Chapter 13 - The Missing Mother
Lucas called Willow at 2:03 a.m.
“My mother is gone.”
Willow sat up in Helena’s guest room.
“Did Richard take her?”
“I don’t know.”
“You always say that when you’re afraid of the answer.”
Lucas was silent.
Then he whispered.
“Yes.”
Willow dressed immediately.
Michael objected when she told him.
She went anyway.
Lucas met her at the Sterling lake house north of the city.
Police had already searched the main property.
Nothing appeared disturbed.
Lucas led Willow into Richard’s private study.
“I remembered something from when I was twelve.”
He pulled a carved wooden panel beside the fireplace.
Behind it was a narrow staircase.
Willow stared.
“Police missed this?”
“Nobody knows it exists except family.”
They descended.
The staircase ended at an underground room.
The room contained no luxury.
Only shelves.
Files.
Security monitors.
And decades of surveillance.
Willow saw photographs of herself.
At college.
At her gallery.
Outside Michael’s shop.
On her first date with Lucas.
At her wedding.
Her entire relationship had been watched.
Lucas looked sick.
“I didn’t know.”
Willow said nothing.
One monitor was still active.
A camera showed an industrial warehouse.
Marion sat tied to a chair.
Richard paced behind her.
Lucas stepped closer to the screen.
“Where is that?”
Willow noticed a faded logo painted on the wall.
HALE INDUSTRIAL - PLANT 3.
Michael knew the address.
The abandoned factory stood near the Calumet River.
Willow called the detective leading the case.
Police ordered them to stay where they were.
Lucas looked at his mother on the screen.
“He’ll kill her.”
Willow stared at Richard.
“He killed my mother to protect the company.”
“Now the company is disappearing.”
Lucas understood.
“That means he has nothing left to protect.”
“No.”
Willow’s voice became cold.
“He has himself.”
Onscreen, Richard suddenly turned toward the camera.
He walked directly toward it.
Then held up a sheet of paper.
Lucas zoomed the image.
The message was written in thick black marker.
WILLOW COMES ALONE.
OR MARION TELLS EVELYN THE TRUTH IN PERSON.
Willow felt the blood drain from her face.
The threat was unmistakable.
But one phrase mattered more than the rest.
The truth.
Not about the company.
Not about the ledger.
May you like
About Evelyn.
Richard still knew something her father did not.
