Chapter 5 - THE ABANDONED STATION
The storm weakened by midday.
Nathan traveled with Mercer’s team in a county rescue vehicle.
The road toward the hydroelectric station narrowed between steep walls of snow.
Broken branches covered the ground.
Several times, they had to stop and clear the path.
The station had been closed for nearly twenty years.
Its concrete walls rose from a frozen gorge beside the river.
Marcus’s truck was hidden beneath a collapsed maintenance shelter.
Blood marked the passenger door.
Mercer signaled for silence.
The deputies entered through separate doors.
Nathan waited behind the rescue vehicle until a shout came through the radio.
“Female victim located.”
He ran before anyone could stop him.
Sarah lay inside an office near the old turbine room.
Her wrists were tied with electrical cable.
A coat had been thrown over her, but her clothing was damp.
A deep cut crossed her temple.
Her breathing was shallow.
Nathan dropped beside her.
“Sarah.”
Her eyes remained closed.
He checked her pulse.
Too fast.
Her skin was cold, but not as cold as Lily’s had been.
A deputy cut the cable from her wrists.
Nathan placed an oxygen mask over her face.
“Sarah, it’s Nathan.”
Her eyelids moved.
For one second, her green eyes opened.
“You came.”
The words almost destroyed him.
“I’m here.”
“The children?”
“They are safe.”
“Lily found you?”
“She brought them all the way to the house.”
A faint smile touched Sarah’s mouth.
“I knew she would.”
Her eyes closed again.
Nathan helped carry her toward the rescue vehicle.
Behind the station, deputies found a narrow trail leading into the woods.
Marcus had escaped on foot.
Inside his truck were passports, cash, and forged birth certificates for all three children.
The destination listed on a map was Canada.
Marcus had planned to take them across the border.
Mercer recovered Sarah’s phone from the vehicle.
The final recorded video had been made in the kitchen before Lily fled.
Sarah appeared on-screen with blood running beside her eye.
“If you are seeing this, Marcus found out I contacted Nathan.”
She looked over her shoulder.
“I believed the lies for too long.”
“I believed my brother hated me.”
“I let shame keep me trapped.”
Her voice broke.
“But Marcus is not only hurting us.”
“He has used Nathan’s name to steal from the Pierce Children’s Foundation.”
“He has medical records, account numbers, and signatures.”
“He plans to frame Nathan when the missing money is discovered.”
Sarah held something up to the camera.
A black ledger.
“The proof is hidden where Mom taught us to keep promises.”
The video ended.
Nathan stared at the frozen screen.
Mercer looked at him.
“Where did your mother teach you to keep promises?”
Nathan remembered a childhood summer.
A cedar box.
May you like
Two children kneeling beneath an apple tree.
“Our old family cabin.”
