Chapter 16 - THE SUMMER SKY CLUE
Nora underwent emergency surgery.
The bullet had passed through her side without striking the spine.
She lost enough blood to remain unconscious for twelve hours.
When she woke, Rachel sat beside the hospital bed under police guard.
Her wrists were cuffed.
Nora looked at her.
“Lucy?”
Rachel shook her head.
“No one has found her.”
“Charles?”
“Alive.”
Nora closed her eyes.
Charles had fractured three ribs and his left leg.
He also suffered a concussion.
Ortiz survived.
She confessed to helping Daniel access evidence, witness locations, and police schedules.
She claimed she did not know he planned to kill anyone.
Prosecutors charged her anyway.
Martin, Mercer, Celeste, Emily, and Grace were safe.
Daniel had escaped through an underground ambulance entrance.
Traffic cameras showed him driving north with Lucy.
The vehicle disappeared near the Canadian border.
Nora tried to sit up.
Pain pulled through her stitches.
Rachel helped adjust the bed.
“You should not be here,” Nora said.
“I asked to see you.”
“Why?”
“To apologize.”
“That word is becoming meaningless.”
“I know.”
Rachel looked at the cuffs.
“Daniel sent me a video of my son.”
“You believed him.”
“Yes.”
“You pointed a gun at Lucy.”
“I will live with that.”
“No.”
Nora looked at her.
“Lucy will live with that.”
Rachel lowered her head.
Nora asked about the silver key.
Grace had identified it as belonging to Rebecca.
Rebecca once owned a cabin called Summer Sky near the Canadian border.
The property had been purchased under another name.
Police searched records but found no exact address.
Nora remembered the phrase she used while dressing Lucy.
You look just like the summer sky.
Eleanor had said the same thing to Nora as a child.
The phrase came from a painting in Sky House.
A blue landscape showing mountains, a lake, and a single red-roofed cabin.
Charles kept the painting in storage after Eleanor’s death.
Nora ordered it brought to the hospital.
The frame contained a hidden compartment.
Inside was an old postcard addressed to Rebecca Lawson.
The postmark came from Coldwater, Vermont.
On the back, Eleanor had written:
The summer sky is safest where the mountain touches its reflection.
Coldwater Lake sat beneath Mount Harlow.
Satellite images showed several cabins along the northern shore.
One had a red metal roof.
Property records listed the owner as Bluebird Holdings.
Bluebird Holdings connected to Rebecca.
Police mobilized immediately.
Nora insisted on leaving the hospital.
Doctors refused.
She signed herself out against medical advice.
Charles waited in a wheelchair near the private elevator.
His leg was in a cast.
“You are not going,” Nora said.
“Neither are you.”
“I can walk.”
“Barely.”
“You cannot.”
“I have a helicopter.”
Despite everything, Nora almost smiled.
They flew north with federal agents.
Snow began falling over the mountains.
Lucy’s birthday was the next morning.
Less than fourteen hours remained.
The red-roofed cabin stood near the frozen edge of Coldwater Lake.
Agents approached from the forest.
No vehicle was visible.
Thermal cameras detected two people inside.
One adult.
One child.
Nora watched from the command vehicle.
A shot echoed.
Agents breached the doors.
The cabin was empty.
The heat signatures came from mannequins wrapped in electric blankets.
A speaker played Lucy’s recorded breathing.
Daniel had anticipated the search.
On the table sat a birthday cake with six candles.
Beside it was a note.
YOU REMEMBERED THE SKY.
NOW REMEMBER THE WATER.
Nora stared at the frozen lake.
The mountain touched its reflection in the center.
An old boathouse stood half a mile away.
Agents moved toward it.
Inside they discovered a trapdoor beneath the dock.
The silver key opened it.
A tunnel led through the rock beneath the shoreline.
Nora entered despite the agents’ objections.
Charles followed on crutches with assistance.
The tunnel ended in an underground shelter.
Children’s drawings covered the walls.
