena asked.
“A woman named Evelyn Ward.”
Daniel knew the name.
Evelyn Ward had been Claire’s attorney and the person who handled the foundation’s legal accounts.
Dr. Orton continued, “She told Claire the child would be placed with a safe family. Claire believed her.”
“And then?”
“Then Claire learned Evelyn had not placed the baby anywhere. She had given him to someone connected to the Bennett family.”
Daniel’s voice became rough. “Who?”
Dr. Orton looked at him.
“Your mother.”
The room went silent.
Daniel’s mother had died when he was eleven.
Sophie tightened her grip on the chain.
Dr. Orton reached into a drawer and removed a sealed envelope.
“Claire left this for you if the truth ever came out.”
Daniel took it.
His name was written across the front in Claire’s handwriting.
Before he opened it, Elena’s phone rang.
She listened, then looked at Daniel with alarm.
“The house in Boston is on fire.”
“Is Victoria there?”
“No. But someone has taken Sophie’s school records.”
Daniel stared at the envelope.
The truth about his missing son was inside.
And somewhere behind them, someone was destroying every record that could lead to him.
Before leaving Vermont, Daniel returned to the old photograph and studied the boy’s face. Sophie sat beside him in the waiting room, drawing a family tree on the back of a medical form. She wrote her own name first, then Claire’s, then Daniel’s. Beneath Claire, she left a space.
“What are you writing there?” Daniel asked.
“For him.”
“We do not know his name.”
“Then I will leave it blank until we find him.”
Daniel wanted to promise that the search would end soon. He had learned not to make promises based on hope alone.
Dr. Orton approached with his coat in his hands. “There is something I did not tell you.”
Daniel looked up. “What?”
“Claire was not unconscious when they moved her from Mercy Ridge. She escaped once before. She reached the road and tried to find you.”
“Why did she not call?”
“The telephone booth was watched. She saw one of Vane’s men outside the police station.”
“How did you know this?”
The doctor handed him a folded map. A red line marked a route from Mercy Ridge to the coast.
“She asked me to drive her,” he said. “But before we could leave, Evelyn arrived with two men. Claire hid in the laundry room. She gave me the map and told me to keep it until Daniel was ready to believe she had been trying to come home.”
Daniel unfolded it. At the end of the red line was a small symbol: a black star.
The same star on Richard’s ring.
The same star on the watermark.
The same star connected every lie.
Daniel folded the map and placed it inside his coat.
“We are going back to Boston,” he said.
Sophie took his hand. “Then we find the person who put the star everywhere.”
May you like
Daniel looked toward the snow-covered road.
“Yes,” he said. “And we make him tell us where Claire was taken.”
