Chapter 3 - The Secret Cabin
While the police pressed Daniel in the interrogation room, Rachel Carter stood inside the living room of her sister’s small apartment on the south side of the city.
The room was dim, the curtains drawn tight against the grey morning rain. Rachel paced back and forth across the rug, her hands trembling so violently she could barely hold her cup of tea.
"He's going to win, Sarah," Rachel whispered to her sister, her voice breaking. "He’s framed me so completely. The gasoline in my trunk... the hardware store receipt... the insurance paper... he planned every single detail."
Sarah, a practical woman with sharp brown eyes, grabbed Rachel by the shoulders and forced her to sit down on the sofa. "Rachel, listen to me. The police aren't stupid. Detective Ruiz knows something isn't right. You need to think. Where would Daniel take Lily if he didn't send her to that camp?"
Rachel closed her eyes, trying to see past the haze of fear and exhaustion that had consumed her for months.
"He wouldn't take her to a hotel," Rachel murmured, her mind racing through four years of marriage. "He hates public places where people might recognize him. He’s obsessive about control."
"What about his family?" Sarah asked. "You said Melissa moved out of state last year."
Rachel opened her eyes wide as a memory hit her like a physical blow.
"The cabin," Rachel gasped. "The old forestry cabin near Bear Creek!"
"Bear Creek?"
"Daniel’s grandfather built a small hunting cabin near the foot of Mount Hood thirty years ago," Rachel explained rapidly, standing up from the sofa. "It’s off the grid. No power lines, no street address. Daniel bought the property back from his uncle two years ago using a shell company. He told me it was an investment, but he never let me visit it!"
"Do you know where it is?" Sarah asked.
"I found a survey map in his desk drawer six months ago when I was looking for our tax files," Rachel said, her heart hammering against her ribs. "I took a photo of the land coordinates because I suspected he was hiding money from me."
Rachel pulled out her phone, her fingers flying across the screen until she found her encrypted photo vault. She zoomed in on a hand-drawn map stamped with a county recorder’s seal.
"It’s forty miles outside the city, hidden deep in the timber reserve off Route 26," Rachel said. "If Melissa took Lily, that’s where they are."
"We have to call Detective Ruiz," Sarah said, reaching for her own phone.
"No," Rachel said firmly, grabbing her sister’s arm. "If the police send sirens up that mountain road, Melissa will see them coming miles away. She’ll move Lily again, or Daniel’s lawyer will tip them off. I’m going there now."
"Rachel, that’s dangerous!" Sarah argued. "Daniel and Melissa are dangerous!"
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"Lily is my daughter!" Rachel cried out, tears spilling over her cheeks, her voice ringing with an absolute, maternal authority Sarah had never heard before. "She’s eight years old, she’s frightened, and she’s sitting in the dark waiting for her mother! I am not waiting another minute!"
Rachel grabbed her coat, snatched her car keys from the counter, and ran out into the pouring rain.
