Chapter 7 - The Train to Santa Fe
At 7:00 AM the following morning, the California Zephyr train rumbled along the tracks heading east toward the desert plains of the Southwest.
Sean sat in a window seat, wearing the heavy wool coat Evelyn had bought him, clutching the leather dossier against his chest. Outside, the snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada rolled past under a clear, brilliant winter sunrise.
For eight years, Sean had lived under the crushing guilt of believing he had failed as an older brother. When Maya had vanished from a camping trip at age sixteen, the police had declared it a runaway case within weeks. Sean had spent his college fund, ruined his credit score, and worked himself to exhaustion trying to pay private investigators who turned out to be scammers.
It was that endless desperation that had turned his heart to stone and led him to Evelyn’s doorstep.
Now, as the train crossed into New Mexico, the desert landscape glowed in shades of terracotta, ochre, and turquoise.
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When the train pulled into the Santa Fe depot at 4:00 PM, Sean stepped onto the platform, breathing in the scent of burning piñon wood and crisp desert air.
He hailed a cab, giving the driver the address from the Blackwood report: The Adobe Willow Community Art Studio.
