Chapter 4 - Cabin NineColonel Hale did not answer the voice outside.
He signaled Audrey to stay down.
Another security officer entered from the rear hallway, weapon drawn.
The backup generator kicked on.
Dim emergency lights flooded the room.
The voice outside was gone.
So was the vehicle.
Within minutes, additional campus police surrounded the building.
No one found the man.
But they found tire tracks beside the service road.
And taped beneath the broken kitchen window, they found a note.
MIDNIGHT. CABIN 9. NO FEDERAL AGENTS.
Audrey read it twice.
Agent Chen arrived twenty minutes later.
“Absolutely not.”
Audrey crossed her arms.
“He specifically mentioned my grandmother.”
“That is why you are not going.”
“He knows she’s alive.”
“He may know you believe she’s alive.”
Julian paced behind them.
“So we just wait?”
“We investigate.”
“It’s almost ten.”
“And?”
“The note says midnight.”
Chen gave him a flat look.
“Criminals do not get to schedule my workday.”
Audrey held up Eleanor’s photograph.
“What if she left this for us because Cabin Nine contains proof?”
“We will search the property.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
Audrey stepped closer.
“Agent Chen, I have spent four years being told to let other people handle my life. My parents stole my money, lied about me, forged my name, possibly faked my grandmother’s death, and somebody put a tracker in my graduation cap. I’m done sitting in rooms while everyone explains what’s safest for me.”
Chen studied her.
“You want to be an officer?”
“Yes.”
“Then learn the difference between courage and operational stupidity.”
Audrey’s jaw tightened.
Chen continued.
“Courage is moving toward danger when doing so serves the mission.”
She pointed at the note.
“Walking into a location selected by an adversary with unknown numbers, weapons, surveillance, and objectives is stupidity.”
Julian muttered, “She has a point.”
Audrey glared at him.
“What?”
“I’m developing.”
Paige almost smiled.
Chen placed a map on the table.
“Lake Mercer is ninety miles north.”
She pointed.
“Cabin Nine was part of an old private recreational property owned through a Vance subsidiary.”
Audrey frowned.
“I thought Grandpa owned it personally.”
“So did I.”
“Who owns it now?”
Chen looked at Julian.
“North Meridian Holdings.”
Julian stopped smiling.
Audrey looked between them.
“What?”
Julian swallowed.
“That’s one of Dad’s companies.”
“Vance Aeronautical?”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“Private shell company.”
Chen’s eyes narrowed.
“You knew?”
“I saw it on documents once.”
“What does it do?”
“I don’t know.”
Audrey stared.
Julian snapped, “I said I was spoiled, not informed.”
Chen pointed to the map.
“The cabin burned eleven years ago. It was rebuilt two years later.”
“By my father?”
“Apparently.”
“Why?”
“No permits identify the occupant.”
That was enough.
At 11:26 p.m., a federal tactical team arrived at Lake Mercer.
Audrey remained in a command SUV three miles away, furious but reluctantly cooperative.
Julian and Paige sat beside her.
Agent Chen was closer to the operation.
The radio crackled.
“Approaching structure.”
Audrey squeezed Eleanor’s photograph in her hand.
“Exterior clear.”
Another pause.
“Door unlocked.”
Julian looked at Audrey.
She barely breathed.
“Entering.”
Seconds passed.
Then—
“Movement!”
Audrey sat forward.
“Federal agents! Hands where we can see them!”
Silence.
Then something crashed over the radio.
Paige gripped Audrey’s arm.
A voice shouted.
“Clear!”
Another voice.
“One female occupant!”
Audrey’s heart stopped.
“What age?”
No answer.
She grabbed the radio.
Chen’s voice cut in.
“Audrey, stay off comms.”
“Is it her?”
“Wait.”
“Naomi.”
Chen hated when civilians used her first name.
Audrey did it anyway.
“Is it Eleanor?”
A long pause.
Then Chen answered.
“No.”
Audrey sank back.
“Who?”
“We’re identifying her.”
Ten minutes later, an agent drove toward the command SUV.
With him was a woman in her forties wearing jeans, a sweatshirt, and no shoes.
She looked terrified.
Julian opened the door.
The woman stared at him.
“Julian?”
He froze.
“Do I know you?”
She began crying.
“You were seven.”
Audrey stepped out.
“Who are you?”
The woman looked at her.
Recognition shattered her expression.
“Oh, Audrey.”
Audrey’s skin prickled.
“My name is Grace Donnelly.”
Julian stared.
“Donnelly?”
Grace nodded.
“My husband was Peter.”
The witness from Julian’s crash.
Audrey looked at Chen, who had followed the woman.
“You found Peter?”
Chen’s expression told her the answer was complicated.
Grace spoke first.
“Peter is dead.”
Julian went pale.
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
“How?”
Grace’s eyes moved toward the dark lake.
“Officially?”
Audrey hated the word.
“Officially.”
“Suicide.”
“And unofficially?”
Grace looked at Audrey.
“He was terrified of your father.”
Julian whispered, “Because of my accident?”
“No.”
Grace shook her head.
“That was how Peter became involved.”
Audrey listened.
“Arthur paid Peter to change his witness statement. After that, your father learned Peter needed money.”
“What did he make him do?”
“Drive.”
“For him?”
“For people working for him.”
“Who?”
Grace hesitated.
“One of them was your grandmother.”
Audrey stopped breathing.
Julian stepped forward.
“What?”
Grace nodded.
“Eleanor did not die.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
Audrey’s voice sharpened.
“You were living in this cabin.”
“Hiding.”
“From who?”
Grace looked at Agent Chen.
