Chapter 16 - The Trap on the Coast|
Lily wanted to leave immediately.
Rachel persuaded her to wait until the photograph and message had been examined. The image was recent, but the location could not be confirmed. The sender had used an anonymous account, and the wording suggested that someone wanted Lily to act without legal advice or protection.
“We are not walking into a trap because a stranger tells us to,” Rachel said.
Lily's jaw tightened.
“That's my mother.”
“And you may be walking toward the person who separated you from her.”
Anna took Lily's hand.
“We'll find her. But we won't let someone use your love for her to control you.”
After several days of investigation, the library was identified as being in a coastal town in Maine. The local police agreed to assist with a discreet welfare check, while Rachel coordinated with investigators handling the Calloway case.
Lily traveled with Anna, Rachel, and a local officer.
They found the bench in the photograph, but the woman was gone.
The librarian remembered her.
“She comes here sometimes. Keeps to herself. Reads old newspapers and writes letters she never mails.”
“Did she give you a name?” Lily asked.
The librarian hesitated.
“Catherine.”
Lily's eyes filled with tears.
“Did she say where she lived?”
The librarian provided a nearby address, but the house stood empty when they arrived. A neighbor reported that Catherine had left the previous evening with a man who drove a dark sedan.
Anna felt the familiar coldness of fear.
“Victor.”
Rachel shook her head.
“We don't know that. We won't accuse anyone without evidence.”
The local officer contacted the relevant authorities. They learned that a vehicle matching the description had been registered to a private security company recently investigated for fraudulent billing.
The company had received money from one of Victor's shell businesses.
It was a significant lead.
While investigators followed it, Lily discovered a letter tucked inside a book Catherine had left at the library. The librarian had preserved it because the woman had asked him to return the book if she did not come back.
The letter was addressed to Lily.
I know you may never forgive me. I have spent years trying to make peace with the decision I made when you were a baby. I believed you would have a chance at a normal life if you never knew the Calloway name.
I was wrong to believe that silence could protect you forever.
If someone has shown you this letter, then the people I feared have found me again. Do not come looking alone. Find the woman named Elena. She knows what happened to my brother.
Lily read the final sentence aloud.
“My brother?”
Daniel looked at the letter.
“Catherine had a younger brother who died before I was born. His name was Michael.”
Edward, contacted by phone, said he had never known Catherine had a brother.
Elena looked troubled.
“Michael wasn't her brother by blood. He was a boy she helped after his parents disappeared. She called him family.”
“Do you know what happened to him?” Anna asked.
Elena shook her head.
“I believed Victor had sent him away.”
Rachel studied the letter.
“Catherine may have been referring to someone connected to the original investigation. We need to identify Michael before we can understand why she mentioned him.”
That evening, a federal investigator contacted Rachel with new information. The dark sedan had been found abandoned near a bus station. There was no sign of Catherine, but a witness had seen a woman matching her description board a northbound train.
Lily wanted to follow.
This time, Rachel agreed—but only after arrangements were made with the authorities and the destination was confirmed.
The train led them to a small town in Vermont.
At a modest guesthouse near the station, the owner recognized Catherine from the photograph.
“She checked in under the name Reed,” he said. “She seemed frightened. She left a note for someone.”
He handed Lily a folded piece of paper.
Inside was a name and an address.
Michael Avery.
Beneath it, Catherine had written:
He knows who ordered the fire.
Anna stared at the note.
“What fire?”
Elena's face drained of color.
“The fire at the Calloway warehouse. The night everyone believed my sister died.”
Daniel looked toward his grandfather.
Edward had gone completely still.
May you like
Because he remembered that fire.
And he knew there had been someone inside the building whom the family had never found.
