Chapter 5 - BRIAR ROAD
The message gave an address and a time: noon.
Bell called the number. It was disconnected.
By ten, officers had searched the Briar Road property records. The house belonged to a company owned by Elliot Crane’s brother. Charles claimed he had never been there.
Victoria did not believe him.
She sat in Bell’s office, staring at the photograph of Rosie. The child in it looked about six. Had she spent years behind that barred window? Had Victoria passed the house on her way to some fundraiser, never knowing her daughter was inside?
Bruno knocked and entered with a paper cup of coffee.
“I remembered something,” he said. “Crane used to get called away every Thursday afternoon. He said it was to check a property for Mr. Hale.”
“Briar Road?” Bell asked.
“I never knew the address.”
Victoria looked at him. “Why didn’t you tell anyone before last night?”
“Because before last night, I thought it was a property.”
He set the coffee down. She could see that his hand was shaking.
Bell sent a team to Briar Road. Victoria was told to wait.
She lasted forty minutes.
Then Bell’s phone rang. The first officers had found the house empty. There were old toys in a bedroom, recent food in the kitchen, and a detached shed out back. In the shed, they found a woman’s scarf caught under a loose floorboard.
Rosie recognized it from a photograph. It had belonged to Lena.
No one had found Lena.
Ada Mercer woke at the hospital that afternoon. Bell questioned her while Victoria waited in the hall. When Bell came out, she looked troubled.
“Ada says Lena brought Rosie to her three days ago. Lena was sick and frightened. She told Ada that Crane had found them.”
“What happened to Lena?”
“Ada says she doesn’t know. Lena left to get evidence and never came back.”
“Then who sent the message saying she died?”
“We’re trying to find out.”
Victoria asked to speak with Ada. Bell agreed.
Ada was in her late sixties, with a bruise along her temple. She caught Victoria’s hand as soon as Victoria reached the bed.
“I tried to get Rosie inside,” she said. “Crane saw us at the loading dock. I told her to run to the party. He followed me.”
“Why my party?”
“Lena saw your pin in the newspaper. She thought Rosie might recognize you.”
“Why didn’t she come to me herself?”
Ada’s eyes filled. “She tried once.”
“When?”
“Six years ago. She came to the front gate. A man told her you had seen the child’s picture and didn’t want her.”
Victoria’s stomach turned. “That isn’t true.”
“I know that now.”
Ada reached toward the bedside table and pulled a folded slip of paper from beneath her water glass.
“Lena made me promise to give you this if anything happened.”
It was a storage receipt. A unit number was written on the back, along with six words:
VICTORIA, I SHOULD HAVE TOLD YOU SOONER.
Bell took a photograph of the note.
Before they could leave, a nurse entered and said a man had come to see Ada.
“What man?” Bell asked.
May you like
The nurse checked the visitor sheet.
“Charles Hale.”
