Chapter 9 - THE DETECTIVE
Detective Nora Hayes had been investigating the Callahans for eleven months.
Quietly.
Very quietly.
She told Mara inside a locked interview room.
“Three former employees disappeared.”
Mara stared.
“Disappeared?”
“One moved to Canada. One supposedly stole money and fled. One died in a car accident.”
“Supposedly?”
“Brake line was damaged.”
Mara felt sick.
“Why haven’t you arrested anybody?”
“Because every time I got close, evidence vanished.”
“Grant?”
“Grant has friends everywhere.”
Mara thought of the payments.
“The archive room.”
“What?”
“There are bank records. Judge Reed. Hale. Police donations.”
Hayes leaned forward.
“Where?”
“Behind the wine cellar.”
Hayes closed her eyes.
“What?”
“If you saw them, they’re already gone.”
Mara knew she was right.
“Rebecca is alive.”
Hayes stared.
“Rebecca Callahan?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?”
“I spoke to her.”
Hayes stood so fast her chair scraped the floor.
“Where?”
“Basement beneath the east wing. But they moved her last night.”
“Jesus.”
Hayes paced.
“If Rebecca is alive, this becomes kidnapping, unlawful confinement, fraud, conspiracy…”
“And Eli?”
“What about him?”
“They’re drugging him to make him look mentally unstable. Grant wants control of his trust.”
Hayes stopped.
“Can you prove that?”
Mara said nothing.
Could she?
Her photographs were on her phone.
The police had confiscated it.
Probably already compromised.
The vial was gone.
The archive would be cleaned.
Rebecca had vanished.
Then Mara remembered her old phone near the greenhouse.
Voice logs.
Dates.
Medication notes.
Not enough.
But something.
“There’s a phone hidden outside the greenhouse.”
Hayes wrote nothing down.
“Tell me exactly where.”
Mara did.
Hayes left.
Three hours later, she returned.
Her face told Mara everything.
“It’s gone.”
Mara laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
Hayes sat.
“Your arraignment is tomorrow. The Callahans are pushing hard.”
“For what?”
“Theft. Possession. Attempted extortion.”
“Extortion?”
“They claim you demanded money.”
“Vivian offered me money!”
“I know.”
“How?”
Hayes looked at her.
“Because someone recorded part of the conversation.”
Hope exploded in Mara’s chest.
“Who?”
“We don’t know. An anonymous audio file was emailed to a reporter two hours ago.”
“What’s on it?”
“Vivian offering you half a million dollars.”
Mara almost smiled.
Mrs. Bell.
It had to be.
Then Hayes’s phone rang.
She answered.
Her expression changed.
“What hospital?”
Mara stood.
“What happened?”
Hayes ended the call.
“Eli is missing.”
Mara went numb.
“What?”
“Security footage shows Dr. Hale leaving with him forty minutes ago.”
“Where’s Grant?”
“Nobody knows.”
Mara grabbed the table.
“They’re running.”
Hayes headed for the door.
Mara shouted after her.
“Nora!”
Hayes turned.
Mara swallowed.
“There’s one place Grant thinks nobody knows about.”
“Where?”
Mara remembered something Eli had once said.
The basement.
There isn’t one.
Not the mansion.
Another property.
A place mentioned in Rebecca’s trust file.
A place Grant visited every Friday.
May you like
Mara looked at Hayes.
“Blackwater Farm.”
