Chapter 5: What Daniel Knew
I called my sister from the hotel bathroom with the tap running.
"Carol.
I need you to listen to me and not ask questions until I'm finished."
"Sara, what—"
"Please."
Silence.
Then: "Okay."
I told her everything.
Oliver in the kitchen.
The note.
Marcus on the camera.
The manager's phone call.
The wiped footage.
I kept my voice low and even and I watched my own face in the mirror while I talked because it helped me stay calm.
When I finished, Carol was quiet for a long moment.
"Where's Oliver right now?"
"With Detective Raines.
He's not leaving his side."
"And you trust this detective?"
The question landed harder than she meant it to.
"I don't know who I trust," I said honestly.
"But he's what I have."
"Sara." Her voice shifted.
"Three years ago, after Daniel disappeared — do you remember what you found in the garage?
In the camping box?"
I went still.
I had forgotten about the camping box.
After Daniel vanished, I'd gone through everything.
Every drawer, every pocket, every file.
But the camping box was in the back of the garage under two folding chairs and a broken tent.
I'd opened it, seen nothing but gear, and closed it again.
I hadn't had the energy to go further.
"You told me once there was a false bottom," Carol said quietly.
"You mentioned it and then you never brought it up again.
I always wondered if you'd looked."
"I didn't look."
"Sara—"
"I know." I pressed my hand against the cold tile.
"I know."
"Is the house locked?"
"I'm not in Portland.
We're in Seattle.
We drove up for the weekend." I closed my eyes.
"The house is locked but Carol, if someone has been watching me, they know where I live."
"Then I'll go," she said immediately.
"I'm forty minutes from your place.
I have the spare key."
"It could be dangerous—"
"It's a camping box in a garage, Sara.
I'll be in and out in ten minutes." A pause.
"Unless you want to tell me not to."
I thought about the manager's face.
The shaking hand.
The four seconds of listening before his eyes moved to me.
"Be careful," I said.
"Don't tell anyone where you're going.
Don't park in the driveway."
"I'll call you the minute I'm inside."
She hung up.
I turned the tap off and stood in the silence.
Then I went back out to find Raines.
He was in the corridor outside the security office.
Oliver was beside him, finally finished with the hot chocolate, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed the way he did when he was trying to look braver than he felt.
"Mom." He straightened when he saw me.
"Are we going home?"
"Not yet, baby."
"Is Dad involved in this?"
The question hit me like a step I hadn't seen coming.
I crouched down to his level.
"Why would you ask that?"
Oliver looked at his shoes.
"The man.
Before he left.
He said something else.
Something I didn't tell you yet."
I kept my voice very steady.
"What did he say?"
May you like
Oliver looked up.
"He said, *'Tell your mom that your dad is sorry it took so long.'*"
