Chapter 6 - HAVEN HOUSE
Haven House stood at the end of a narrow road beyond Blackwater Lake.
The building had once been a private children's sanatorium, three stories of gray stone surrounded by dead gardens and rusting playground equipment. Rainwater streamed from broken gutters. One upstairs window glowed.
James parked half a mile away.
"The message said alone," Ellis reminded him.
"Then he needs to believe I came alone."
Chris fitted a small transmitter beneath James's collar. Ellis contacted a federal agent he trusted from a joint task force, but the nearest tactical team was at least forty minutes away.
Sarah might not have forty minutes.
James tucked Emily's notebook inside his jacket and walked toward the house.
The front door opened before he reached it.
Daniel stood inside.
His sheriff's jacket was gone. Blood marked his lip, and his service weapon was missing.
"He has cameras everywhere," Daniel whispered. "Do exactly what he says."
James entered.
The lobby smelled of mold and antiseptic. Old murals of smiling animals peeled from the walls. A security camera rotated above the staircase.
Judge Malcolm Reed waited in the former dining hall.
At sixty-eight, Reed looked more like a grandfather than a criminal. White hair, tailored coat, steady hands. He stood beside Sarah and Luke, who were tied to wooden chairs beneath a hanging lamp.
Sarah's face was pale. Her reopened wound had soaked through the side of her pajamas.
James fought the urge to run to her.
"Daddy," she whispered.
"I'm here."
Reed smiled. "Family devotion is such a useful force. It makes intelligent men predictable."
A large security guard held a pistol behind the children.
James removed the notebook.
"Let them go."
"First the notebook and drive."
"One child first."
Reed considered him. "The girl. She has already become inconvenient."
Daniel stepped forward. "You promised neither child would be hurt."
"You promised Emily would stop investigating."
James looked at his brother.
Reed enjoyed the moment.
"Daniel did not kill your wife," he said. "He merely told me where she would be."
Daniel's face collapsed.
James lunged.
The security guard raised his pistol, but Reed lifted one hand.
"Not yet."
James stopped inches from Daniel.
"I was trying to save Luke," Daniel said.
"Four years ago?"
"Reed had already threatened him. He said if I warned Emily, my son would disappear."
James wanted to strike him. He wanted to erase every memory of Daniel standing beside Sarah's birthday cake, every Christmas, every promise made over Emily's grave.
Sarah began shaking violently.
The decision became simple.
James held out the notebook.
"Take it."
Reed approached.
At the instant his hand closed around the cover, James grabbed his wrist and pulled him forward.
The guard aimed.
A window shattered.
Chris fired from the darkness outside, striking the guard's weapon from his hand.
Ellis crashed through a side door.
Daniel threw himself over Luke.
James drove Reed into the table.
The room erupted into gunfire, splintering wood, and screams.
Sarah's chair tipped backward.
James dove toward her.
Before he reached her, another man stepped from behind a curtain and pressed a knife against her throat.
James recognized him from hospital security footage.
The young ER nurse's father, Dr. Warren Hale, chief administrator of St. Mary's Hospital.
May you like
Hale smiled at James.
"You should have left the past buried."
