Chapter 2 - THE ROOM BENEATH OUR HOME
Police arrived within twelve minutes.
Detective Ortiz arrived seven minutes after them.
I remembered her immediately.
Dark hair.
Gray jacket.
Sharp eyes that seemed to notice things before anyone else did.
She had been the detective standing beside me two years earlier when rescue crews pulled twisted pieces of Mara's car from the ravine.
She had also been the person who told me that the remains recovered inside were believed to be my wife's.
Now she stood in my hallway staring at the opening behind the broken wall.
"You said your son was found inside?"
"Yes."
"And Rhea Dalton fled?"
"Yes."
Ortiz looked at Perrin.
He was sitting on the stairs wrapped in one of my coats.
A paramedic had examined him.
He was dehydrated.
Hungry.
Covered in bruises that did not come from ordinary childhood accidents.
Every mark felt like a personal accusation.
I had trusted Rhea.
I had allowed her into my home.
Worse, I had planned to marry her.
Ortiz crouched near Perrin.
"I'm Lena."
Perrin nodded.
"I'm not going to ask you a lot of questions right now."
Another nod.
"I only need one answer."
She pointed toward the hidden corridor.
"Did you see your mother inside there?"
Perrin looked at me first.
I sat beside him.
"You can tell her."
He swallowed.
"Not in that room."
Ortiz waited.
"Farther down."
He pointed.
"There are stairs."
The officers entered first.
I wanted to go with them.
Ortiz stopped me.
"Stay with your son."
Twenty minutes later, one officer returned.
His expression made my chest tighten.
"We found something."
Ortiz and I followed him while another officer stayed with Perrin.
The passage behind the wall was narrow and unfinished.
Old brick showed through rotting plaster.
Electrical wires had been installed recently along the ceiling.
That was the first sign that someone had intentionally reopened the corridor.
We reached a staircase descending beneath the west wing.
At the bottom stood a steel door.
The lock had been broken by police.
Inside was a room no larger than a storage closet.
A mattress lay on the floor.
A half-empty bottle of water stood beside it.
There were plastic food containers.
Medical gauze.
A chain fixed to a metal ring in the wall.
My vision blurred.
Ortiz touched my arm.
"Don't."
I realized I had been walking toward the chain.
I stopped.
On the mattress was a strand of long dark hair.
Mara had dark hair.
I looked at Ortiz.
She did not promise me anything.
Instead, she called for the crime scene unit.
An officer opened a cabinet.
Inside were prescription bottles with the labels removed.
Another officer found women's clothing in a plastic bag.
I recognized a blue sweater immediately.
I had given it to Mara on our tenth anniversary.
My knees almost gave out.
"That's hers."
Ortiz looked at me.
"You're sure?"
"I bought it."
She carefully photographed it.
I could barely breathe.
Two years.
I had spent two years grieving a woman who might have been alive somewhere beneath my feet.
I remembered the funeral.
The empty coffin.
Perrin asking why Mommy could not come home.
Rhea standing beside me during the service.
Holding my hand.
Comforting my son.
My stomach turned.
Ortiz moved toward the wall beside the mattress.
Someone had scratched lines into the plaster.
Dozens of them.
Maybe hundreds.
At first, they looked like random marks.
Then Ortiz aimed her flashlight lower.
There were words.
Very faint words.
I stepped closer.
My throat closed.
The handwriting was Mara's.
CALEB.
PERRIN.
I'M ALIVE.
Below that was another message.
SHE NEEDS THE BLUE BOOK.
Ortiz photographed everything.
Then she noticed something near the corner.
A small piece of paper had been pushed beneath the baseboard.
An officer carefully removed it with tweezers.
Only two words were written on it.
CEDAR VALE.
I stared at the note.
"Do you know what that means?"
I shook my head.
Then a voice came from the doorway.
Perrin had followed us down.
His face became pale when he saw the room.
I hurried toward him.
"You shouldn't be here."
But he was staring at the chain.
"Dad."
I picked him up.
"What?"
"Mommy wasn't alone."
Every officer in the room went silent.
Ortiz stepped closer.
"Who else did you see?"
Perrin looked toward the dark corridor behind us.
"A man."
My chest tightened.
"What man?"
May you like
Perrin whispered.
"Uncle Simon."
