Chapter 9 - North House Was Only a Stop
North House looked empty from the driveway.
That meant nothing.
The police entered first.
I followed after they cleared the ground floor.
The place smelled closed—dust, old fabric, wood that had not seen fresh air in months.
Upstairs, we found proof Mike had been there.
A half-empty bottle of water.
An untouched turkey sandwich.
One small sock near the radiator.
My grandson hated crusts.
The sandwich still had them.
He had barely eaten.
Then Hadley’s clue appeared.
On the dusty top of a side table, someone had drawn three small circles with a fingertip.
Under them:
A triangle.
Purple roof.
Three apple trees.
I stared.
Mike had repeated the symbol from Hadley’s drawing.
He was still guiding us.
I bent lower.
Under the table edge were words written in pencil.
Tiny.
Pressed hard.
B DIDN’T HIT ME. CAME BACK. WANTS RED BOOK.
Blaine didn’t hit me.
Celeste came back.
Wants red book.
I had to put one hand against the table because the relief and anger hit at the same time.
Mike had been frightened.
But thinking.
Planning.
Leaving information where he believed I would eventually look.
The officer beside me photographed the writing.
Then I noticed another line.
Lower.
Almost hidden behind the table brace.
SHE SAID PURPLE NEXT.
Hadley had told the truth perfectly.
Two places.
North House first.
Purple next.
I walked to the window.
From there, through bare branches, I could see parts of the western grounds.
Carriage house.
Garden wall.
Old orchard.
And then memory returned.
My late wife had once insisted the gardener’s cottage be roofed with purple-gray Vermont slate because she said ordinary gray looked depressing among apple blossoms.
Purple roof.
Three old apple trees stood directly in front of it.
I turned.
“The orchard cottage.”
The officer looked at me.
“What?”
“That’s the second place.”
We moved immediately.
But before leaving, I looked once more at Mike’s message.
WANTS RED BOOK.
Until that moment, I had believed Mike was taken because he knew about the theft.
That was only half the truth.
Celeste did not just want him quiet.
She wanted something from him badly enough to keep relocating him.
And if she still didn’t have The Lantern Boy—
May you like
then she might be returning to the mansion herself.
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