Chapter 7 - What Jet RememberedThe abandoned station sat four miles outside town.
Nobody used it anymore.
Alex parked near the platform.
Jet jumped out before the door fully opened.
He ran straight down the cracked concrete.
“Jet!”
The dog ignored him.
He stopped beside an old bench.
Scratched once.
Then twice.
Alex crouched.
Beneath the bench was a rusted metal plate.
He pried it loose.
Inside was a hidden compartment.
And inside that compartment was a children's bracelet.
Engraved:
EVA.
Megan covered her mouth.
“That's hers.”
Alex looked at Jet.
“How did you know?”
The dog stared at the tracks.
A train horn sounded somewhere in the distance.
Jet froze.
Then he ran.
Alex followed him along the abandoned platform.
Thirty yards ahead was an old signal tower.
The door was locked.
Jet pushed against it.
Alex kicked it open.
Inside were old control panels and railway maps.
Someone had recently been there.
Fresh coffee.
Still warm.
Alex raised his weapon.
“Police!”
No answer.
On the wall hung a series of photographs.
Every missing child.
Every case Alex had seen.
At the center was Eva.
But beside her photograph was another.
A little boy.
Name:
NOAH CROSS.
Megan stared.
“My nephew.”
Alex turned.
“You know him?”
“He was five when Eva disappeared.”
“Where is he now?”
Megan shook her head.
“I thought he was dead.”
Alex looked at the photograph.
A red circle had been drawn around Noah's face.
Underneath:
LAST SEEN WITH THE DOG.
Jet barked.
He jumped toward a locked drawer.
Alex opened it.
Inside was a cassette.
He pressed play.
A child's voice.
Small.
Shaking.
“Jet says don't go.”
Alex looked at Megan.
The recording continued.
“Mom said if the lights turn red, I hide.”
Then a man's voice.
“Where's your sister?”
The child began crying.
Jet barked.
The recording stopped.
Megan was trembling.
“Noah.”
Alex rewound it.
Then noticed a timestamp.
Two years ago.
The day Eva vanished.
The recording had been made at Platform 9.
Alex looked at the railway map.
There was a tunnel beneath the station.
Officially sealed.
He found the entrance behind a false wall.
Megan stepped forward.
“We're going in.”
“You stay here.”
“No.”
“Megan.”
“My family is down there.”
Alex looked at her.
Then at Jet.
The dog entered first.
The tunnel narrowed.
Twenty yards in, they found another door.
Behind it was a child's room.
Bed.
Blanket.
Toys.
And photographs covering the wall.
Someone had lived there recently.
Megan touched a stuffed rabbit.
“Noah had this.”
Alex heard breathing.
He turned.
A little boy stood at the far end of the room.
Around eight years old.
Dirty clothes.
Terrified eyes.
Megan whispered:
“Noah?”
The boy didn't move.
Jet walked toward him.
Noah dropped to his knees.
He hugged the dog.
“He found me,” the boy whispered.
Alex crouched.
“Who?”
Noah pointed into the darkness behind them.
“The man who took Eva.”
Alex looked where the boy pointed.
Nothing.
Then Noah spoke again.
“But he wasn't alone.”
Megan stiffened.
“Who was with him?”
The boy looked at her.
“You.”
Megan froze.
“No.”
Noah shook his head.
“Not you.”
He pointed toward the tunnel.
May you like
“The other you.”
Then the lights went out.
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