Chapter 7 - Six Days Missing
Evelyn had awakened six days earlier on the farmhouse floor.
She remembered the florist’s van.
A cloth over her mouth.
Then darkness.
Vanessa visited her on the second day.
Evelyn had been stunned.
“You?”
Vanessa’s face was hollow.
“You destroyed everything.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“That’s what makes it worse.”
Vanessa had followed Victoria’s instructions at first.
Victoria promised evidence proving Evelyn had manipulated Grant.
Instead, Victoria disappeared after delivering Evelyn to the farmhouse.
Vanessa was left with a kidnapped woman and a choice.
Call police.
Or finish what hatred had started.
Each day, she chose wrong.
Outside the locked room, Grant struck the door with his shoulder.
“VANESSA!”
Inside, Vanessa pulled the rope tighter.
Evelyn could barely speak.
“Tell Grant…”
Vanessa leaned closer.
“Tell him what?”
“Tell him he was never difficult to love.”
Vanessa stared at her.
“You still think this is a love story.”
The rope tightened.
Grant stepped backward.
Then slammed his body against the door.
Wood cracked.
Again.
The frame splintered.
“VANESSA!”
Evelyn’s vision darkened.
The door burst inward.
Grant stood there.
Rainwater dripped from his hair.
Mud covered his tailored pants.
His mother’s gold ring was clenched in one hand.
He saw Evelyn.
The rope.
The bruises.
Then Vanessa.
“What did you do?”
Vanessa released the rope.
Grant reached Evelyn.
He cut the restraints with a pocketknife.
Evelyn collapsed against him.
“I’ve got you.”
She tried to answer.
Nothing came.
Sirens approached.
Grant had not been as reckless as he appeared.
He had sent the location to police before entering.
Vanessa stepped backward.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”
Grant looked at her.
“There is no version of this that was supposed to happen.”
Police entered.
Vanessa was arrested.
Evelyn was carried outside.
Grant rode with her to the hospital.
Before the ambulance doors closed, a detective approached him.
“We searched the farmhouse.”
Grant looked up.
“There’s a basement.”
“And?”
The detective held up an evidence bag.
Inside was an old cassette tape labeled in Grace Calloway’s handwriting.
May you like
CHARLES HALE — VICTORIA — DANIEL MERCER.
“We think,” the detective said, “this tells us who killed Evelyn’s father.”
