Chapter 15 - The Window with the Blue Curtain
The next minutes stretched until I couldn't bear looking at the clock. Mara kept her phone on speaker, but she didn't describe movements or make promises she couldn't keep.
At last, the detective's voice came through. "We have the child. She's conscious and being examined by paramedics. Rosa and Isabel are also safe. Two suspects are in custody."
Elena made a sound I'd never heard from another human being. It was half a sob, half an attempt to breathe after holding her breath for years.
"Can I talk to her?" she asked.
"After the medical team finishes, we'll arrange it."
Grace had been found behind a locked bedroom door, frightened but able to walk. Rosa had stayed beside her. Isabel had left the drawing in the van because she knew Daniel's River Records receipt could lead police to the bell logo.
"She remembers Daniel," Rosa said later, voice shaking. "She calls him the man who took her to the apple tree."
I pressed Daniel's calendar to my chest. I had spent months angry that he never told me what he was doing. Now the truth made the grief heavier, not lighter. He'd kept a little girl alive, and he'd left me with an unfinished story I had to learn from strangers.
Vincent asked if he could drive to the center. The detective advised him to wait until social workers confirmed Grace's immediate needs and safe placement. He agreed, even though I could see it hurt.
"I don't want her first memory of me to be a crowd of men," he said.
Then Mara received a copy of a document investigators had recovered from the lodge. It was an order claiming Vincent had authorized Grace's transfer. The signature looked almost perfect. The date was the day he had been out of the country.
May you like
Beneath it was the name of the attorney who had witnessed the signing.
Richard Sterling.
