Chapter 7 - The Woman Waiting at the Abandoned HouseRichard wanted to drive to the mountain address immediately.
Margaret insisted that we involve law enforcement. Elena warned that the woman in the footage might be bait, and that walking into an abandoned property without proper precautions would be reckless.
For once, I agreed with all of them.
I had already spent enough time discovering what happened when people underestimated danger.
The next morning, a small team of investigators accompanied Richard to the property. I stayed at the hospital with Daniel, watching through a secure video connection as they approached the house.
It stood at the end of a narrow road lined with skeletal pine trees. Snow covered the roof, and one shutter hung loose beside the front window. The building looked abandoned, but the driveway bore recent tire tracks.
Elena's voice came through the speaker.
"We have movement inside."
A figure appeared behind a curtain.
Richard stepped forward.
"Eleanor?"
Nobody answered.
He moved toward the porch, his face suddenly drained of color.
"Eleanor, it's Richard. Please, if you're inside, I need to speak with you."
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Then the front door opened.
An elderly woman stood in the doorway, leaning on a wooden cane. Her brown hair had turned almost completely white, and deep lines crossed her face. But even through the poor camera feed, I recognized the eyes from the photograph.
Richard stumbled backward.
"Oh, my God."
The woman looked at him for a long time.
"You shouldn't have come here."
His voice broke.
"You're alive."
She gripped the doorframe.
"Not for lack of trying to stay that way."
Richard tried to approach her, but she raised a trembling hand.
"Don't come any closer. I don't know who you brought with you."
"They're investigators. They can protect you."
"No one protected me twenty-four years ago."
Her gaze shifted toward the camera.
For an instant, I felt as though she were looking directly at me through the screen.
"Who is that?"
Richard turned toward the device.
"Your granddaughter."
The woman froze.
He continued carefully.
"Emma survived. She's in Denver with her newborn son."
The woman's expression changed so completely that I stopped breathing.
"Emma?"
My name sounded strange in her voice, full of grief and disbelief.
I pressed the microphone button.
"Grandmother?"
She covered her mouth.
"Oh, sweetheart."
The word broke something inside me.
I had spent my childhood imagining what it might have been like to have grandparents. I had invented stories about Christmas dinners, birthday gifts, and an older woman who might have taught me family recipes. I had never expected to meet one of them through a security camera after surviving an attempted murder.
But Eleanor did not come toward the camera.
Instead, she stepped backward into the house.
"We need to leave," she said. "All of you. Right now."
Richard frowned.
"What are you talking about?"
"They followed me here."
Elena immediately turned toward the road.
A dark SUV had appeared at the bend, moving slowly through the snow.
"Vehicle approaching," one of the investigators reported.
Eleanor's face went white.
"That's his car."
"Whose car?" Richard demanded.
She swallowed.
"Thomas Bell."
The SUV stopped near the gate.
Two men got out. One wore a dark coat and carried a briefcase. The other remained near the driver's door, scanning the property.
Elena instructed the team to contact local law enforcement. Richard moved toward the house, trying to get Eleanor away from the windows.
Then a sharp crack echoed across the clearing.
The front window shattered.
Everyone dropped.
I screamed at the screen.
"Grandmother!"
The camera swung wildly. I heard hurried footsteps, shouted instructions, and the sound of glass breaking somewhere inside the house.
Then the connection went black.
For several seconds, I could not move.
Daniel began crying in his bassinet, startled by my voice. I forced myself to breathe and reached for him, holding his tiny body close while my mind replayed the last image of Eleanor standing in the doorway.
Richard had found his wife.
And someone was willing to kill her again.
My phone rang.
It was Elena.
"Emma, listen carefully. Richard is safe. The investigators returned fire, and the attackers fled before they could reach the house."
"Where is Eleanor?"
A pause.
"She escaped through a rear exit before the shooting began. We found fresh footprints leading into the trees."
"Then find her!"
"We're searching. She knows the terrain better than we do, and she may have a separate vehicle hidden nearby."
I squeezed Daniel against my shoulder.
"Was Thomas there?"
"We cannot confirm that he was one of the men. But the SUV is registered to a holding company under his control."
I looked toward the hospital window.
"What did Eleanor mean when she said he followed her?"
Elena hesitated.
"We're not sure. But there is something inside the house you should know about."
"What?"
"The entire place was wired with cameras. Not new ones. Older equipment, hidden in smoke detectors and light fixtures. Someone has been recording every person who enters that property."
"Can the footage be recovered?"
"We're trying."
She took a breath.
"Emma, your grandmother knew we were coming before we arrived. She was watching us."
"How?"
"We found a monitor in the basement. It was connected to another property. The signal was active when we entered."
My stomach tightened.
"Where does it lead?"
Elena sent a map.
The signal originated from a building in downtown Denver, on the same block as Northstar Life's regional headquarters.
Then she gave me the part that made the entire case feel far more dangerous.
"The camera system was installed by a private security contractor. Its current client is listed as Michael Carter."
I stared at the map.
Michael had been watching the mountain property.
May you like
He had known Eleanor might be alive.
And if he had been monitoring that house, then he might already know that the woman he had pushed off a cliff had survived, too.
Related Stories
