Chapter 15: Grace Carter
Chapter 15: Grace Carter
The bell above the bookstore door chimed softly.
Grace Carter looked up from the display she was arranging and smiled politely.
"Good afternoon. Welcome to Willow Creek Books."
The man in the baseball cap returned a faint smile.
"Thank you."
He wandered slowly between the shelves, pretending to browse.
Grace noticed nothing unusual.
He looked like any other customer.
Outside, a black SUV idled across the street.
Another man sat behind the wheel, watching the front entrance through dark sunglasses.
He spoke quietly into an earpiece.
"Target confirmed."
Four hundred miles away...
Detective Brooks drove as fast as traffic allowed.
Ramirez sat beside him reviewing the files recovered from Gregory Whitmore's laptop.
"The surveillance reports stop three days ago," she said.
Brooks kept his eyes on the road.
"Which means whoever was following Grace may already be there."
Ethan sat silently in the back seat.
He couldn't stop staring at the childhood photograph of the sister he had never known.
Ava reached over and squeezed his hand.
"We'll find her."
He nodded.
"I just hope we're not too late."
Inside the bookstore...
The man in the baseball cap finally approached the register.
"I've been looking for a rare history book," he said.
Grace smiled apologetically.
"I can check our inventory."
She turned toward the computer.
The man glanced discreetly toward the entrance.
Then touched the microphone hidden beneath his collar.
"She's alone."
Outside, the SUV's engine started.
Just then...
The bookstore door opened again.
An elderly woman walked inside carrying a small basket.
"Hello, Grace."
Grace smiled warmly.
"Mrs. Henderson."
The man in the baseball cap frowned.
The unexpected customer complicated everything.
He stepped away from the counter.
"We'll wait," he whispered into his microphone.
Meanwhile...
Detective Brooks received a call from Sister Agnes.
She had insisted on speaking only after meeting with prosecutors.
Brooks answered using the vehicle's hands-free system.
"Sister Agnes."
"I remembered something important."
"I'm listening."
"The day Grace left St. Anne's..."
"Margaret wasn't the only person giving orders."
Brooks glanced at Ramirez.
"Who else?"
"There was a man."
"He introduced himself as Attorney Collins."
Ramirez quickly searched old records.
"No attorney by that name was licensed at the time."
"It was an alias," Brooks said.
Sister Agnes continued.
"He carried a silver pocket watch."
"On the back..."
"There was a family crest."
Ethan suddenly looked up.
"The Carter crest."
"No," Sister Agnes replied.
"I remember it clearly."
"It belonged to another family."
She slowly read the inscription she had memorized decades earlier.
Whitmore Estate.
Brooks tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
Gregory Whitmore.
He had been involved from the very beginning.
Back at the detention center...
Margaret finally agreed to listen to Sister Agnes's cassette recording.
The tape crackled with age.
Then Margaret's younger voice filled the room.
"No one can ever know where the girl goes."
Another voice answered.
It was Gregory.
"Richard will never forgive this."
Margaret laughed quietly.
"Richard doesn't need forgiveness."
"He needs obedience."
The tape continued.
"Once Grace disappears..."
"Everything belongs to my son."
Margaret closed her eyes.
For the first time...
She couldn't deny what she'd done.
The evidence carried her own voice.
At Willow Creek Books...
Mrs. Henderson finished paying for her books and waved goodbye.
The bell above the door chimed once more.
Grace was alone again.
The man in the baseball cap looked toward the window.
The black SUV slowly pulled into the alley behind the building.
He touched his earpiece.
"Now."
The rear door opened.
Two men stepped out.
Both wore dark jackets.
Both carried zip ties hidden inside their sleeves.
Grace bent down to retrieve a book from the bottom shelf.
She heard footsteps behind her.
When she turned...
The man smiled.
"Grace Carter?"
She frowned.
"I'm sorry..."
"Do I know you?"
His expression changed instantly.
"You do now."
He grabbed her wrist.
Grace cried out.
"What are you doing?"
The second man rushed through the back entrance.
A chair crashed to the floor.
Books scattered across the aisle.
Grace fought with everything she had.
She kicked one attacker in the knee.
He stumbled backward.
She reached for the panic button beneath the counter—
The first man grabbed her before she could press it.
"Stop fighting!"
"No!"
She bit his hand.
He shouted in pain.
The panic button was only inches away.
She stretched desperately—
Click.
The alarm activated.
A deafening siren echoed throughout the bookstore.
Across town...
A local patrol officer heard the alarm over the radio.
"Possible robbery in progress at Willow Creek Books."
He immediately turned his cruiser around.
Inside the bookstore...
The kidnappers realized they had seconds before police arrived.
"Forget it!" one shouted.
"We're out!"
They released Grace and ran through the back door.
The black SUV sped away just as the first patrol car turned onto the street.
Grace collapsed behind the counter, shaking uncontrollably.
Twenty minutes later...
Detective Brooks's convoy arrived.
Grace sat wrapped in a blanket, speaking with local officers.
Brooks approached slowly.
"Ms. Grace?"
She looked up.
"Yes."
"My name is Daniel Brooks."
"I'm with the state police."
She nodded nervously.
"Was this robbery connected to you?"
Brooks hesitated.
"It wasn't a robbery."
Grace frowned.
"Then what was it?"
Ethan stepped forward.
For a long moment...
Neither of them spoke.
Grace stared at him.
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
"You look..."
"So familiar."
Ethan swallowed hard.
"My name is Ethan Carter."
The color drained from Grace's face.
"Carter?"
She whispered the name as though hearing it for the first time.
Brooks gently handed her the faded childhood photograph.
"You were born Grace Carter."
"You've been missing for twenty-eight years."
Grace looked from the photograph...
To Ethan...
Then back again.
Tears filled her eyes.
"I don't understand."
Ethan's own voice trembled.
"I think..."
"I'm your brother."
The bookstore fell silent.
Before anyone could say another word...
Ramirez's phone rang.
She answered.
Her expression immediately changed.
"Detective..."
"What is it?"
"The lab finished testing the fingerprints from the bridge guardrail."
Brooks waited.
"They don't belong to Margaret."
"They belong to..."
She paused.
"...Richard Carter."
Ethan froze.
"My father?"
Ramirez nodded slowly.
"It looks like he was at the bridge the night of Ava's crash."
The revelation stunned everyone.
If Richard had died months before the investigation began...
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How could his fingerprints have been left there on the night Ava was attacked?
The case had just taken an impossible turn.