“From Arthur Vance.”
Chen said, “Grace contacted my office anonymously three months ago but refused to meet. We did not know her identity.”
Audrey stared at Chen.
“You knew someone connected to my father was hiding?”
“We knew a source claimed to have evidence.”
Grace wiped her eyes.
“Peter helped Eleanor escape.”
Audrey felt the world tilt.
“Escape from where?”
Grace’s answer came quietly.
“Your house.”
Silence.
“My father was holding her prisoner?”
“Not physically at first.”
“At first?”
Grace nodded.
“Eleanor discovered Arthur was siphoning money from Vance Aeronautical through shell companies. She threatened to remove him from the board.”
Audrey remembered Julian’s story.
The argument outside the bedroom.
“What happened?”
“He had her declared mentally incompetent.”
Audrey stared.
“My grandmother was not incompetent.”
“No. But your mother signed statements saying she was confused and dangerous.”
Julian sat down hard on the SUV bumper.
Grace continued.
“Arthur moved Eleanor to a private care facility under another name.”
“Then whose funeral did we attend?”
“An empty coffin.”
Audrey closed her eyes.
Rage rose so fast she had to swallow it.
Grace continued.
“Peter drove supply trucks for the facility. Eleanor convinced him to help her.”
“And he did?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t she come to us?”
“Because Arthur threatened you.”
Audrey opened her eyes.
Grace looked directly at her.
“He told Eleanor that if she resurfaced, he would destroy your future.”
“He did that anyway.”
“She knew.”
Audrey stared.
“What?”
“Eleanor has been watching from a distance.”
The notarized document.
The photograph.
Cabin Nine.
“She knew I was at Westbridge.”
“Yes.”
Audrey nearly laughed.
“She knew and did nothing?”
Grace shook her head.
“She paid your tuition.”
Audrey froze.
“No. Scholarships paid—”
“Not all of it.”
Grace reached into her sweatshirt pocket.
Chen tensed.
Grace slowly withdrew an envelope.
Inside were copies of wire transfers.
Anonymous educational grants.
Audrey recognized the amounts.
Emergency fees she had thought Westbridge waived.
A textbook grant.
A uniform assistance fund.
Her grandmother had quietly covered gaps for four years.
Audrey’s eyes filled.
“Why didn’t she contact me?”
“Because she believed your father monitored you.”
“Was he?”
“Yes.”
Julian swore quietly.
Audrey looked at him.
Grace continued.
“Arthur wanted to make sure you failed before graduation.”
Audrey’s stomach knotted.
“The tuition trust.”
“Only part of it.”
“What else?”
Grace looked at Chen.
“We should go inside.”
“No.”
Audrey stepped closer.
“Tell me.”
Grace’s face changed.
“The disciplinary complaint during your first year.”
Audrey remembered it.
An anonymous accusation that she had cheated on an exam.
Cleared after handwriting analysis.
“The complaint was fabricated.”
Audrey’s mouth went dry.
“The drug test sophomore year?”
“Tampered with.”
Audrey stared.
“The missing scholarship paperwork?”
“Intercepted.”
“Who?”
Grace hesitated.
Then said a name Audrey never expected.
“Paige Morgan.”
The world stopped.
Audrey turned.
Paige stood beside the SUV.
White-faced.
Julian stared at her.
“No.”
Paige shook her head.
“Audrey—”
Audrey stepped backward.
“No.”
Grace continued.
“Paige was paid by Arthur Vance during your first two years at Westbridge.”
Audrey’s eyes locked onto her best friend.
The woman who had shared food with her.
Studied with her.
Held ice to her cheek after graduation.
Kept copies of her evidence.
“Audrey,” Paige whispered, “I can explain.”
Audrey’s voice broke.
“You were working for my father?”
Paige started crying.
“At first.”
Those two words hurt worse than the slap.
Audrey stared at her.
“Since when?”
“Freshman orientation.”
Julian moved between them.
“You better start talking.”
Paige wiped her face.
“Arthur hired me to report whether Audrey was staying at Westbridge.”
“Why you?”
“My mother owed him money.”
Audrey felt sick.
“You told him everything?”
“No.”
“You were my roommate.”
“I know.”
“You knew when I cried.”
“I know.”
“You knew when I skipped meals.”
Paige whispered, “I know.”
Audrey’s anger sharpened.
“And you were sending him reports?”
“At first.”
“For how long?”
“Seven months.”
Audrey laughed bitterly.
“Seven months?”
“Then I stopped.”
“Why?”
“Because I realized he wasn’t trying to protect you.”
Paige reached into her jacket.
This time Chen stepped forward.
“Slowly.”
Paige withdrew a flash drive.
“I started saving everything Arthur asked me to do.”
Audrey stared.
Paige held it out.
“Every message.”
Arthur’s instructions.
Payments.
Requests for access to Audrey’s room.
Orders to photograph schedules.
Audrey did not take it.
Chen did.
“When was your last contact with Arthur?”
“Two years ago.”
“You’re lying.”
Everyone turned.
Grace stared at Paige.
“I saw you meet him six weeks ago.”
Audrey stopped breathing again.
Paige’s face collapsed.
Grace pointed toward her.
“Outside the courthouse.”
Audrey stepped toward Paige.
“Six weeks ago?”
Paige backed away.
“Audrey, listen.”
“You told me you hadn’t spoken to him in two years.”
“I had to meet him.”
“Why?”
Paige looked terrified.
“Because he found out Eleanor was alive.”
Audrey stared.
“And he told me if I didn’t give him Grandma’s location…”
May you like
Her voice shook.
“He would kill you before graduation.”
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