Michael's footprints vanished within minutes.
The snowstorm erased them almost as quickly as they appeared.
Officer Harris searched the surrounding woods while Daniel remained near the tunnel entrance.
He was furious.
Not because Michael had escaped.
Because Michael had spoken as though Daniel's father had known exactly what was happening.
The place your father couldn't destroy.
The sentence kept repeating in his head.
Emma came down the passage carrying Lily's coat.
"Where is he?"
"Gone."
"Who was it?"
"Michael Reed."
Emma stared.
"Thomas's son?"
"Yes."
"Why would he do this to Lily?"
Daniel looked at the boxes.
"I don't know."
Lily appeared behind Emma.
Daniel immediately moved toward her.
"You shouldn't be down here."
She looked at him.
"I wanted to see."
"See what?"
"The box."
She pointed toward the shelves.
"There."
Daniel followed her finger.
A small red box sat beneath a pile of files.
He opened it.
Inside was a cassette recorder.
A handwritten label read:
ANNA — SECOND INTERVIEW.
Daniel looked at Harris.
"Do you have equipment for this?"
"We can digitize it."
Lily whispered, "That's what he wanted me to hear."
Daniel looked at her.
"Michael?"
She nodded.
"He said if I remembered the voice, I would understand."
Emma knelt beside her.
"What voice?"
Lily looked frightened.
"I don't know."
They took the recorder upstairs.
Back at the house, Harris played the tape.
Static filled the room.
Then a young girl's voice.
Anna.
"I saw him."
An adult voice asked, "Who?"
"The man."
"What did he look like?"
"I don't know."
"Did he speak?"
"Yes."
"What did he say?"
Anna was silent.
Then she whispered, "He said Dad was helping him."
Daniel closed his eyes.
The tape continued.
The interviewer asked whether Anna had seen her father outside that night.
Anna said yes.
But she insisted he had not taken her.
He had been arguing with someone.
Someone she called the man with the black bowl.
Daniel looked at his father in his mind.
The old stories.
The locked study.
The warnings.
The newspaper clipping.
His father's obsession with Anna's case.
Maybe he had not been trying to hide the truth.
Maybe he had been trying to uncover it.
The tape ended.
Nobody spoke.
Lily finally said, "That's the voice."
Daniel turned.
"What voice?"
"The man."
Emma stared at her.
"You heard him on the tape?"
Lily nodded.
"The voice from the tree."
Harris replayed the recording.
Lily pointed.
"That's him."
Daniel listened carefully.
The adult voice belonged to the interviewer, not the stranger.
But beneath the static, another voice could be heard.
Very faint.
A man speaking in the background.
Daniel increased the volume.
The voice became clearer.
"Don't tell them about the shed."
Emma's face went pale.
Harris froze the recording.
"That could be Michael."
Daniel shook his head.
"No."
"How do you know?"
"Because my father mentioned that voice."
He remembered something.
Years earlier, after Thomas died, his father had told Daniel never to trust anyone who claimed the old case was over.
At the time, Daniel had thought it was grief.
Now he understood.
His father had known Thomas was involved.
But not necessarily as a criminal.
Daniel returned to the shed.
He searched through the remaining documents.
A photograph fell from a folder.
It showed Thomas with another man.
Daniel recognized the second man.
His father.
On the back was a date.
The day after Anna was found.
Emma looked over his shoulder.
"They were working together."
"Yes."
"Then why hide it?"
Daniel read the note beneath the photograph.
Because if anyone knows, the children will be targeted again.
Harris looked at him.
"That explains the secrecy."
Daniel nodded.
"But not Michael."
Lily spoke quietly.
"He isn't the one who started it."
Everyone turned.
"What do you mean?" Daniel asked.
"He told me."
"What did he tell you?"
"He said his father tried to stop them."
Daniel stared.
"Thomas?"
Lily nodded.
"Michael said Thomas changed his mind."
"Why?"
"He was afraid."
Daniel felt a heavy sadness.
Thomas had not been a simple villain.
He had been frightened.
He had made choices.
And his son had inherited the consequences.
Harris searched the files.
"There's a name here."
"What name?"
"Samuel Cross."
Daniel recognized it.
A local man who had worked with his father.
He had died years ago.
"What was his role?"
"Private investigator."
Emma looked at the photographs.
"He was there too."
Daniel noticed something.
A photograph of Samuel standing near the old tree.
Beside him was a young boy.
Michael.
"Michael witnessed everything."
Harris nodded.
"And now he's recreating it."
"Why?"
"To force someone to remember."
Daniel looked at Lily.
"Who?"
She answered before anyone else.
"Me."
The room went silent.
Daniel crouched beside her.
"Why would you remember something you've never seen?"
Lily looked confused.
"I don't know."
Daniel thought of the photographs.
The surveillance.
The bowl.
The blanket.
The tree.
It was possible Michael believed Lily had witnessed something important without realizing it.
"What did you see that night?" he asked gently.
Lily looked toward the window.
"Someone came to our house."
"Who?"
"A man."
"Was it Michael?"
"No."
"Then who?"
She closed her eyes.
"He gave me something."
"What?"
"A key."
Daniel's pulse quickened.
"Where is it?"
Lily pointed toward her coat.
Emma searched the pocket.
A tiny brass key fell into her hand.
The tag attached to it read:
17.
Daniel stared.
"Where did you get this?"
"The man gave it to me."
"When?"
"Before we went outside."
"Did he say what it opened?"
Lily shook her head.
"He said Dad would know."
Daniel looked at Emma.
"I don't."
But deep inside, he knew that was not entirely true.
His father's old study had once contained a locked cabinet.
The key had been missing since Daniel was a teenager.
He had never known where it went.
Could this be it?
They returned to Daniel's childhood home.
The house was now empty.
His father's study remained almost unchanged.
Daniel searched the old cabinet.
The lock was small.
The brass key fit.
It turned.
Inside was a notebook.
His father's handwriting filled every page.
Daniel read.
The first entry described Anna's disappearance.
The second described Thomas.
The third described Samuel.
Then came a name Daniel had never seen before.
Michael Reed.
But the entry was dated when Michael was only twelve.
Daniel read aloud.
"Michael saw the exchange."
Emma leaned closer.
"What exchange?"
Daniel continued.
"Thomas delivered the child to the tree."
He stopped.
Lily looked frightened.
"Child?"
Daniel turned the page.
The rest had been torn out.
Only one sentence remained.
The child was never the target.
Daniel stared at the words.
Then he realized something.
Lily was not the target.
She was bait.
Someone wanted to force Michael to reveal himself.
And Daniel suddenly understood why the stranger had allowed Lily to survive.
The entire incident had been designed to bring Michael out of hiding.
But who had designed it?
Michael?
Or someone else?
The phone rang.
Officer Harris answered.
Her face changed.
"Where?"
She listened.
Then looked at Daniel.
"We found another person."
"Who?"
"Michael Reed."
"Alive?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
"At the cemetery."
Daniel's heart stopped.
"Why there?"
Harris looked at him.
"He's standing beside your father's grave."
Click Here to continue read next: PART7: At the Grave, Michael Revealed What Their Fathers Had Tried to Bury, and Daniel Finally Understood Why Lily’s Nightmare Had Been Recreated
When Daniel Looked Outside and Saw His Daughter Hanging From the Tree, He Realized the Winter Morning Had Gone Terribly Wrong
Part 6 of 8
