Chapter 13 - THE CABIN BY THE QUARRYDetective Chen would not let Ellie walk into that cabin alone. She arranged a safe meeting place and took her statement before contacting other officers about Carlos's location.
I hated waiting. Waiting felt too much like deployment: staring at a phone, knowing the people you loved were beyond your reach.
Mom gave me a look from her hospital chair. "You've spent your life thinking you have to fix everything with your hands."
"I'm trying not to."
"Try harder."
At six, Ellie called me from the station. "They found the cabin. Dad wasn't there."
He had left in a hurry. Investigators documented an open lockbox, discarded document sleeves, and a paper with a map of our street. A receipt showed the purchase of a prepaid phone.
Then Chen asked me a strange question.
"Does your mother keep a wooden clock in the living room?"
"Grandfather clock. My dad repaired it every Sunday. Why?"
"Carlos wrote 'clock key' on the map. We need to know whether it holds something."
With permission, Chen accompanied us to the house. The kitchen smelled of cleanser rather than rice, but Mom stood in the doorway a long moment before going inside.
"I want my home back," she said. "All of it."
I walked with her to the clock. She opened the lower cabinet and touched the brass weights.
"Your father said some things are safer in plain sight."
Behind a removable panel was a paper packet sealed with old yellow tape. Inside were letters from Dad, the original deed information, and a photograph of Mom and me on the porch.
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There was also a recent handwritten note in Lorena's unmistakable script. Mom touched it with shaking fingers. "I found this in her trash before you came home," she said. "I was afraid to throw it away, so I hid it here."
CHANGE OF PLAN. IF RUTH WON'T SIGN, MAKE DANIEL LOOK DANGEROUS.
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