Chapter 16 - The Last Thirty-Nine MinutesPolice halted demolition with twenty-three minutes remaining.
Workers were evacuated.
Daniel ran toward the pavilion.
Maya shouted behind him.
“Daniel!”
He stopped only when armed officers entered first.
The basement was empty.
Again.
Daniel slammed his fist against the wall.
“He keeps moving her!”
Maya examined the room.
“No.”
“What?”
“He wants you to think that.”
She pointed toward the floor.
Dust covered everything except a rectangular section beneath the old table.
A second hatch.
They opened it.
Beneath was an access tunnel heading toward the river.
Daniel laughed once in disbelief.
“Of course.”
Robert’s entire world was hidden passages.
Hidden accounts.
Hidden motives.
Hidden rooms.
Police followed the tunnel.
It opened inside an old boathouse half a mile away.
A service vessel was tied to the dock.
Robert was not there.
But Kate was.
Daniel saw her before anyone could stop him.
She sat wrapped in a blanket against the far wall.
For one heartbeat he could not move.
Four months.
One hundred twenty-three days.
Every nightmare ended here.
“Kate?”
Her head lifted.
She stared.
Then stood.
“Dad?”
Daniel crossed the room.
Kate ran.
He dropped to his knees before she reached him.
She collided with his chest.
Daniel wrapped both arms around her.
Neither spoke.
Kate cried without sound at first.
Then everything came out.
“You came.”
“I came.”
“He said you didn’t want me.”
“He lied.”
“I knew.”
Daniel buried his face in her hair.
“I’m sorry.”
Kate pulled back.
“For what?”
“For not hearing you sooner.”
She touched his face.
“You didn’t know where I was.”
That made him cry harder.
Maya turned away to give them privacy.
Paramedics entered.
Kate was dehydrated and underweight but medically stable.
No major physical injuries.
Daniel sat beside her while they checked her.
“Where is Robert?” Maya asked gently.
Kate pointed toward the river.
“He left.”
“When?”
“Maybe ten minutes.”
“Boat?”
She nodded.
“Small one.”
Maya radioed marine units.
Kate looked at Daniel.
“He wanted Mom’s book.”
“The ledger?”
“Yes.”
“How did you know about it?”
“I heard Vanessa and Marcus talking.”
Daniel squeezed her hand.
“Why did Robert keep asking you?”
“He thought Mom told me where everything was.”
Kate frowned.
“But she did.”
Daniel stared.
“What?”
“Not when she died.”
Kate looked confused.
“Before.”
Daniel leaned closer.
“Kate, you were four.”
“I remember.”
“What did she tell you?”
Kate looked toward Maya.
“Mom said if an old man ever told me Dad was bad, I should go to the place where she taught me to listen.”
Daniel's skin prickled.
“What place?”
“The pool.”
He frowned.
“Emily taught you to listen at the pool?”
Kate nodded.
“She used to take me underwater and tap numbers on the wall.”
Daniel remembered.
Emily and Kate had played underwater games.
One tap.
Two taps.
Patterns.
“Why?”
Kate shrugged.
“She said secrets sound different underwater.”
Daniel stared toward Maya.
That was not childish nonsense.
Emily had hidden something else.
At the mansion pool.
Robert knew enough to suspect Kate.
But not enough to know what.
Police wanted to transport Kate to the hospital.
She refused to let go of Daniel’s hand.
He rode with her.
Halfway there, Maya called.
Marine police had found Robert’s boat drifting.
Empty.
His coat and phone were aboard.
No body.
Daniel looked toward Kate.
She was asleep against his shoulder.
Robert had disappeared.
For everyone else, finding Kate was the ending.
For Daniel, it was not.
May you like
Not while the man responsible remained free.
And not while Emily’s final secret waited somewhere beneath the water at home.
