Daniel had been seven years old when Sarah disappeared.
His parents told him she had died after an accident.
There had been no funeral he remembered.
No grave he had ever visited.
Whenever he asked questions, his father changed the subject.
Eventually Daniel stopped asking.
Now he held a photograph that should not have been inside a hidden room in his own house.
Rachel looked at Emily.
Where did you get this?
Emily pointed into the room.
It was already there.
Police searched the space.
They found more photographs.
Letters.
Old children’s clothing.
And one notebook.
Daniel recognized his father’s handwriting.
The entries went back more than thirty years.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Sarah.
Daniel’s hands trembled.
His father had known she was alive long after telling Daniel she was dead.
Rachel looked at him.
Daniel, what if this room has been here since you were a child?
He stared at the opening in the wall.
Then another officer found something newer.
A grocery receipt dated only three days earlier.
Someone had been entering the hidden room recently.
Daniel looked toward the staircase.
Only a few people still had unrestricted access to the house.
One of them was his mother.
Margaret Carter.
And she was due to arrive for dinner in less than an hour.
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