Chapter 5 - THE SAFE HOUSE
The safe house belonged to Reed Capital.
Officially, it was a private executive retreat outside Hudson Valley.
In reality, it had been designed after a kidnapping threat against Mark ten years earlier.
Steel shutters.
Independent generators.
Secure communication lines.
Private medical room.
Three security teams.
Mark carried Noah inside just before midnight.
Sarah followed.
Dr. Benson arrived forty minutes later.
He examined Noah carefully.
“No signs that he has been given anything dangerous.”
Mark’s shoulders relaxed slightly.
“What about the bottle?”
The doctor sealed it inside an evidence bag.
“I will have it tested.”
Sarah sat nearby.
Noah had fallen asleep again.
Mark looked at her.
“You saved him.”
Sarah shook her head.
“I walked into a room.”
“You walked into a room when most people would have pretended they saw nothing.”
Sarah said nothing.
Mark noticed that her hands were shaking now that the danger had passed.
“Why were you in the nursery?”
Sarah looked down.
“I heard him crying.”
“That is all?”
“No.”
Mark waited.
Sarah took a breath.
“I saw Victoria go upstairs.”
“She lives there.”
“She never checks on Noah.”
Mark could not argue.
Victoria had complained about Noah since the day he arrived.
She called his presence disruptive.
She resented the nurses.
She resented the nursery renovations.
She resented Mark changing his work schedule to care for him.
At first, Mark thought she simply did not want children.
They had only been married two years.
Now he wondered whether her resentment had been something else entirely.
Sarah rubbed her palms together.
“My mother worked as a nanny when I was young.”
Mark looked at her.
“She used to tell me that children cannot choose who enters the room.”
Sarah’s voice softened.
“So adults have to choose what kind of person they are when no one else is watching.”
Mark studied her.
He realized he knew almost nothing about the woman who had been living under his roof for more than a year.
Before he could respond, Evan entered.
“We found something in Keller’s car.”
He handed Mark a tablet.
Police had searched the sedan after Keller fled into the woods.
Inside the trunk, they discovered a second set of license plates, six prepaid phones, two passports, and a document pouch.
The pouch contained a photocopy of Mark’s will.
Someone had handwritten a note across the top.
PHASE TWO AFTER CUSTODY TRANSFER.
Mark looked at Evan.
“What does phase two mean?”
“We do not know.”
Sarah leaned toward the screen.
Another photograph showed a printed map.
The Reed estate.
Routes to the company headquarters.
Mark’s private airport.
A hospital.
And the cemetery where Daniel and Emily were buried.
Sarah pointed at a red circle.
“What is that?”
Mark zoomed in.
The circle surrounded an old storage facility belonging to the Reed family.
He stared at it.
“That building has been empty for twelve years.”
Evan checked another page.
“Keller had a key.”
Mark looked toward Noah.
“Then we go there at sunrise.”
Sarah shook her head.
“You are not going.”
Mark almost smiled.
“That sounded like an order.”
“It was.”
He studied her.
“And what do you suggest?”
May you like
Sarah looked at the map.
“We let the police go first.”
