Chapter 10 - The Clinic in the Mountains
They reached Vermont shortly before dawn.
Ruiz had arranged a tactical team.
Nathan refused to remain behind.
Elena was ordered to stay at a nearby medical center because of the pregnancy.
She hated it.
But she knew Ruiz was right.
Nathan entered the abandoned clinic with officers at 5:42 a.m.
The building smelled of dust and mildew.
Old patient rooms lined a dark corridor.
Broken medical equipment remained scattered beneath plastic sheets.
Ruiz found fresh footprints.
They led downstairs.
In the basement, a generator hummed.
Someone had restored electricity to part of the building.
Nathan heard a woman crying.
“Vanessa?”
No answer.
Ruiz opened a door.
Vanessa sat tied to a chair.
Her face was bruised.
Nathan stopped.
“You came.”
Vanessa laughed weakly.
“Don’t look so disappointed.”
Ruiz cut the restraints.
“Where is Charles?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why are you tied up?”
“Because I finally understood I was never his partner.”
Vanessa looked at Nathan.
“I was evidence he planned to erase.”
Ruiz crouched beside her.
“What did Charles tell you about Rebecca?”
Vanessa swallowed.
“That she died here.”
Nathan’s face tightened.
“Did you see a body?”
“No.”
“Records?”
“No.”
“Then why believe him?”
“Because he had her necklace.”
Ruiz stood.
“He could have taken it.”
Vanessa’s eyes filled.
“I know that now.”
A metallic sound came from farther down the corridor.
Everyone turned.
Ruiz raised his weapon.
They followed the noise.
At the end of the basement was a reinforced steel door.
Nathan saw scratches around the handle.
Recent ones.
Ruiz forced it open.
Inside was a small room.
A bed.
A table.
A camera.
And walls covered with photographs.
Rebecca.
Nathan.
Margaret.
Elena.
Vanessa.
The family had been monitored for years.
Nathan approached one photograph.
It showed Rebecca sitting outside a rural grocery store.
The date was only eight months old.
Nathan stopped breathing.
“She was alive.”
Ruiz examined another photograph.
Four months old.
Rebecca boarding a bus.
Vanessa began sobbing.
“My sister is alive?”
Ruiz nodded.
“Or she was recently.”
Nathan found a map pinned to the wall.
Several locations were circled.
One was in Maine.
Another in New Hampshire.
A third near Quebec.
Ruiz pointed toward Maine.
“This one has repeated dates.”
Vanessa wiped her eyes.
“What does that mean?”
“Someone visits regularly.”
Nathan pulled a small envelope from beneath the map.
His name was written across it.
He opened it.
Inside was a handwritten note.
Nathan recognized the writing immediately.
Rebecca’s.
Only six words were written.
CHARLES IS NOT THE ONLY ONE.
Nathan read them twice.
May you like
Then the lights went out.
A gunshot exploded in the corridor.
