Chapter 9 - THE WOMEN BEFORE SARAH
The memory card changed the investigation overnight.
Sarah had documented everything.
She had recorded Jason discussing money with Cole.
She had photographed hidden passports.
She had copied account numbers.
Most importantly, she had discovered the identities of three women Jason had previously targeted.
One was alive in Oregon.
Another had relocated to Arizona.
The third had been missing for almost six years.
The first two women told investigators remarkably similar stories.
Jason had met them under different names.
He was charming.
Patient.
Helpful.
He learned everything about their finances.
Then strange things started happening.
Loans appeared.
Documents disappeared.
Accounts were changed.
When they questioned him, he became controlling.
Eventually, both women fled.
They had never connected him to other identities.
Until Sarah.
Sarah had done what nobody before her had managed to do.
She had built a complete picture.
That was why Jason needed her folder.
The information could destroy every identity he had created.
But one recording on the card bothered Alvarez more than the others.
Sarah had secretly recorded an argument between Jason and Cole.
Cole’s voice was clear.
“You promised this was the last family.”
Jason answered.
“Once the transfer clears, we’re done.”
“What about the kid?”
“Not part of the plan.”
“And Sarah?”
“She signs or she loses everything.”
That sentence made my hands shake.
Sarah had not been imagining danger.
She had been standing inside it every day.
Another recording contained something even more important.
Cole mentioned a place called Red Creek.
Investigators searched every business, road, and property with that name.
There were dozens.
Then Emily heard the recording.
She looked up sharply.
“I know Red Creek.”
Alvarez turned toward her.
“What is it?”
“A motel.”
Everyone in the room became still.
“You’ve been there?”
“Once.”
“When?”
“Jason took me and Mom there.”
“Why?”
Emily shrugged.
“He said our house had termites.”
Sarah had apparently believed him at the time.
“What did the motel look like?”
“Red doors.”
“Anything else?”
“A big horse sign.”
Alvarez searched immediately.
Five minutes later he found it.
Red Creek Motor Lodge.
It was seventy-four miles west of Stonebridge.
Police contacted the motel.
A clerk recognized Jason’s photograph.
He had checked in that morning.
Room 16.
The room was still registered to him.
For the first time, we had a location that was not hours old.
Alvarez stood.
“We’re moving now.”
I grabbed his arm.
“Sarah could be there.”
“I know.”
“Bring her back.”
He nodded once.
Then he left.
Emily leaned against me.
Neither of us spoke.
We stared at the clock.
Twenty minutes passed.
Then forty.
Then an hour.
Finally my phone rang.
Alvarez.
I answered immediately.
“Did you find her?”
His voice was tense.
“We found the room.”
“And Sarah?”
“No.”
My heart sank.
“But we found a message.”
May you like
“What message?”
“It’s addressed to you.”
