CHAPTER 12 — THE VOICE OF A DEAD WOMAN
“DON’T SAY MY NAME. NOT WHILE RICHARD IS STANDING THERE.”
Michael’s blood turned cold. The line had already gone dead, but Evelyn’s warning remained louder than anything in the room. Richard stood only feet away, staring at the photograph with a face drained of color. Claire watched Michael carefully. She knew immediately that whoever had called had changed everything.
“Who was it?” Richard asked.
Michael looked at his father and remembered Evelyn’s final lesson: truth did not belong to whoever shouted first. Three months earlier, Michael would have accused Richard immediately. Tonight, he forced himself to breathe.
“Wrong number.”
Richard didn’t believe him.
Neither did Claire.
But Claire understood the warning in Michael’s eyes and remained silent.
After Richard returned upstairs, Michael showed Claire the unknown number. Reed traced it within minutes. The call had bounced through six encrypted relays, but one location appeared for less than two seconds before disappearing.
An abandoned train station outside Baltimore.
“Michael,” Claire whispered, “if Evelyn is alive, somebody has spent twenty years making you believe she wasn’t.”
Michael stared toward Lily’s bedroom upstairs.
“And whoever did it just found our house again.”
Reed arrived before sunrise. He examined the photograph under ultraviolet light and discovered tiny numbers hidden along the border.
They weren’t dates.
They were coordinates.
The coordinates matched the abandoned station.
Richard entered the study unexpectedly.
“What are you looking at?”
Michael covered the photograph.
Richard stopped.
For the first time, hurt replaced suspicion.
“You’re hiding something from me.”
Michael stood.
“Yes.”
Richard’s jaw tightened.
“Why?”
Michael looked directly at him.
May you like
“Because Mom told me to.”
Richard went completely still.
