Chapter 7 - THE PRICE OF SILENCE
Daniel wanted to call the police.
Bennett warned him that the kidnappers might be monitoring their phones.
Emily studied the photograph.
Rebecca sat inside a concrete room.
A green pipe ran along the wall behind her.
Near her chair was a bag of powdered cement marked HAWTHORNE SUPPLY.
Carter Development had stopped using Hawthorne five years earlier.
But Michael owned the abandoned Hawthorne warehouse.
Emily turned to Daniel.
“Where is your brother?”
“At the mansion.”
“Are you sure?”
Daniel called Michael.
No answer.
They drove to the warehouse with Bennett and a tactical police unit.
The doors were chained from inside.
Officers entered through a side window.
They found the chair from the photograph.
They found rope.
They found Rebecca’s missing framed picture.
But Rebecca was gone.
A laptop sat open on a metal table.
On its screen, a countdown showed fifty-nine minutes.
A message appeared.
DELETE BENNETT’S FILES FROM ALL SERVERS.
Daniel struck the table.
“Cowards!”
Emily examined the framed photograph.
It showed Rebecca standing beside an older woman in a nursing uniform.
On the back, someone had written:
Mom — St. Anne’s, 2018.
Emily remembered the numbered note from Rebecca’s apartment.
8-14-22-5.
She translated the numbers into letters.
H-N-V-E.
“That isn’t a code,” Daniel said.
“Maybe it’s incomplete.”
Emily looked again at the photograph.
Four tiny dots had been marked beneath the hospital name.
She counted letters backward instead.
8 became S.
14 became M.
22 became E.
5 became N.
S-M-E-N.
Still nothing.
Then she noticed the date.
“Shift each number by two,” she said.
The result was 10-16-24-7.
J-P-X-G.
Daniel shook his head.
“We’re running out of time.”
Bennett inspected the frame.
“There’s something inside.”
An officer opened the backing.
A folded employee schedule fell out.
Four names had been circled.
Henry.
Nora.
Victor.
Ellen.
The first letters spelled HNVE.
Emily rearranged them.
“HVNE.”
Then she looked at the warehouse’s emergency map.
One location was labeled H.V. NORTH ELECTRICAL.
“Hawthorne Valley North,” she said.
They rushed to the northern utility room.
The door had been sealed with a new padlock.
Police cut it open.
Rebecca lay inside, unconscious but breathing.
A portable heater had been left running in the unventilated room.
Daniel carried her outside while paramedics treated her.
When Rebecca regained consciousness, she grabbed Emily’s hand.
“It wasn’t Daniel.”
“Who forged the signatures?”
Rebecca’s eyes filled with terror.
“Michael.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
“My brother?”
Rebecca nodded.
“He moved the money, bribed the inspectors, and changed the suppliers.”
“Why would he send the money to our mother?”
“He didn’t.”
Rebecca looked toward the warehouse entrance.
“Patricia owns Red Birch on paper, but she never controlled the account.”
“Who did?”
A car engine roared nearby.
Headlights exploded through the darkness.
An SUV accelerated directly toward them.
May you like
Daniel pushed Emily aside.
The vehicle struck him before crashing through the warehouse doors.
