Chapter 12 - The Bait
Caleb sent a message to the kidnappers.
MARGARET AGREED.
The response came immediately.
MIDNIGHT.
OLD BOATHOUSE.
NO POLICE.
But Margaret never left Connecticut.
Instead, Caleb, June, and Thomas Vale built a plan.
Meredith begged to come.
Caleb refused.
“You’ve done enough.”
“They have Noah.”
“We don’t know that.”
“I do.”
She showed him a photograph received two days earlier.
Noah tied to a chair.
Caleb studied the background.
Concrete wall.
Metal shelving.
Thomas enlarged the image.
“There’s a label.”
Whitcomb Logistics.
Caleb frowned.
His company owned six warehouses.
One had been closed for years.
“South Harbor.”
Thomas nodded.
June looked at Caleb.
“Elara could be there too.”
They split the investigation.
Thomas went toward South Harbor with private security and police waiting out of sight.
Caleb and June drove to the lake.
At midnight, the boathouse lights turned on automatically.
A speaker crackled.
“Where is Margaret?”
Caleb shouted, “Safe.”
“You were told to bring her.”
“I don’t follow orders from cowards hiding behind speakers.”
Silence.
Then a door opened behind the boathouse.
A man stepped inside.
Gray hair.
Tall.
Thin.
Seventies.
June inhaled sharply.
Caleb stared.
He had seen old photographs.
“Victor Dane.”
The man smiled.
“Hello, Caleb.”
Caleb rushed him.
June blocked the path.
“Elara.”
Victor nodded.
“Alive.”
“Where?”
“South Harbor.”
Caleb’s phone rang.
Thomas.
“We found the room.”
Caleb answered instantly.
“Elara?”
A pause.
“No baby.”
Caleb turned toward Victor.
Victor’s smile vanished.
Thomas continued.
“But we found a young man.”
“Noah?”
“Yes.”
Meredith had told the truth about that much.
Caleb lowered the phone.
“You lied.”
Victor shook his head.
“No.”
“You said Elara was there.”
“She was.”
Caleb stepped closer.
“Where is she now?”
Victor looked genuinely disturbed.
“That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
June watched him.
“You’re not controlling the kidnapping anymore.”
Victor said nothing.
June’s eyes narrowed.
“You started it.”
Victor looked at her.
“Yes.”
“But someone took over.”
A long silence followed.
Caleb felt dread settle into him.
“Who?”
Victor looked toward the dark lake.
“The same person who took over thirty years ago.”
Caleb’s voice dropped.
“Margaret?”
Victor shook his head.
“No.”
“Then who?”
May you like
Victor looked directly at him.
“Your brother.”
