Chapter 15 - The Cabin
Ryan did not go alone.
He went with Detective Harper, two state troopers, and a transmitter taped beneath his shirt.
I stayed in a command vehicle half a mile away because Harper refused to let me closer.
“Linda wants control,” she said. “Don’t give her another variable.”
The cabin sat at the end of a snow-dusted road beneath black pine trees.
Ryan walked inside at 6:42 p.m.
Through the transmitter, I heard a door close.
Then Linda’s voice.
“You brought them.”
Ryan said, “Where are you?”
“You always did choose everyone else.”
“Linda, stop this.”
“You think Emma loves you more than I do?”
My stomach twisted.
Ryan stayed calm.
“This isn’t about love.”
“It was always about love.”
A floorboard creaked.
Ryan said, “You hurt my daughter.”
“No. I saved you from a mistake.”
“You put Lily in danger.”
“I gave you a chance to see what kind of mother Emma is.”
“You staged it.”
Silence.
Then Linda laughed softly.
“She reacted exactly as I knew she would.”
That sentence was enough for Harper to signal the team forward.
But before they reached the porch, a loud crack came through the transmitter.
Ryan shouted.
The signal filled with static.
I tried to open the vehicle door.
An officer pulled me back.
“Stay here.”
“What happened?”
Nobody answered.
Then Ryan’s voice returned, breathless.
“She went through the back.”
Troopers surrounded the cabin.
Linda had vanished into the trees.
Inside the cabin, police found a laptop still open on the dining table.
On the screen was a video file.
The filename was THOMAS_FINAL_NIGHT.
Harper looked at Ryan.
“Do you want us to open it here?”
May you like
Ryan stared at the screen.
Then he said, “Yes.”
