Chapter 8 - The Wrong Vaughn
Olivia felt the words settle over the room.
Her mother knew Adrian.
Before she knew Derek’s father.
Before the investigation.
Before everything.
“How?”
Derek moved toward the kitchen table.
“I don’t know.”
Olivia laughed bitterly.
“You keep saying that.”
“Because it’s true.”
“Then tell me what you do know.”
Derek looked at the key in her palm.
“That key doesn’t belong to the blue house.”
“How can you tell?”
“The shape.”
He pointed.
“Bank vault key.”
Grace stepped closer.
“First Atlantic?”
“Probably.”
Olivia stared at the metal.
Her father had known she would come here.
He had left the key.
Mason searched the living room.
“No signs of forced entry.”
Caleb sat carefully in a chair.
“Whoever took him may have been invited inside.”
Olivia looked toward a framed family photograph.
Her father.
Her mother.
Olivia at ten years old.
A happy family.
Or at least one that looked happy.
Grace opened the drawers beneath the kitchen counter.
“Maybe there’s more.”
Olivia checked her father’s desk.
Receipts.
Bills.
Insurance documents.
Nothing.
Mason opened a locked cabinet using a paperclip.
Grace raised an eyebrow.
Mason said, “Don’t ask.”
Inside was a stack of old photographs.
Olivia took them.
Most were family pictures.
Then she found one that did not belong.
Her mother was standing outside a university building.
Beside her was a young man.
Tall.
Dark hair.
A familiar smile.
Olivia’s breath caught.
Derek looked.
“Adrian.”
Her mother looked twenty-two.
Adrian looked perhaps twenty-five.
They were standing close.
Too close to be strangers.
On the back, her mother had written a date.
May 1999.
And three words.
A.V. PROMISED EVERYTHING.
Olivia sat down.
Mason looked at Derek.
“Your brother dated her?”
“I didn’t know.”
Grace searched online.
“Adrian attended Northlake University from 1997 to 2000.”
Olivia’s mother had attended the same university.
Derek stared at the photograph.
“Adrian disappeared for a year after college.”
“Where?”
“Europe.”
“Why?”
“My father said he was doing private work.”
Grace looked at Olivia.
“Your mother joined Vaughn Strategic in 2001.”
Olivia turned.
“She never told me that.”
Derek nodded.
“She worked there for eleven months.”
The betrayal felt endless.
Every answer created another secret.
Mason picked up another photograph.
Olivia’s mother stood inside an office.
Behind her was a wall displaying the Vaughn Strategic logo.
Olivia looked at Derek.
“So she wasn’t investigating from outside.”
“No.”
“She was inside.”
“Yes.”
Grace sat beside Olivia.
“She may have been helping Adrian.”
Derek shook his head.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because Adrian never helped anyone unless it benefited him.”
Olivia looked again at the words.
A.V. PROMISED EVERYTHING.
“What did he promise her?”
Nobody knew.
A floorboard creaked upstairs.
Everyone froze.
Mason looked toward the ceiling.
Derek stood.
Caleb reached for something that was not there.
Grace closed the laptop.
Another creak.
Someone was upstairs.
Mason whispered, “Stay here.”
Olivia shook her head.
“No.”
Derek said, “For once, listen.”
She glared at him.
“I spent two years listening to you.”
That ended the argument.
They moved together.
Mason took a fireplace poker.
Derek grabbed a heavy brass candleholder.
Grace carried a flashlight.
They reached the upstairs hallway.
Olivia’s childhood room was open.
The door had been closed when she arrived.
Mason pushed it wider.
Empty.
The curtains moved near the window.
Then Olivia saw a shoe beneath the bed.
Mason stepped closer.
“Come out.”
Silence.
Derek raised the candleholder.
A voice whispered.
“Please.”
Olivia recognized it.
Female.
Grace looked at her.
The woman crawled from beneath the bed.
She was in her late fifties.
Her face was bruised.
Olivia gasped.
“Aunt Rebecca?”
Rebecca Bennett looked at her niece.
Tears filled her eyes.
“Olivia.”
Olivia rushed forward.
“What happened?”
Rebecca grabbed her arms.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“Where’s Dad?”
“They took him.”
“Who?”
Rebecca looked at Derek.
Fear crossed her face.
“You brought one of them.”
Olivia glanced at Derek.
“He’s helping.”
Rebecca laughed bitterly.
“That’s what his family always says.”
Derek said nothing.
Olivia helped her onto the bed.
Rebecca was her father’s younger sister.
They had not spoken in almost three years.
Rebecca had moved to Arizona after an argument with Thomas.
At least that was what Olivia believed.
“When did you get here?”
“Yesterday.”
“Why?”
“Your father called me.”
Rebecca looked at the key in Olivia’s hand.
“He knew Adrian was coming.”
Olivia whispered, “How?”
“He received a photograph.”
“What photograph?”
Rebecca reached into her pocket.
A folded picture.
Olivia opened it.
The image showed the blue house.
Someone had written a message across it.
WE REMEMBER.
Rebecca continued.
“Your father told me to come here and wait for you.”
“Why didn’t you call?”
“My phone disappeared.”
Derek asked, “Who attacked you?”
Rebecca looked at him.
“A woman.”
Grace tensed.
“What did she look like?”
“Forties.”
“Dark hair?”
“Yes.”
Grace whispered, “Nora.”
Rebecca nodded.
“She said she was federal.”
Olivia closed her eyes.
So Nora had been here.
Before Adrian took her father.
Rebecca reached beneath the mattress.
She pulled out a small cassette recorder.
“Your father gave me this.”
Olivia stared.
“Cassette?”
“He said digital things can be changed.”
Derek looked impressed despite himself.
Rebecca handed it over.
“There’s one recording.”
Mason found an old stereo in the hallway closet.
They inserted the cassette.
Static filled the room.
Then Thomas Bennett’s voice.
“Olivia, if you’re hearing this, then Adrian Vaughn has returned.”
Olivia’s eyes filled.
Her father continued.
“Do not trust law enforcement until you know who Nora Bell answers to.”
Grace looked down.
“Do not give Derek Vaughn the archive.”
Derek’s face hardened.
Mason looked at him.
Thomas continued.
“And most importantly, do not believe Derek when he tells you he met you by accident.”
Olivia stared at Derek.
The tape kept playing.
“He was sent to find you.”
Derek closed his eyes.
Olivia whispered, “Tell me that isn’t true.”
He said nothing.
May you like
Thomas’s voice delivered the final sentence.
“Derek’s original assignment was to bring you to Adrian.”
