Chapter 5 - THE CHILD WHO DISAPPEARED BEFORE ELI
The file should have continued.
It didn’t.
The video ended at two minutes and fourteen seconds.
No corruption warning.
No second file.
Nothing.
Grant checked the drive.
“Someone removed the rest.”
Nolan stared.
“Who had access?”
“Camille.”
“And?”
Grant hesitated.
“My office.”
“Who in your office?”
“Two analysts.”
“Names.”
Grant gave them.
Neither meant anything to Nolan.
Then Eli said:
“Maybe she meant me.”
Nolan turned.
“No. She said you weren’t the only child.”
Eli looked frightened.
“Rachel had another baby?”
Grant shook his head.
“Not according to records.”
“Records have been wrong about everything.”
True.
Nolan returned to the wall.
Three Vale sisters.
Rachel.
Camille.
Rebecca.
Maybe another child belonged to one of them.
“Rebecca.”
He called again.
No answer.
Again.
Voicemail.
Grant’s phone buzzed.
Security update.
Rebecca’s Vermont house had gone dark.
Vehicle gone.
Phone off.
Nolan felt dread deepen.
“She ran.”
“Or someone moved her.”
They searched Camille’s office files.
One folder labeled:
BIRTH RECORDS - 2008.
Eli was born in 2009.
So the missing child came earlier.
Inside were hospital documents.
Massachusetts General.
Mother:
Rachel Vale.
Nolan froze.
“Rachel did have another baby.”
Eli stepped closer.
“What?”
Birth:
Female.
Stillborn.
No name.
The certificate had been filed thirteen months before Eli’s birth.
Eli stared at it.
“My sister?”
“Maybe.”
Grant checked the physician.
Dr. Jonathan Webb.
Again.
Camille’s obstetrician.
The man witnessing the suspicious will.
Nolan’s anger sharpened.
“How long has Webb been connected to this family?”
Grant searched.
Twenty-two years.
Private physician to Theodore Vale.
Then Lorraine.
Then Camille.
That was not coincidence.
“Was the baby really stillborn?”
Eli looked sick.
Grant answered:
“Camille clearly doubted it.”
A handwritten note was clipped behind the certificate.
NO REMAINS RELEASED TO RACHEL.
FUNERAL HANDLED BY LORRAINE.
Nolan whispered:
“Of course.”
The family buried people without bodies.
Or declared them dead without allowing verification.
Eli stared at the paper.
“If she lived, she’d be eighteen.”
Seventeen or eighteen depending on birth month.
Nolan thought of Camille’s video.
There was another baby.
Why mention her now?
Because she mattered to the trust?
Another grandchild.
Another heir.
Grant searched for adoption records.
Nothing under Vale.
Nothing under Warren.
Then Nolan saw a line on an investigator memo.
Infant transferred from maternity floor at 3:12 a.m.
Badge used:
L. BENNETT.
Lorraine.
His stomach turned.
“She took the baby.”
Grant said:
“Possibly.”
“Don’t say possibly.”
“We need proof.”
Nolan looked at Eli.
“Did your mother ever mention a daughter?”
Eli shook his head.
“Rachel barely talked about family.”
“What did she tell you about Camille?”
“That she was the good sister.”
The phrase hurt.
“What did she call Rebecca?”
Eli hesitated.
“The afraid one.”
Grant looked at him.
“And Lorraine?”
Eli’s voice dropped.
“The woman who takes children.”
Silence.
Nolan felt cold spread through him.
“Did Rachel actually say that?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Before she died.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“I was ten.”
Fair.
Painfully fair.
Eli continued:
“She told me if anything happened, I should never go with Grandma Lorraine.”
Nolan looked at Grant.
“Yet Lorraine may have taken Rachel’s first child.”
Grant nodded slowly.
“And possibly wanted Ivy next.”
A knock sounded at the front door.
Everyone froze.
Grant drew a weapon.
Nolan instinctively lifted Ivy.
The knock came again.
Three times.
Then a woman’s voice.
“Nolan?”
Rebecca.
He moved toward the door.
Grant blocked him.
“No.”
“That’s Rebecca.”
“Exactly.”
They checked the camera.
Rebecca stood outside.
Wet from rain.
No coat.
Face bruised.
Blood near her hairline.
Nolan opened the door after Grant cleared the porch.
Rebecca stumbled inside.
“Lock it.”
Grant did.
Nolan stared.
“What happened?”
Rebecca looked at Eli.
Then began sobbing.
“You found him.”
Eli backed away.
“You know me?”
Rebecca nodded.
“Since you were a baby.”
Nolan’s anger returned.
“Everybody knew except me.”
Rebecca looked at him.
“I’m sorry.”
“Where have you been?”
“Running.”
“From who?”
She stared toward the windows.
“Mom.”
Lorraine.
Nolan handed Ivy to Grant.
“Tell me what Camille meant by another baby.”
Rebecca’s face collapsed.
“She found her.”
“Who?”
“Rachel’s daughter.”
Eli stopped breathing.
“My sister?”
Rebecca nodded.
“Where?”
“I don’t know now.”
“You just said Camille found her.”
“Six months ago.”
Nolan stepped closer.
“Name.”
Rebecca whispered:
“Grace.”
“Grace what?”
She looked at Nolan.
“Grace Pierce.”
He froze.
“My last name?”
Rebecca started crying harder.
“Because Camille registered her under your family name.”
Nolan stared.
“How could she do that?”
Rebecca looked at him.
“She used your identity to hide her.”
The room went silent.
Nolan felt anger, grief, and disbelief collide.
“Are you telling me my wife secretly gave another girl my last name?”
“Yes.”
“Where is Grace?”
Rebecca swallowed.
“She was living in Seattle.”
Everyone stopped.
May you like
They had not come to Seattle only for Ivy’s doctor.
Camille had sent Nolan straight toward the missing girl.
