The headlights remained fixed on them.
No one moved.
A car door opened.
Mara's heart hammered.
Jonathan whispered, “Back inside.”
They retreated into the storage corridor.
The vehicle's engine continued running.
A figure entered the facility.
His footsteps were slow.
Deliberate.
Daniel looked at Mara.
“Do you recognize him?”
She shook her head.
Jonathan did.
His face drained of color.
“Stephen.”
Mara stared at him.
“You're sure?”
Jonathan nodded.
A man's voice carried through the corridor.
“Jonathan.”
No answer.
“I know you're here.”
Mara looked at Daniel.
Stephen's footsteps drew closer.
Then stopped.
A metallic scraping sound followed.
The door of a nearby locker opened.
He was searching.
Jonathan motioned toward the opposite corridor.
They moved silently.
Mara kept the silver key clenched in her palm.
They reached an emergency exit.
Jonathan pushed it open.
Cold air rushed in.
They ran.
Mara reached the car first.
Daniel got behind the wheel.
Jonathan climbed into the back.
The tires sprayed water as they pulled onto the road.
For several minutes nobody spoke.
Then Mara said, “Room 214.”
Daniel nodded.
“We go there.”
Jonathan shook his head.
“Not yet.”
Mara turned.
“My mother is there.”
“She may not be anymore.”
“What does that mean?”
Jonathan looked out the window.
“Eleanor knew Stephen would eventually discover the motel.”
“Then why would she stay there?”
“She didn't.”
Mara stared at him.
“What?”
Jonathan reached into his coat again.
This time he produced a folded map.
He opened it across the back seat.
A red circle marked an abandoned roadside chapel nearly forty miles away.
“She moved before sending you the photograph.”
Mara felt a surge of anger.
“Then why send me to the motel?”
“To see whether you were being followed.”
Daniel looked at Jonathan through the rearview mirror.
“You used her daughter as bait.”
Jonathan's voice hardened.
“I was trying to keep her alive.”
Mara looked at the map.
“Where is she now?”
“Somewhere Stephen won't think to look.”
“Where?”
Jonathan hesitated.
Then Mara noticed something.
The map's red circle wasn't around the chapel.
It was around the property beside it.
An old farmhouse.
Her mother's family had owned it decades ago.
Mara remembered visiting there as a child.
It had been sold before she was born.
“That's not abandoned,” she whispered.
Jonathan looked at her.
“What?”
“My mother owns it.”
Daniel turned sharply.
“How?”
“She bought it back years ago.”
Jonathan stared at her.
“You knew?”
“No. I remember the place.”
Mara suddenly understood.
The house.
The storage locker.
The motel.
The photograph.
Her mother had been moving pieces of her life from one place to another, leaving clues only someone who knew her well enough could recognize.
But there was still one question.
“Where is my father?”
Jonathan said nothing.
Mara turned toward him.
“Tell me.”
He looked at the dark road ahead.
“He is at the farmhouse.”
Mara's chest tightened.
“Alive?”
Jonathan nodded.
“Very much alive.”
Daniel slammed his palm against the steering wheel.
“You knew this whole time?”
Jonathan's eyes met his.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Thomas is the reason Eleanor needed the house transferred.”
Mara stared.
Her father's survival was not the end of the mystery.
It was the beginning.
Jonathan leaned forward.
“And if we don't reach Eleanor before Stephen does, you'll learn why Thomas disappeared.”
Mara looked toward the distant darkness.
“Then drive faster.”
Click here to continue reading: PART 9: The Farmhouse Waited Beyond the Empty Fields, but Mara Could Not Stop Wondering Why Her Father Had Let Them Mourn Him
The Key Turned in the Lock, and the Woman Behind the Door Knew Exactly Who Had Betrayed Her
Part 8 of 20
