Chapter 7: The Race to the Cabin
Chapter 7: The Race to the Cabin
The recording played again.
"She's too late."
Agent Brooks increased the volume.
The voice was faint, but unmistakably male.
It hadn't come from the correctional officer.
It hadn't come from Grant.
Someone else had been standing close enough to the jail phone to be heard.
Brooks looked at Director Donovan.
"County jail phones are monitored. No inmate should have been close enough to interfere with another prisoner's call."
Donovan's expression hardened.
"Pull the surveillance footage."
A technician hurried out of the room.
Evelyn stared at the map of Colorado spread across Walter's old desk.
The gold key lay in the center.
If someone was heading for the cabin...
They were after whatever Walter had hidden there.
And judging by Grant's fear...
It was worth killing for.
An Unexpected Visitor
Less than thirty minutes later, headlights swept across the front windows.
Officer Ramirez instinctively rested a hand on his holster.
A black pickup truck stopped in the driveway.
An older man stepped out wearing a weathered denim jacket and a cowboy hat.
Henry smiled the moment he saw him.
"Tom."
The man removed his hat.
"Mr. Carlisle."
Henry introduced him.
"This is Tom Bennett."
"He took care of Walter's ranch for nearly thirty years."
Tom shook Evelyn's hand.
"I'm sorry we're meeting like this."
"What brings you here?"
Tom reached into his jacket and handed her a folded map.
"I found someone asking questions this morning."
"What kind of questions?"
"About the mountain cabin."
The room became silent.
Tom pointed to a red circle on the map.
"Two strangers stopped at the ranch just after sunrise."
"What did they want?"
"They claimed they were surveyors."
He paused.
"They weren't."
"How do you know?"
"They called the cabin by its old family nickname."
Evelyn frowned.
"What nickname?"
Tom looked at Henry.
"The Eagle's Nest."
Henry's smile vanished.
Walter hadn't used that name in over twenty years.
Almost no one knew it.
Jail Surveillance
Meanwhile, a technician rushed into the study carrying a tablet.
"We found it."
Everyone gathered around.
The jail surveillance footage began.
Grant stood alone at the phone.
Halfway through the conversation...
A corrections officer approached.
He leaned close enough to whisper something.
Grant visibly stiffened.
After ending the call, he looked terrified.
Brooks paused the video.
Zoomed in on the officer's name tag.
It read:
Officer Daniel Cross.
Director Donovan frowned.
"I've never heard of him."
Brooks typed rapidly.
Then stopped.
"That's because he doesn't work there."
Officer Ramirez looked over his shoulder.
"What?"
"The jail has no employee named Daniel Cross."
Silence.
The man wearing the uniform...
Was an impostor.
Someone Inside
Donovan immediately called the jail.
Within minutes the answer came back.
No officer by that name had been on duty.
Security footage showed the fake officer entering through a staff entrance using a cloned access badge.
He had disappeared before anyone realized he didn't belong there.
Officer Ramirez looked at Evelyn.
"This wasn't random."
"No."
She already knew.
Someone was cleaning up Grant's mess.
Lily Remembers
Upstairs, Lily sat coloring beside the window while Evelyn packed a small overnight bag.
Sunny the stuffed puppy sat beside her.
"Mommy?"
"Yes?"
"I know that man."
Evelyn stopped.
"What man?"
"The one in the picture."
She pointed to the paused surveillance image on Brooks's tablet.
Officer Daniel Cross.
Or whoever he really was.
"You've seen him before?"
Lily nodded slowly.
"He came here."
Every adult in the room froze.
"When?"
"The day Daddy made me sleep downstairs."
Evelyn knelt beside her.
"What happened?"
Lily concentrated, trying to remember.
"He talked to Daddy."
"What did they say?"
"I don't know."
She frowned.
"But Daddy gave him..."
She held up both hands, showing the shape of a rectangle.
"...a black box."
Brooks looked at Donovan.
"The flash drive?"
Evelyn shook her head.
"No."
Walter's flash drive had been hidden for years.
This was something else.
The Storage Unit
One of the financial investigators burst into the room.
"We traced another payment."
"To where?"
"A storage facility outside Denver."
He displayed the contract.
The renter's name was fake.
But the payment came from Grant's personal account.
"What size unit?"
"Large enough for furniture."
Evelyn's heart skipped.
"Lily's bedroom."
Within twenty minutes officers arrived at the storage facility with a search warrant.
Unit 214 rolled open.
Inside...
Everything.
Lily's pink princess bed.
Her books.
Butterfly curtains.
Boxes of toys.
Family photographs.
Even the birthday decorations Evelyn had ordered before leaving on her assignment.
Nothing had been donated.
Grant had hidden it all.
Near the back sat a cardboard box labeled:
KEEP UNTIL AFTER COURT.
Officer Ramirez opened it.
Inside were documents.
School records.
Medical files.
A notarized statement claiming Evelyn had permanently abandoned Lily.
Every page carried Evelyn's forged signature.
The Decision
That evening the living room became a temporary command center.
Maps covered the coffee table.
Photographs lined the walls.
Director Donovan looked at everyone.
"If the cabin contains evidence, we cannot wait."
Henry nodded.
"It takes four hours to reach it."
Tom added quietly,
"Longer if someone wants to make sure you never arrive."
Brooks looked at Evelyn.
"I can request a tactical team."
She shook her head.
"Too slow."
"You'll need backup."
"I know."
She looked upstairs, where Lily was finally sleeping peacefully.
"I won't leave her again."
Henry placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"I'll stay with Lily."
Tom nodded.
"And I'll guide you through the mountain roads."
Evelyn finally agreed.
At dawn...
They would leave for the Eagle's Nest.
One Last Discovery
Just before midnight, Brooks's phone buzzed.
He answered.
His expression darkened immediately.
"What happened?"
He looked at Evelyn.
"The storage facility."
"What about it?"
"It caught fire."
Officer Ramirez frowned.
"Accident?"
Brooks slowly lowered the phone.
"The firefighters say someone broke in..."
He paused.
"...after we left."
"They used gasoline."
"The entire unit is gone."
Evelyn's stomach tightened.
The forged documents had already been collected as evidence.
But everything else...
Lily's bed.
Her toys.
Her memories.
Reduced to ashes.
Brooks looked out the window into the darkness.
"They're destroying every loose end."
Evelyn quietly picked up the gold key.
"No."
She slipped it into her jacket pocket.
"They missed one."
Far away, high in the San Juan Mountains...
A single light suddenly appeared in the window of a cabin that was supposed to have been empty for years.
May you like
Someone was already inside.
End of Chapter 7
