CHAPTER 19 The Woman in the Red Scarf
I forgot my cane.
I made it halfway across the garden before my leg failed beneath me.
Natalie caught me before I struck the ground.
“Let the agents go first.”
“That is my daughter.”
“And running into the woods injured will not help her.”
Alvarez sent teams along every trail surrounding the estate.
A helicopter searched from above.
The woman in the red scarf did not appear on any road camera.
Neither did Lily.
Adrian studied the security footage frame by frame.
“She knew the woman,” he said.
“No, she didn’t.”
“She did not look afraid.”
“That does not mean she knew her.”
Natalie enlarged the image.
The woman had touched two fingers to her chest before Lily approached.
A signal.
I had seen Lily make the same gesture while practicing violin.
“It is a musician’s count,” Natalie said. “Two beats before beginning.”
We searched Lily’s room.
Her music stand held a handwritten arrangement of an old maritime song Samuel used to play.
Several notes had been circled.
Lena translated them into letters.
CEDAR. BELL. NINE. TRUST.
Lily had discovered a message hidden in the music before any of us.
She had not been kidnapped.
She had followed instructions.
That knowledge did not reduce my fear.
It increased it.
Near dusk, an agent found Lily’s violin case beside an abandoned gardener’s shed.
Inside was a note.
Mom,
I am safe. The woman said she can prove what happened to Grandma Elizabeth. She said I had to come without police because someone inside the investigation works for Hollis.
Please do not be mad.
I know that was not a reasonable request.
Love, Lily.
Even terrified, my daughter apologized with legal precision.
Alvarez read the note and ordered his entire team’s communications audited.
“What if she is right?” Lena asked. “What if Hollis has someone inside the federal investigation?”
“He had people inside prisons, hospitals, courts, and political offices,” I said. “Why would this be different?”
Adrian turned toward Alvarez. “Who knew we found the ledger?”
“Too many people.”
“Who knew about Station Nine?”
Alvarez did not answer.
The question was enough.
We could no longer trust the search perimeter.
Natalie found tire marks behind the shed. The vehicle had avoided the main road and traveled toward an old maintenance path leading to the river.
Adrian and I took Walter’s truck before Alvarez could stop us.
Natalie came too.
The path ended at a stone boathouse built before the Mercer estate existed.
Inside, we found Lily sitting on a wooden bench.
She was unharmed.
The woman in the red scarf stood beside her.
She appeared to be in her late sixties, though illness had reduced her frame. Silver hair escaped beneath the scarf.
Adrian entered behind me.
The woman looked at him and covered her mouth.
“My God,” she whispered. “You have Robert’s eyes.”
Adrian did not move.
“Who are you?”
The woman removed the scarf.
A pale scar crossed the left side of her face.
She reached into her coat and removed a silver locket identical to the one found on the Catherine V.
Inside was a photograph of Samuel holding a baby.
The same photograph Adrian had taken back from Robert.
Only this version showed the person standing beside Samuel.
A young woman with Adrian’s face.
“I am Catherine Vale,” she said.
Adrian stared at the mother he had believed dead his entire life.
“No.”
“I know what Robert told you.”
“No.”
“I know what Samuel allowed you to believe.”
“Stop.”
Catherine stepped toward him.
Adrian stepped back.
She did not try again.
Instead, she turned to me.
“Elizabeth did not die from an illness, Madeline.”
I felt Natalie’s hand close around mine.
Catherine’s voice broke.
“Your mother died protecting my second child.”
Adrian’s head lifted.
“My what?”
Catherine looked at him.
“You have a sister.”
The boathouse door slammed shut behind us.
May you like
A lock turned from the outside.
Then gasoline began pouring beneath the door.
