Chapter 7 - The Van on Route Nine
State police found the Grayhaven transport van on Route Nine.
Empty.
Driver missing.
Rear doors open.
Daniel arrived behind Detective Morris.
On the floor lay a broken plastic medical bracelet.
C. BENNETT.
"Claire was here."
Morris nodded.
A traffic camera showed the van leaving the highway and entering an industrial district.
Then it vanished between camera zones.
Daniel's phone rang.
Vanessa.
He answered on speaker.
"Where is she?"
Vanessa sounded tired.
"You need to stop."
"Where is Claire?"
"I tried to protect you from what she became."
"You had her locked in Grayhaven."
"She signed herself in."
"Under a false name?"
Silence.
Daniel continued.
"I found my death certificate too."
Vanessa inhaled.
"Arthur shouldn't have kept that."
Morris pointed at the phone recorder.
Daniel's voice turned low.
"You just admitted you knew it existed."
Vanessa cursed.
Then another male voice came through the line.
"Hang up."
Daniel recognized it.
Julian Cross, Carter Medical's chief operating officer.
His father's closest business partner.
His own godfather.
"Julian?"
The call ended.
Daniel stared at Morris.
"He was at our wedding."
"He also sits on the trust oversight board," she said.
At Carter Medical headquarters, investigators locked Julian's office before dawn.
Inside they found burner phones, forged trust records, and a draft press release announcing Daniel's sudden death from an aneurysm.
No Julian.
But his computer had one unsent message to Vanessa:
ST. MARLOWE IS COMPROMISED. MOVE C TO THE HOUSE.
Daniel read it twice.
"What house?"
Maya, standing behind him, went pale.
"Your old lake house."
Daniel looked up.
The Carter family owned a property two hours north.
No one had used it since his father's death.
Except Julian still had a key.
Then Morris's radio crackled.
May you like
Officers at the lake house had found signs of occupation.
And one room was locked from the outside.