Most had been created by Daniel.
They showed Whitmore House burning.
Charles falling from a cliff.
Eleanor’s car beneath dark water.
One drawing showed young Daniel standing beside Rebecca.
Another showed William Whitmore handing Daniel money.
Daniel had been groomed by William from adolescence.
William promised him power if he helped silence Eleanor.
After the crash, William abandoned him.
Daniel’s revenge began there.
Nora found a row of files labeled with her name.
He documented every major event in her life before their meeting.
College.
Jobs.
Relationships.
Her therapy after Eleanor’s death.
He had created their first encounter.
He arranged the museum invitation.
He learned her favorite painting from a stolen journal.
He imitated interests she described in private letters.
Their entire romance had been engineered.
Charles stood behind her.
“I am sorry.”
Nora closed the file.
“You did not create him.”
“No.”
“But my family gave him the tools.”
“Yes.”
A monitor activated.
Daniel appeared on screen with Lucy.
She sat beside him wearing a red coat.
A window behind them showed moving snow.
“You found the beginning,” Daniel said.
“Now come to the ending.”
“Where are you?”
“You know.”
“No.”
Daniel touched Lucy’s hair.
She pulled away.
Nora’s anger sharpened.
“Do not touch her.”
“Midnight, Nora.”
“For what?”
“Eleanor’s memorial bridge.”
The bridge crossed a deep gorge twenty miles east.
It had been constructed after Eleanor’s death.
Charles named it for her.
Daniel continued.
“Bring Charles.”
“What do you want?”
“The public confession.”
“The company is already gone.”
“This is not about the company.”
Charles looked at the screen.
“What is it about?” he asked.
Daniel smiled.
“You made my mother invisible.”
Charles’s face changed.
“What did William do to Rebecca?”
Daniel’s smile vanished.
“You know.”
“I do not.”
“He locked her in the old treatment wing after the crash.”
Mercer’s hospital.
Charles looked stunned.
Daniel continued.
“She spent fourteen years there while everyone believed she ran away.”
Grace covered her mouth.
Rebecca had never escaped.
William and Mercer imprisoned her to prevent testimony.
Daniel discovered the truth only months earlier.
He blamed Charles for failing to find her.
“Is Rebecca alive?” Nora asked.
Daniel turned the camera.
An older woman lay in a hospital bed behind him.
Her dark hair was streaked with gray.
Her eyes were open.
Rebecca.
Lucy sat beside her.
“She has one night left,” Daniel said.
“Doctors say her heart is failing.”
“What does she want?”
“To see Charles confess.”
Rebecca turned weakly toward the camera.
Her voice was barely audible.
“That is not what I want.”
Daniel looked at her.
She continued.
“I want Lucy released.”
Daniel ended the feed.
Nora stared at the blank screen.
Grace began crying.
“My sister is alive.”
Nora looked at the bridge location on the map.
Daniel had four hostages now.
Lucy.
Rebecca.
And the truth he had spent his entire life reshaping.
A sound came from beneath the shelter floor.
Agents opened another hatch.
Inside was a small room containing medical equipment.
Fresh blood marked the bed.
Rebecca had been there hours earlier.
On the wall, Lucy had drawn a picture with blue crayon.
A bridge.
A woman.
A little girl.
And a circle beneath the bridge.
Nora studied it.
Lucy had added an arrow pointing downward.
“She is telling us something.”
Charles looked at the bridge drawing.
“There is an inspection platform beneath the road.”
Nora remembered Lucy’s words from the ballroom.
She had always lowered her eyes when adults passed.
She had looked like she wanted to disappear.
Perhaps she had seen Daniel before the collision.
Perhaps he had threatened her.
Lucy had been afraid all evening, but she had still left clues.
The hidden room.
The orange juice.
The rabbit.
Now the platform.
Nora looked at the clock.
Ten hours remained.
May you like
“We are not going to his ending,” she said.
“We are going beneath it.”
