Chapter 3 - Box Forty-Seven
Torres and Nathan reached Evergreen Storage as dawn broke over the valley.
The facility manager claimed the unit belonged to Sarah Carter, but the signature on the rental agreement looked nothing like Sarah's.
Inside Box 47 they found neatly stacked children's clothes, old grocery receipts, a damaged camera, and a sealed blue folder.
The first photograph showed Sarah holding a newborn in a hospital room.
A second image showed the same infant several months later, sitting beside a woman Nathan recognized from a medical fundraising gala.
Victoria Kane.
The blue folder contained certified-looking records with competing dates, two birth names, and photocopies of a death certificate that had been revised three times.
Torres pointed out that the copies were evidence of a possible scheme, not proof of which identity was correct.
Nathan found a letter Sarah had never mailed.
She wrote that Whitcomb had forced her to sign statements under threat of losing her daughter.
She said Marcus photographed every visit, monitored her phone, and used supposed custody violations to force her back into the house.
At the bottom of the letter was a pencil drawing of a small white chapel near a lake.
A handwritten note read, 'Find the woman who kept the first record.'
The manager suddenly appeared at the door, saying a fire alarm had been triggered in the next building.
Torres smelled smoke before the alarm sounded.
Nathan grabbed the blue folder while the detective called for evacuation.
Flames surged through a ventilation duct, spreading too quickly to be accidental.
They escaped with only the folder and the damaged camera.
Outside, a gray sedan rolled past the entrance.
Nathan saw a familiar face through the rear window.
May you like
Douglas Whitcomb was watching the fire without expression.
