Chapter 7: The Confrontation in the Hallway
Dad was in the study.
I didn't knock.
I pushed the door open and stood in the doorway, and he looked up from his desk with an expression that shifted through three different things in about two seconds — surprise, then calculation, then something that looked almost like relief.
"Cara—"
"I talked to Ruth," I said.
He set down his pen.
"She told me about Lena," I said.
"About Daniel.
About the parking lot.
About the property record you found." I stepped into the room.
"About the fact that you went somewhere four days ago and haven't told her what you found."
He was quiet for a long moment.
Then he said, "Sit down."
"I don't want to sit down."
"Please."
I sat.
He folded his hands on the desk.
He looked at them for a moment.
Then he looked at me.
"How much did she tell you?"
"Enough," I said.
"Enough to know you've been doing this alone for eighteen years and that someone out there knows you've been looking.
Enough to know you might be in danger." I leaned forward.
"Dad.
What did you find?"
He opened the top drawer of his desk.
He took out a folded piece of paper and set it on the desk between us but didn't push it toward me.
"A property record," he said.
"A storage facility about forty miles from here.
It was purchased under a numbered company in 1999.
The numbered company traces back, through three layers of other companies, to a man named Gerald Marsh." He paused.
"Gerald Marsh was the name of Daniel's employer.
The man Lena was seeing — the man who called himself Daniel — worked for Gerald Marsh."
"So you found a connection."
"I found a thread," he said.
"I went to the facility."
My chest tightened.
"Alone."
"Yes."
"Dad—"
"I know." He held up one hand.
"I know.
It was not a smart decision.
I went during the day, I didn't go inside, I just drove past and looked.
It's a legitimate business on the outside.
Storage units.
Fenced.
Security cameras." He paused.
"But there was a car in the lot that I recognized."
"Recognized how?"
He unfolded the piece of paper.
It was a printout — a vehicle registration record.
He turned it to face me.
"That car," he said, "is registered to a man named Paul Denny.
Paul Denny was Gerald Marsh's personal driver in 1999.
He was interviewed by police during the original investigation and cleared." Dad's finger rested on the page.
"He's still working for the same family.
Twenty-five years later."
I stared at the paper.
"So whoever took Lena," I said slowly, "is still connected to this facility.
Right now."
"That's what I believe."
"And you drove past it alone without telling anyone."
He had the decency to look uncomfortable.
"I told Ruth I'd found something."
"You told her you'd call her after.
You didn't call her.
She's been worried sick for four days." I pushed back from the desk.
"Does Mom know any of this?
Any of it?"
"No."
"Why not?"
He looked at me steadily.
"Because the last person who got close to this disappeared."
The room went very quiet.
"Is that a threat?" I said.
"Are you saying we're in danger?"
"I'm saying I have spent eighteen years being careful," he said, "and I am not going to stop being careful now.
Not when I'm this close."
"Close to what?
What are you planning to do?"
He looked at the paper on the desk.
Then he looked at me.
"I'm going to go back," he said.
"But this time I'm going to go inside."
"Absolutely not."
"Cara—"
"No." I stood up.
"You are not going into a building connected to the man who took your sister, alone, without telling anyone, based on a car registration and a parking lot photograph." My voice was shaking.
"That is not happening."
He looked at me for a long moment.
"Then what do you suggest?" he said.
I pulled out my phone.
"We call someone who can actually do something about this," I said.
"Someone with a badge."
His jaw tightened.
"The police had eighteen years."
"Not with what you have now." I held his gaze.
"Dad.
You have a financial trail.
You have a property record.
You have a vehicle registration.
You have a photograph.
That is evidence.
That is something a detective can use." I set my phone on the desk between us.
"Call Ruth.
Tell her what you found.
And then we find someone who can help us do this right."
He stared at the phone.
May you like
He didn't pick it up.
But he didn't say no.
