Chapter 6 - The House at Briar Glen
The address for Mercer Educational Services led to a shuttered boarding school in Briar Glen, New York.
Daniel wanted to go immediately.
Jonathan insisted on law enforcement.
This time Daniel listened.
State investigators accompanied them.
Caleb refused to stay behind.
A child advocate came too.
The building stood behind rusted gates surrounded by dead maple trees.
Caleb became pale before the car stopped.
“This is it.”
Daniel looked at him.
“You lived here?”
Caleb nodded.
“For a while.”
The school had closed three years earlier.
Inside, dust covered narrow hallways.
Caleb led them to the second floor.
Room 12.
A small bed.
A cracked dresser.
Faded blue stars painted across the wall.
Daniel stood in the doorway unable to enter.
Caleb did.
He touched the window latch.
“They screwed it shut.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“Who?”
“A woman named Mrs. Baines.”
“Was she cruel?”
Caleb thought.
“Sometimes.”
That answer hurt more than a simple yes.
“She said she was protecting me.”
Daniel looked toward Jonathan.
Protection.
The favorite word of people taking choices from children.
Inside a locked office, investigators found old paper records.
Most names were false.
But payments came from Mercer Educational Services.
The company ultimately traced to North Harbor Development.
Ashford money.
Daniel found a student intake form.
Elias Mercer. Age 4. Father deceased. Mother unable to provide care.
He closed his eyes.
Caleb was reading over his shoulder.
“They told me you were dead first.”
Daniel looked at him.
“I thought you said they told you I didn’t want you.”
“That came later.”
“When?”
Caleb hesitated.
“After I kept asking to go home.”
Daniel wanted to ask who told him.
He stopped.
The child advocate nodded slightly.
Good.
Let Caleb decide.
Caleb continued.
“Mr. Victor came sometimes.”
Daniel’s chest tightened.
“He said my mom was sick. Then he said she died.”
Rebecca had died three years after Caleb vanished.
Victor had told Caleb the truth about that.
Which somehow made everything worse.
“Did he ever say why you couldn’t come home?”
“He said you had Sophie now.”
Sophie’s face crumpled.
Caleb immediately looked guilty.
Daniel crouched between them.
“No.”
Both children looked at him.
“Sophie did not replace you.”
Caleb’s eyes filled.
“No one replaced anyone.”
For the first time, Caleb let Daniel touch his shoulder.
Only for a second.
But Daniel felt it.
In the basement, investigators found a storage locker.
Inside was a box marked E.M.
Children’s clothes.
A toy locomotive.
Rebecca’s photograph.
Caleb picked it up.
“I had this.”
Daniel remembered the photograph.
Rebecca had carried a copy in her purse.
Caleb turned it over.
On the back, in Rebecca’s handwriting:
Caleb, wherever you are, I never stopped looking. Mom.
Daniel’s knees nearly gave way.
“She knew.”
Caleb whispered, “She knew I was alive?”
“Maybe.”
The date was two years after Caleb disappeared.
Rebecca had not fully believed the death certificate.
And she had somehow gotten a message into Briar Glen.
But it never reached Caleb.
Someone intercepted it.
Investigators found another envelope beneath the photograph.
A letter addressed to Mrs. Baines.
Signed by Victor.
Under no circumstances is the boy to receive communications from Rebecca or Daniel Ashford. Increased payment is contingent on compliance.
Caleb read enough to understand.
His face hardened.
“He knew Mom was looking.”
Daniel could not answer.
Then an investigator called from the office.
They had located Mrs. Baines.
She was not dead.
Caleb stared.
“She died.”
The investigator shook his head.
“She changed her name and moved to Pennsylvania.”
Someone had lied to Caleb even about the woman who kept him.
May you like
Mrs. Baines was alive.
And she had spent six years carrying the truth about who paid to hide Daniel Ashford’s son.
