Chapter 3
Detective Ortiz asked me to repeat exactly what I had heard.
I did.
Then I did it again.
Every minute I spent speaking felt like a minute Anna might not have.
Ortiz sent officers to trace the call. She warned me it might take time.
I had no patience left, but I had two little girls in the next room. I made myself stay.
June was sitting on the hospital bed when I returned. Lily slept against her shoulder. A nurse had washed June’s face, and the resemblance I had noticed in the closet was harder to ignore.
June studied me.
“Is my mommy in trouble because I talked?”
“No,” I said. “You did the right thing.”
“She said you didn’t know about me.”
“She was right.”
June lowered her eyes to her hands.
“I thought you didn’t want me.”
I sat beside the bed, leaving space between us.
“I didn’t know you were here. I’m sorry it took me so long to find you.”
She looked at me for a long time.
“Mommy showed me a picture,” she said. “That’s how I knew your face.”
I thought of the photograph my mother had carried from the passage.
“Did she tell you anything else?”
“She said you used to sing when you cooked. She said you burned the toast.”
Despite everything, I almost smiled.
Anna had always teased me about the toast.
June rubbed at her wrist. There was a faint red mark there.
“When did Preston bring you to the house?”
“I don’t know. It was dark. I thought Mommy was coming soon.”
I wanted to ask a hundred questions. The nurse had already told me June needed rest, so I stopped.
Ortiz came in with another officer. She spoke gently to June for a few minutes. June described the closet, the food Vanessa brought, and the times Lily slipped her bread.
Then she mentioned a woman who had called to her through the wall the day before.
“Grandma Ruth,” June said.
My mother’s eyes filled.
She had found the outside entrance that morning. She had crawled through the passage toward June but heard Preston arrive. She hid until Lily opened the panel and I found them.
“I should have gotten to her sooner,” my mother whispered.
June shook her head.
“You came.”
A little later, Ortiz took me aside.
Anna’s call had come from somewhere near my company’s old storage yard.
Preston managed that property.
I felt a cold, familiar shame. My name was on the company. I had signed papers Preston put in front of me for years.
“He has a key,” I said. “I can show you the building.”
Ortiz asked for the address and told me to stay at the hospital.
I did what she asked.
Then I called my office manager, Daniel, and told him to preserve every security recording from the yard. I had known Daniel since before I met Vanessa. If anything was wrong there, I trusted him to tell me.
He hesitated.
“Ryan, Anna Mercer came here two weeks ago.”
My grip tightened on the phone.
“What?”
“She asked to see you. Vanessa said you were away and told me to send her to Preston.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Vanessa said you already knew. Anna was upset, and I should have checked with you. I’m sorry.”
I asked him to tell Ortiz everything.
Daniel went quiet.
“There’s something else,” he said. “Anna left an envelope for you. Vanessa took it from the front desk.”
I closed my eyes.
For years, Vanessa had known where my old pain lived. Every time I asked whether Anna had ever tried to contact me, she told me to leave the past alone.
Now I knew why she said it.
My mother came into the hall as I ended the call. She held a folded sheet of paper.
“I found this tucked behind the photograph in the passage.”
It was a note in Anna’s handwriting.
Ryan, if you read this, please believe June. I tried to reach you. Ask Vanessa what she did with my letters.
There was more beneath it.
The money matters, but June matters more. Please find her first.
I read the note twice.
“Money?” I asked.
My mother shook her head.
The doors at the end of the hall opened. Ortiz came through, her face set.
“Officers found signs someone was held at the storage yard,” she said. “Anna was gone when they arrived.”
I felt my hope drop.
“Where did they take her?”
“We’re working on it. Preston left your house before officers could question him.”
Vanessa had stayed. Ortiz said she was being interviewed.
I looked through the room’s window. June was awake again, whispering something to Lily.
For the first time, I understood that June had been inside my house while I ate dinner, read Lily bedtime stories, and listened to my wife tell me everything was fine.
I pressed Anna’s note flat against my palm.
Then Daniel called back.
He had found the yard recording. Anna had been brought there in Preston’s car.
Two hours before police arrived, another car had taken her away.
May you like
Daniel recognized the driver.
“It was Vanessa,” he said.
