CHAPTER 8 — THEIR MOTHER’S EMPTY GRAVE
CHAPTER 8 — THEIR MOTHER’S EMPTY GRAVE
Ethan stared at Olivia.
“My mother had a stroke.”
“That’s what Richard told you.”
Luke sat in the ambulance while a medic wrapped his wound.
He had been recovered when the police intercepted Richard’s boat near the bridge, but Richard escaped into a waiting car.
Luke gripped the edge of the stretcher.
“I heard Richard mention Northpoint when I was imprisoned. He said they kept ‘the old woman’ quiet.”
Ethan’s chest tightened.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t know who he meant.”
Olivia handed Detective Cole the phone.
“There are payment records to Northpoint. Monthly transfers for twelve years.”
Ethan felt sick.
He had visited his mother’s grave every Christmas.
He had stood in the snow and apologized for not being there when she died.
There might be another empty coffin beneath the Calloway name.
They drove to Northpoint Clinic before sunrise.
The facility stood behind iron gates in the mountains, surrounded by thick forest.
The administrator, Dr. Harold Wynn, met them in the lobby.
“You have no authority to search this facility.”
Detective Cole showed her warrant.
His confidence faltered.
They searched the private wing.
Room after room was empty.
Then Mrs. Bell arrived with Noah under police protection.
Ethan stared at her.
“I told you to keep him safe.”
“That is what I’m doing.”
She carried an old medical bracelet.
“Your mother wore this the night Richard took her away.”
Mrs. Bell led them to a service elevator.
Beneath the clinic was an unregistered ward.
No windows.
No cameras.
Names replaced by patient numbers.
In the last room, an elderly woman sat beside the windowless wall, folding the same white handkerchief again and again.
Her silver hair fell around a thin face.
Ethan stopped in the doorway.
The woman looked up.
Her eyes were still the same.
Blue.
Sharp.
Unmistakable.
“Ethan?” she whispered.
His knees nearly gave out.
“Mom.”
She rose slowly.
Then she saw Luke.
Her handkerchief fell.
“My baby.”
Luke crossed the room and collapsed into her arms.
Fifteen years of grief broke open at once.
Ethan stood watching them, unable to move.
His mother reached for him too.
Richard had stolen her sons from each other.
Then he had stolen her from both of them.
Detective Cole entered.
“We found records proving she was held under a false name.”
Dr. Wynn was arrested in the hallway.
But before officers took him away, he looked at Ethan and smiled.
“You’re celebrating too early.”
Ethan grabbed him by the collar.
“Where is Richard?”
Wynn leaned closer.
“At your board meeting.”
Ethan checked the time.
Eight forty-seven.
May you like
The meeting began in thirteen minutes.
And Richard had already announced to the press that Ethan Calloway was mentally unstable and missing.
