Chapter 11 - CALEB'S FATHER
Caleb stared at the message like it had opened a door he had spent years trying to keep shut.
"My dad is alive?"
Vanessa had always told him his father, Mark, wanted nothing to do with him. According to her, he had moved overseas and cut contact.
Detective Harris did a quick records search.
Mark Reed lived forty minutes away.
He had never left the state.
Caleb sank into a chair.
"She lied."
Harris called the number on file. No answer.
We drove to Mark's address with two officers.
His apartment door was unlocked.
Inside, the lights were on. A coffee mug sat on the table. A television played to an empty room.
Caleb whispered, "Dad?"
No response.
In the bedroom, Harris found a wall covered in printed emails.
All of them were addressed to Caleb.
Birthday messages. Christmas messages. Apologies. Requests to meet.
None had ever reached him.
Vanessa had intercepted them.
On the desk was a certified letter dated six months earlier.
Mark had written that he intended to petition the court for contact because he believed Caleb was being emotionally abused.
At the bottom he added one sentence:
I also know what you did to Rachel Collins, and I will not stay quiet anymore.
Caleb sat on the floor.
"She took him."
Harris crouched beside him. "We don't know that."
"I do."
My phone rang.
Vanessa.
Harris motioned for silence and put it on speaker.
"Emma," she said.
Her voice was calm.
"Where is Mark?" I asked.
"Always straight to the accusation. You are more like your mother than you know."
Dad clenched his jaw.
"What do you want?"
"The page Rachel wrote. The video Caleb saved. And the metal box."
"Police have all of it."
Silence.
Then she laughed softly.
"Then Mark has become very inconvenient."
The line went dead.
A second later, Harris received a call from dispatch.
May you like
They had found Mark's car.
It was parked beside the abandoned quarry outside town.
