Chapter 15 - FOURTEEN CHILDREN
By morning, federal agents had joined the case.
Emily sat beside Thomas while agents talked.
“You okay?” she asked.
Thomas shook his head.
“Me neither.”
She pushed a cookie toward him.
“You can have mine.”
Thomas smiled faintly.
Park traced money from the scheme into the Mercer holding company.
Grant had used the hidden children as leverage in family disputes.
Evelyn had started the practice with Victor Hale.
“Where is Diane?” Julia asked.
No one knew.
Then Thomas remembered something.
“She said if anything happened, she’d go where the trains stop being loud.”
Ortiz frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Julia knew.
Diane once lived near an abandoned rail station outside Mill Creek.
Police found her there that night.
Alive.
Bruised.
Hiding in a maintenance shed.
Thomas saw her at the hospital the next morning.
He did not hug her.
He stood in the doorway.
Diane cried.
“I’m sorry.”
Thomas stared at her.
“Why didn’t you take me home?”
Diane looked at Julia.
Then back at him.
“Because at first I wanted the money.”
Thomas flinched.
“And later?”
“Later I loved you.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I was a coward.”
Thomas looked down.
Julia let the silence remain.
Diane finally said, “Grant is coming back.”
Ortiz stepped forward.
“How do you know?”
“He called me.”
“When?”
“An hour ago.”
Diane’s face went pale.
“He said he wants the blue ledger.”
“And if Julia doesn’t bring it…”
May you like
She looked at Thomas.
“He said he’ll finish what his mother started.”
