Chapter 8 - The Hunting Lodge.
Reese's team reached the hunting lodge shortly after dark.
Claire's car was parked beside a line of dead pine trees.
The driver's door stood open.
Fresh footprints crossed the wet ground toward the house.
Inside, a single lamp burned in the kitchen.
No one answered when police called out.
They found Claire in the basement tied to a chair but physically unharmed.
She was crying so hard she could barely speak.
"They said Thomas was upstairs."
"Who said?"
"A woman."
"Blonde?"
Claire shook her head.
"I never saw her face."
The officers searched every room.
Thomas was not there.
Instead, they found his coat hanging in an upstairs closet.
His phone lay on a desk beside it.
A recording had been left open on the screen.
Reese played it for Elena the next morning.
Thomas's voice was quiet and rushed.
"Mrs. Howard, if you hear this, Adrian knows you found the accounts."
Elena stopped breathing.
Thomas continued.
"Vanessa isn't the one running this."
There was a noise in the background.
A door opening.
Thomas lowered his voice.
"The person protecting them has access to the house, the foundation, and the police schedule."
The recording ended abruptly.
Elena stared at Reese.
"Someone inside law enforcement?"
"Possibly."
"Or someone who gets information from us."
Reese looked exhausted.
"Only six people knew about the search warrant for Vanessa's apartment before we served it."
"You were one."
Elena met his eyes.
"Are you asking whether I warned her?"
"No."
"I'm telling you someone wants you to think I should."
Reese placed a second item on the table.
It was a printed email sent from Elena's personal account at 3:42 a.m.
The recipient was Vanessa.
The message read: RUN BEFORE REESE FINDS THE CARD.
Elena laughed once in disbelief.
"I was asleep in this hospital."
"We know."
"The login came from the mansion."
Elena's humor vanished.
Someone had accessed her computer.
Someone was building evidence that she and Vanessa were secretly cooperating.
"Adrian."
"Maybe."
Elena hated that word now.
Reese continued.
"There's another problem."
He slid a photograph across the table.
It showed the hidden camera server from Elena's study.
The police seal had been broken.
"That room was secured."
"Yes."
"So whoever entered either defeated the alarm or had access."
Elena thought of Eleanor.
The matriarch knew every code in the mansion.
She controlled the staff.
She had demanded privacy before the ambulance even arrived.
Elena felt ashamed for considering it.
Then she remembered Eleanor holding Vanessa on the staircase.
Protecting her.
Reese saw the thought on Elena's face.
"You suspect someone."
Before Elena could answer, the hospital door opened.
Eleanor Howard stepped inside alone.
She placed her purse on the chair and looked directly at Reese.
"Detective, I need five minutes with my daughter-in-law."
Reese did not move.
Eleanor's expression hardened.
"Because I know where Thomas is."
Claire later told Reese the unseen woman at the lodge knew intimate details about Thomas's childhood.
She knew the nickname their father used for him.
She knew where Claire had attended college.
That suggested the kidnappers had studied Thomas long before he vanished.
The operation was not improvised after the staircase incident.
It had layers built months in advance.
May you like
Elena began to see the same pattern everywhere.
Every lie had been rehearsed before she knew there was a stage.
