Chapter 8 - Twenty-Four HoursThere is a particular kind of fear that arrives when a child disappears.
Detective Reed raised both hands.
“State police.”
She didn't lower the weapon.
“That's what the last man said.”
Evan stepped into view.
“Melissa.”
Her expression changed.
Not much.
But enough.
She looked past him toward me.
“You're Alice?”
I nodded.
Melissa Grant had supposedly drowned nine years earlier.
In reality, she had spent nearly a decade living under another name in rural Vermont.
She was forty-one now.
Dark hair threaded with gray.
A scar ran from beneath her left ear toward her collarbone.
She let us inside only after Reed surrendered his weapon to another officer waiting outside.
The cabin contained almost nothing personal.
No framed photographs.
No mail lying around.
No computer.
Every curtain covered.
Every door reinforced.
This was not a home.
It was a hiding place.
Melissa made coffee and told us how she met Ryan.
Back then, he called himself Nathan Reeves.
“He was everything I thought I wanted.”
Her eyes briefly met mine.
“Charming?”
“Yes.”
“Patient?”
“Yes.”
“Made you feel like nobody had ever understood you before?”
Melissa gave a sad smile.
“Exactly.”
She inherited money after her grandmother died.
Not Monroe money.
But enough.
Ryan proposed eight months later.
Then came insurance policies.
Power-of-attorney documents.
Isolation.
Friends pushed away.
Relatives insulted until Melissa stopped seeing them.
Finally, the boating trip.
Ryan loosened part of the steering system, staged equipment failures, and took Melissa far offshore.
“He thought I couldn't swim.”
“But you could.”
“My father taught me.”
Ryan struck her.
She went overboard.
Instead of trying to climb back onto the boat, Melissa swam beneath it and emerged on the opposite side.
Ryan assumed she'd sunk.
A fishing vessel found her hours later.
Evan helped her disappear because she was convinced Ryan would kill anyone who helped prosecute him.
“Why didn't you go to police?”
“I did.”
She laughed bitterly.
“Nathan Reeves didn't exist.”
The boat was registered through a shell company.
Ryan vanished.
Evidence disappeared.
Melissa had no family willing to fund a long investigation.
Then threatening photographs arrived.
Pictures of her younger brother's children.
She understood.
Stay dead.
Or somebody else suffers.
“So I stayed dead.”
I thought of Claire.
She hadn't stayed silent.
And Ryan killed her.
Melissa reached across the table.
“I'm sorry about your sister.”
“You didn't kill her.”
“No. But I could have stopped him years ago.”
Reed intervened.
“You're willing to testify now?”
Melissa looked toward the curtained window.
“Is Ryan in custody?”
“No.”
“Then no.”
My stomach dropped.
“Please.”
She looked at me.
“You don't know what you're asking.”
“He murdered my sister.”
“I know.”
“He may have murdered my parents.”
“I know.”
“He's planning to kill me.”
“I know.”
“Then help us.”
Her eyes hardened.
“You think courage means not being afraid. It doesn't. Sometimes fear is the smartest thing you have.”
I stood.
“My sister was afraid too.”
Melissa's expression changed.
“She still kept going.”
I placed Claire's letter on the table.
“She knew Ryan might kill her, and she still tried to save me.”
Melissa stared at the page.
I continued.
“I spent my entire relationship believing Claire was jealous, difficult, controlling. I dismissed her because Ryan made trusting him easier than trusting her.”
My voice broke.
“She died knowing I hadn't believed her.”
Jenna touched my back.
“I can't change that.”
I looked at Melissa.
“But I can make sure she didn't die for nothing.”
For almost a minute, Melissa remained silent.
Then she put down her coffee.
“What do you need?”
Everything changed after that.
Melissa described Ryan's old methods.
He maintained emergency safe houses.
He preferred border crossings by private charter or boat.
He kept duplicate identities.
Most importantly, he never trusted partners completely.
“Daniel Vale thinks he's Ryan's equal,” Melissa said. “He's not. Ryan will sacrifice him.”
That became useful almost immediately.
Vale had refused to cooperate.
But when Reed's investigators showed him evidence suggesting Ryan had prepared forged documents placing the blame for Claire's murder entirely on Vale, his attitude changed.
Vale requested a deal.
He admitted driving the SUV.
Ryan had been the passenger.
“Ryan told me to scare Claire,” he claimed.
Reed didn't believe him.
Neither did I.
Vale confessed they rammed her vehicle twice.
After the crash, Vale went down to assess her condition.
Claire was alive.
Ryan ordered him to kill her.
Vale claimed he refused.
“Who killed her, then?” Reed asked.
Vale stared at the table.
“She died from the crash.”
The preliminary re-autopsy report disproved that within hours.
Claire had suffered injuries consistent with the collision.
But they weren't immediately fatal.
Toxicology found a fast-acting opioid in her blood.
Someone had injected her after the crash.
A puncture mark remained near her hip.
Ryan had brought the syringe.
The case against him became overwhelming.
Still, he was missing.
Then something unexpected happened.
At 4:22 that afternoon, my phone rang.
Ryan.
Everyone froze.
Reed motioned for me to answer.
“Alice?”
He sounded exhausted.
“Ryan.”
“You went to police.”
I said nothing.
“You betrayed me.”
The absurdity almost made me laugh.
“You killed Claire.”
“No.”
“I saw the video.”
Silence.
Then his voice changed.
Gone was the loving husband.
“You shouldn't have gone looking.”
“You followed her.”
“She interfered.”
“She's my sister.”
“She was a problem.”
Jenna closed her eyes.
I gripped the phone.
“And my parents?”
No response.
“Did you kill them?”
“Alice, come meet me.”
“Answer me.”
“We can fix this.”
“You murdered my family.”
“I gave you a life.”
My hands shook.
“What life?”
“The one you wanted.”
“You mean the one you designed.”
Ryan laughed quietly.
“You were lonely when I found you. Your father was gone. Your mother was gone. Claire treated you like a child. I gave you confidence.”
“You studied me.”
“I understood you.”
“You stalked me.”
“I loved you.”
“No.”
That word came easier than I expected.
“You loved access.”
For the first time, Ryan lost control.
“You ungrateful little—”
He stopped.
Breathed.
Then whispered:
“Tell Reed he has twenty-four hours.”
“For what?”
“To release Vale.”
Reed shook his head.
“Or?”
Ryan chuckled.
“Ask Jenna where her daughter is.”
Jenna went white.
Her daughter, Sophie, was seventeen.
At school.
Supposedly.
Jenna grabbed her phone.
Called.
No answer.
Called again.
Nothing.
Ryan continued.
“I told you Claire's curiosity would hurt people.”
Jenna collapsed into a chair.
“Where is Sophie?”
Ryan heard her.
“Alive.”
I could barely speak.
“If you touch her—”
“Twenty-four hours.”
The call ended.
Police traced it.
Burner phone.
Signal lost.
Jenna screamed at Reed to find her daughter.
Within twelve minutes, they discovered Sophie's car abandoned near school.
Her backpack remained inside.
On the driver's seat was one white rose.
The same flower Claire carried at my wedding.
Underneath it sat a note.
One sister was enough.
May you like
And for the first time, Ryan no longer wanted money.
He wanted revenge.
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