Chapter 9 - The Attic
The noise came again.
Not upstairs.
Above it.
The attic.
Ryan grabbed the folding ladder before a deputy stopped him.
"Stay here."
The deputy climbed first.
A minute later he called down.
"Clear. But somebody's been up here."
We followed.
A storage trunk stood open beneath the rafters. Family albums had been pulled apart. Boxes were overturned.
On the insulation lay an empty cassette case.
LINDA - 6/14/94.
Mark stared at it.
"That's the recording."
"How did she get into the attic?" I asked.
Ryan pointed to a narrow access panel behind old Christmas decorations.
It opened into the guest-room closet.
Linda hadn't left through the back door when we thought she had.
She had gone upstairs, crawled into the attic, found the tape, and later slipped out while the deputies were at the front.
Dana found something else under the trunk.
A cheap prepaid phone.
It was dead, but the battery compartment held a folded strip of paper.
Three phone numbers.
One was Mark's office.
One belonged to Elaine Foster.
The third was labeled simply:
TOM.
Ryan stared at it.
"I know that number."
"Who is Tom?"
He looked at Mark.
Mark didn't answer.
Ryan's voice became hard.
"Who is Tom?"
Mark finally said, "Thomas Mercer."
I frowned. "Your uncle?"
Ryan shook his head.
"My father told me Uncle Tom died before Anna."
Mark looked at him.
May you like
"Your father lied."
Then the prepaid phone rang in Dana's hand.
