Chapter 10 - Saint Agnes
Saint Agnes Psychiatric Hospital had been abandoned for years.
The property sat two hours north of Los Angeles behind rusted gates and dead eucalyptus trees.
Official records claimed the facility closed because of financial problems.
Detective Ortiz discovered something else.
For nearly six years before closure, Saint Agnes had accepted private patients whose records never appeared in state databases.
One of those patients had been registered under the name Clara Benton.
The admission date was ten months after Claire disappeared.
Victoria stared at the screen.
“Clara Benton.”
Sophie looked at her.
“Same initials.”
Ortiz nodded.
“Same birth date too.”
Sophie’s face went pale.
They drove to the abandoned hospital with a warrant.
The corridors smelled of mold and dust.
Old patient rooms stood open.
Paint peeled from the walls.
Sophie was not allowed inside.
She remained with a protective officer outside.
Victoria, Ethan, and Ortiz searched the administrative wing.
Most files had been removed.
One locked cabinet remained.
Inside was a patient ledger.
Clara Benton.
Room 204.
Admitted by Charles Hale.
Guardian authorization signed by Evelyn Hale.
Victoria stared at her mother’s signature.
“No.”
Ethan studied it.
“Could be forged.”
Victoria nodded desperately.
“It has to be.”
The treatment notes were disturbing.
Clara was described as paranoid, delusional, and obsessed with accusations involving her father.
Medication dosages increased repeatedly.
Visitors were restricted.
Outgoing correspondence was prohibited.
Then the records suddenly ended.
Discharged.
No destination.
No physician signature.
Date: seven years earlier.
Three weeks before Saint Agnes closed.
Ortiz searched the room.
“There has to be more.”
Ethan noticed scratches on the underside of the desk.
He knelt.
A patient identification bracelet had been taped underneath.
CLAIRE BENNETT.
Sophie’s mother had been there.
Victoria pressed the bracelet against her palm after Ortiz photographed it.
“Seven years.”
Her voice broke.
“My father locked her away for seven years.”
“Not necessarily the whole time.”
Ortiz corrected.
“But long enough.”
They searched Room 204.
The room was empty except for a metal bed and a cracked window.
Words had been carved into the wooden frame.
SOPHIE.
VICTORIA.
REMEMBER THE LAKE.
Victoria stared.
“The lake.”
Ethan looked at her.
“What lake?”
Victoria suddenly remembered a summer home their family had owned in Lake Arrowhead.
Claire loved it.
Evelyn loved it.
Charles hated it.
He sold the property six years ago.
Victoria called the current owner.
No answer.
Ortiz requested property records.
A corporation had purchased it.
The corporation traced back to Martin Keane.
Victoria’s pulse accelerated.
Martin had not simply worked for Charles.
He had purchased the Hale lake house one year after Claire left Saint Agnes.
Sophie was brought inside only after the room had been cleared.
She stood beside the bed and looked at her mother’s carved name.
Then she noticed something Victoria had missed.
Beneath the word SOPHIE was a tiny arrow.
It pointed toward a loose floorboard.
Ethan removed it.
Inside was a sealed plastic bag.
There was a photograph.
A map.
And a letter.
Sophie unfolded it.
The first line was written in Claire’s handwriting.
“My beautiful Sophie, if you found this, then I made it farther than Charles believed.”
Sophie looked at Victoria.
May you like
The final sentence answered the question that had haunted them.
“I escaped Saint Agnes.”
