Chapter 12 - THE QUARRY

The quarry road was blocked by police when we arrived.

Harris ordered us to stay back.

Caleb refused.

"That's my dad."

"And I need you alive to see him," Harris said. "Stay here."

For twenty minutes, we stood beside the patrol car in cold wind.

Then an officer came running up the hill.

"We found him."

Caleb grabbed my arm.

Mark was alive.

He had been locked inside an old maintenance trailer with his wrists tied. He was weak and bruised, but conscious.

When paramedics brought him out, Caleb froze.

Mark looked older than the pictures, with gray at his temples and tears already running down his face.

"Caleb?"

Caleb took one step.

Then another.

"You didn't leave?"

Mark shook his head. "Never."

Caleb collapsed into his arms.

I turned away, suddenly unable to watch a reunion built on sixteen years of stolen time.

At the hospital, Mark told police Vanessa had shown up at his apartment the night before.

"She said the past was coming apart," he explained. "She wanted to know what I had told anyone about Rachel."

Dad leaned forward. "What did you know?"

Mark looked at him.

"Vanessa was obsessed with your wife."

My stomach tightened.

He said Vanessa had worked under Rachel at the clinic and believed Rachel had blocked her promotion after repeated complaints about her behavior. Vanessa blamed Rachel for losing her job.

"The night Rachel died," Mark said, "Vanessa came home after midnight. Her car had damage on the passenger side. She told me she hit a guardrail."

Harris asked, "Why didn't you report it?"

Mark closed his eyes.

"I was a coward. We had a baby. I believed her when she said it was nothing. Months later, I found Rachel's car key in Vanessa's purse."

Dad went pale.

"And you stayed silent?"

"I confronted her. She threatened to take Caleb and disappear. Eventually she did."

Harris leaned closer. "Do you still have anything from that time?"

Mark nodded.

"A photo."

He handed over his phone.

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On the screen was Vanessa's old car the morning after my mother's crash.

Across the damaged side panel was a streak of silver paint.