Chapter 7 - The Second PhoneI didn't sleep that night.
Neither did Rachel.
Neither did Daniel.
The message sat on the screen like a threat from a ghost.
You should have stayed in the basement.
Alvarez had the phone examined.
There was no obvious explanation for how the sender had obtained my number.
Then the technician discovered something worse.
"The message wasn't sent directly to her."
"What does that mean?" Alvarez asked.
"It bounced through three temporary accounts."
"Can you trace it?"
"Eventually."
"How long?"
He hesitated.
"Maybe."
Alvarez hated that answer.
So did I.
I stared at the screen.
"Why would they send that?"
Rachel answered.
"Because they want you afraid."
"I am afraid."
"Good."
I looked at her.
She continued.
"Fear keeps people predictable."
I shook my head.
"Not anymore."
Daniel looked at me.
"What are you thinking?"
"That they made a mistake."
"What mistake?"
"They think I'm still the woman they left in that room."
Nobody spoke.
I looked at the phone.
"They don't know what happened after."
Rachel smiled faintly.
"Now you're learning."
At 2:40 in the morning, the technician called Alvarez.
He had found something.
A second phone.
It had been recovered from the original building.
It was hidden behind a loose tile.
The phone contained almost nothing.
One contact.
One photograph.
One voice recording.
The contact was labeled:
MOTHER
Daniel stared at it.
"That's my mother."
Rachel looked at him.
"Our mother died before Elena disappeared."
"I know."
"Then why is her number here?"
Alvarez played the voice recording.
Static.
Then a woman's voice.
Older.
Shaking.
"Daniel, if you ever hear this, don't trust Morgan."
Daniel covered his mouth.
His mother.
Alive.
Or at least alive when the message was recorded.
The recording continued.
"Your father was right. Elena found the accounts. She found the names. She tried to tell someone."
A pause.
"They came to the house."
The recording ended.
Daniel stared at the phone.
"Why didn't anyone tell me?"
Rachel looked at him.
"Because you were the last person they wanted to know."
The room fell silent.
Then Alvarez said something none of us expected.
"We need to find your mother's records."
Daniel shook his head.
"There are no records."
"There have to be."
"She died."
"According to whom?"
He didn't answer.
Alvarez looked at the second phone.
"That's the question."
We spent the next day searching.
Not for a person.
For paperwork.
Death certificates.
Hospital records.
Insurance records.
Anything.
The records contained inconsistencies.
The official date of death didn't match the hospital admission.
The hospital listed no discharge.
There was no burial record.
No cemetery.
No final medical report.
Nothing.
Rachel sat across from me.
"She's alive."
I looked at her.
"You think so?"
"I know."
"How?"
"Because Elena told me."
"When?"
"The last time I saw her."
Rachel looked toward the window.
"She said Mom had been taken somewhere else."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"Then why do you think she's alive?"
"Because Elena said, 'Mom found a way out.'"
My heart sank.
"Maybe she meant—"
"No."
Rachel shook her head.
"Elena never used that phrase for death."
That afternoon, Alvarez received a call.
She listened.
Then looked at us.
"We found the facility."
Everyone stood.
"Where?"
"Outside the city."
Rachel's face changed.
"That's impossible."
"Why?"
"Because that place burned down."
Alvarez stared at her.
"It didn't."
Rachel's eyes filled with fear.
"It was supposed to."
We drove there before sunset.
The building was surrounded by trees.
From the outside, it looked abandoned.
But the electricity was on.
A security camera moved above the entrance.
Alvarez stopped.
"This isn't abandoned."
Rachel whispered:
"They rebuilt it."
Daniel looked at her.
"Who?"
Rachel didn't answer.
Then the door opened.
An elderly woman stood inside.
She looked at Daniel.
And smiled.
Daniel stopped breathing.
"Mom?"
The woman started crying.
"Daniel."
He ran toward her.
Rachel covered her mouth.
I stood frozen.
After six years of believing his mother was dead, Daniel had found her standing in a doorway.
Alive.
But she wasn't smiling because she was happy.
She was smiling because she was terrified.
She grabbed Daniel's arm.
"You shouldn't have come."
"Why?"
She looked past him.
Toward the road.
"Because they know."
Alvarez drew her weapon.
"Who?"
The woman whispered:
May you like
"Morgan."
Then every light in the building went out.
