Chapter 9 - THE SECRET INSIDE THE STORY
Emily had owned dozens of books.
Most had been destroyed in the fire.
The red mystery novel returned by Jason was not the story she meant.
She meant a book she had created herself.
For a school assignment, each student had written and illustrated a short adventure.
Emily’s was called The Girl Who Followed the Blue Bird.
She had given me the only printed copy on Father’s Day.
It sat on a shelf in my living room between family photographs.
Police drove me home under escort.
Ortiz entered first.
Every room had already been searched.
Nothing appeared disturbed.
The handmade book remained on the shelf.
Emily had drawn the cover in blue marker.
Inside, the story followed a girl through a forest where trees whispered secrets.
On page twelve, the blue bird instructed the girl to hide something precious inside the safest tree.
I held the page toward the light.
A thin shadow appeared beneath the paper.
Ortiz used a small blade to separate the layers.
A second memory card slipped into her palm.
The original contained more than recordings from Jason’s office.
It contained photographs of the ledger.
Lucas had taken them with Jason’s discarded phone before Jason moved him beneath the pool.
Emily transferred the images to the card.
The ledger documented fourteen victims across three states.
Four women had died in incidents ruled accidental.
Two children had disappeared.
Lucas was one of them.
The second child was a seven-year-old girl named Madison Cole.
She vanished four years earlier after her mother died in a garage fire.
Jason had written one word beside Madison’s name.
PLACED.
Ortiz explained that the term might mean the child was alive.
Perhaps she had been given to another family using false documents.
The card also contained payments to a county records clerk, a private nurse, and a police evidence technician.
Jason’s network extended into institutions designed to protect people.
One payment was made three days earlier to someone identified only as H-17.
The amount was twenty-five thousand dollars.
The note beside it read:
HOSPITAL ACCESS.
That explained the electrical failure and false employee badge.
Someone inside St. Matthew’s had helped Jason reach Emily.
Ortiz immediately ordered an internal security review.
Before she could leave my house, her phone rang.
She listened without speaking.
Then she looked at me.
“What happened?”
“The officer guarding Sarah’s room has been found unconscious.”
My chest tightened.
“And Sarah?”
May you like
Ortiz’s eyes hardened.
“She’s gone.”
