Page 129 of Last Seen

You are too young to comprehend how difficult it was for me when you came into our lives. You wereperfect. You were sunny and smart and joy. I am darkness and rain, a thundercloud. I was always in your shadow, and that was fine.

I hoped I could find him again. As wrong as that was, I needed to try.

I went to Brockville because I hoped he was there. Hoped, because I need revenge. Hoped, because I’d been tracking him for years. And I was right. He was there.

There are so many powerful people involved in this. People who will watch for you to surface. I can’t let that happen.

I saved you once, Halley. And I will save you again, even if it kills me.

Six people sit in an anxious circle in a posh, elegant cabin in the woods in a small town called Brockville.

That’s enough. She hands the phone back to Theo, wiping her eyes. Looks through the bedroom door at all she has left of her sister, the physical manifestation.

“I don’t want him to see. He already knows his mother was a hero in the end. I don’t want him to ever know anything otherwise.”

“I’ll do my best to get them eighty-sixed. But a lot of other families need to know what Cat did for their women.”

The thought sickens her. “When can we leave? I want out of here.”

“In the morning. We’re done here for now. FBI is taking over. I can take you both home.”

Home.The word has never been as sweet.

Chapter Forty-Nine

Theo

Halley and Gray are playing in the backyard with Charlie. The dog went crazy for the kid, not a huge surprise. They are fast friends. Charlie makes Gray smile, and when they play, the clouds that loom over the boy dissipate. Somehow, despite the horrors of his young life, they are seeing the possibility of a sunny child.

Theo is in his office, watching them cavort in the grass, when his phone rings. It’s Lincoln Ross in Nashville.

“Hey, man. Finally got me that evidence?”

Ross’s voice is tight. “Donovan, I gotta tell you something. You’re not going to believe it.”

“What’s that?”

“They brought Ian Brockton’s body to Nashville for autopsy at Forensic Medical so TBI could oversee. Somewhere between here and there, he vamoosed.”

Theo sits heavily. “What do you mean, he vamoosed? The guy’s dead. How does a dead body disappear?”

“They found fresh blood in the bag. Driver stopped to take a leak in Crossville, so the van was unattended for a little bit. They think he maybe wasn’t quite as dead as people thought.”

“No, no, that’s not possible. I saw the guy, Ross. He was dead. And I saw Cameron Brockton take his pulse with my own eyes, then the EMTs loaded him up. You’re telling me that many people missed a heartbeat?”

“It’s happened before.”

“Or someone on the inside lied. That seems to be the Brockville way.”

Theo realizes he never confirmed himself that Ian Brockton didn’t have a pulse. He believed the bastard’s brother when he said the monster was dead.

“Son of a bitch,” he says.

Epilogue

Halley

One Year Later