Chapter 4 - THE GIRL IN THE WINDOW
They left for Massachusetts before dawn.
Nia stayed in Manhattan with Sofie under security arranged by Ruth.
Cameron wanted to bring her.
Marcus refused.
“If we’re right, someone has protected this for ten years.
We don’t give them another person to target.”
Briar House stood outside a small town west of Boston.
White buildings.
Trimmed lawns.
A sign promising individualized education and residential care.
Nothing about it looked like a place that could swallow a child.
The director, Owen Pike, met them in a bright office.
“Eva Bennett is a minor,” he said.
“We can’t discuss her with strangers.”
Cameron set the photograph on his desk.
“I’m her father.”
Pike barely looked down.
“That is a serious claim.”
“Then take it seriously.”
Ruth, speaking through Cameron’s phone, asked Pike to preserve Eva’s records and confirm her current guardian.
Pike’s jaw tightened.
“Our legal counsel will respond.”
Marcus placed a written preservation notice on the desk.
“Please make sure they see that.”
Outside, Cameron stopped beneath a second-floor window.
A girl stood behind the glass.
Brown hair.
One hand resting on the sill.
He knew that hand.
He had once held it across a busy street while she complained that she was big enough to walk by herself.
“Lily.”
The girl couldn’t hear him.
He lifted the old photograph.
She leaned closer.
Then someone behind her pulled the curtain shut.
Cameron moved toward the entrance.
Marcus caught his arm.
“You force your way in, they make you the threat.”
“My daughter is upstairs.”
“And we need to bring her out safely.”
Cameron stood shaking in the parking lot while Marcus called local police and Ruth began arranging an emergency court application.
A side door opened.
A young maintenance worker hurried toward their car.
“You’re Hale?”
“Yes.”
The worker glanced back.
“She saw your picture.”
Cameron stepped closer.
“What did she say?”
The worker held out a folded sheet torn from a sketchbook.
“I’m not supposed to give you this.”
May you like
On the paper, written in careful pencil, were seven words.
Ask him what he called the moon.
