Chapter 12 - Three Apple Trees Gave Him Away
We were halfway back toward the mansion when one of the officers stopped beside the third apple tree.
“Sir.”
At the base of the trunk was Mike’s gray sneaker.
Only one.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
I crossed the grass.
The ground behind the tree sloped down toward an old stone wall separating the orchard from a service lane.
There were footprints.
Small ones.
And larger ones.
Not running together.
The small footprints moved toward the wall.
The larger ones approached from the opposite direction.
Someone had intercepted him.
For one terrible second I thought Celeste had caught him after he escaped.
Then we found a strip of burgundy fabric caught on a low branch.
Blaine’s jacket.
The same jacket he had been wearing in my study.
The officer radioed the house.
Blaine was no longer there.
He had slipped out during the confusion after giving his statement.
I felt rage begin climbing again.
Then another possibility arrived.
Blaine had already started breaking from Celeste.
He had admitted driving Mike.
Admitted the book scheme.
Admitted North House.
Why would he run directly toward the child after finally cooperating?
We followed the footprints over the stone wall.
Twenty yards down the service lane sat an old maintenance truck.
Blaine was inside.
So was Mike.
Alive.
Unhurt.
Terrified.
My grandson saw me and threw open the passenger door before anyone could stop him.
“Grandpa!”
I reached him in seconds.
He hit me so hard around the waist that I almost lost my balance.
For several moments, I could not speak.
I just held him.
Checked his face.
His arms.
His shoulders.
He was frightened and exhausted, but physically safe.
Blaine remained beside the truck with his hands visible.
“I didn’t take him again,” he said quickly. “I found him climbing the wall.”
Mike nodded against me.
“He told me you were coming.”
That did not excuse Blaine.
Nothing erased what he had already helped do.
But truth mattered.
I looked down at Mike.
“Why did you leave the cottage?”
“Celeste got a phone call. She got really mad and left.”
“What call?”
“She said, ‘Gideon’s home early.’”
That connected everything.
Celeste had removed Mike before I was expected home.
My arrival had wrecked her schedule.
She returned to the mansion to destroy Hadley’s drawing.
Then fled to finish searching for the book.
Mike looked up at me.
“She thinks I hid it.”
“You didn’t?”
He shook his head.
“No.”
“Then who did?”
He looked toward the mansion.
“Hadley.”
My breath caught.
“She doesn’t know that.”
“I know.”
A tiny flicker of pride moved across his exhausted face.
May you like
“That was the point.”
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