Chapter 5 - Blackwood LakePolice reached the cabin before sunrise.
Ryan was ordered to remain behind.
He ignored that order long enough to follow in his own truck.
Blackwood Lake was forty minutes outside town, surrounded by dense pine forest.
Ryan arrived to flashing police lights.
The cabin door had been broken open.
Detective Bennett met him outside.
“You shouldn't be here.”
“Did you find Natalie?”
Mara didn't answer immediately.
That terrified him.
Then she said, “We found evidence she was here.”
Inside were ropes.
Medical supplies.
A woman's coat.
Natalie's coat.
But no Natalie.
Ryan walked into the bedroom.
Something had been scratched into the wooden floor.
Five words.
SHE KNOWS ABOUT THE MONEY.
“What money?” Mara asked.
Ryan stared.
“I don't know.”
Then an officer discovered a loose floorboard.
Underneath was a metal box.
Inside were documents.
Bank statements.
Birth certificates.
Photographs.
And one envelope addressed to Ryan.
His hands shook as he opened it.
Inside was a letter from his father, dated nine years earlier.
Ryan, if anything happens to me, do not trust the person handling the Mitchell estate.
Ryan looked at Mara.
“My father died nine years ago.”
“How?”
“Car accident.”
Mara read further.
Her expression changed.
“Who handled his estate?”
Ryan already knew.
Caroline's father.
May you like
Richard Vale.
And suddenly this was no longer just about a child behind a wall.
