Bennett stepped closer.
"Mrs. Ruiz, we need you to tell us everything."
Margaret nodded.
But before she could begin, a distant siren sounded.
Then another.
An officer ran toward us.
"Officer Bennett! We've got movement near the pumping station."
Bennett turned.
"Who?"
"Someone entered through the eastern access."
"Did you see a vehicle?"
"No. But the security camera caught a man carrying a metal case."
Margaret closed her eyes.
"Martin."
Bennett gave orders for two units to secure the entrance.
I stood.
"I'm going with you."
"No."
"He has the evidence."
"Which is why you're staying here."
"He's looking for my father."
"And we are going to stop him."
I looked at Margaret.
"Where is the real key?"
She hesitated.
"Your mother knows."
"Tell me where she is."
Margaret reached into the lining of her coat and removed a small folded paper.
She handed it to me.
It contained an address.
A rural property outside town.
At the bottom was a handwritten note.
Ask her about the winter garden.
I looked at Margaret.
"What is the winter garden?"
She shook her head.
"Your father built it."
My mother was not at the address.
The property was an old farmhouse surrounded by bare trees and overgrown flowerbeds. A narrow path led to a glass structure at the back of the house.
The winter garden.
Its roof was cracked, and several panes had been replaced with plastic sheets. Inside, dead vines climbed the walls.
But someone had been there recently.
A small table stood near the entrance. On it was a cup of fresh tea.
I searched the room.
Behind a row of empty flowerpots, I found a loose floorboard.
Underneath was a leather pouch.
Inside lay a metal key.
It was longer than the decoy key in Elena's photograph. Its head was marked with the same symbol I had seen in my father's notebook: a circle crossed by three lines.
There was also a folded letter.
My son,
If you found this, then your mother has finally decided that the truth is more dangerous hidden than revealed.
The key opens the service compartment beneath the river. The records inside will prove what happened at Briar Glen.
But the records are not the most important thing.
There is a person down there who has been waiting for someone to open the door.
I tried to reach him. I failed.
Do not make the same mistake.
Your father.
I read the letter twice.
Someone beneath the river.
Someone still waiting.
I heard a floorboard creak behind me.
I turned.
My mother stood in the doorway.
She looked older than she had that morning. Her face was pale, and her hands were trembling.
"Give me the key," she said.
"Why?"
"Because you don't understand what it opens."
"Then explain it."
She stepped into the room.
"Your father didn't build this place. He discovered it. The chamber beneath the river was part of an old industrial system. It had been abandoned for years until Harrow began using it."
"Using it for what?"
"To hide the waste they couldn't legally transport."
"And the person inside?"
My mother looked away.
"Daniel Ruiz."
I stared at her.
"Margaret said he died."
"Margaret was told he died."
"Was she wrong?"
My mother nodded slowly.
"Daniel survived the accident. He was badly injured, but he survived. Harrow moved him into the underground holding chamber because he had seen too much."
I could barely breathe.
"How long was he there?"
"I don't know."
"Then why does my father's letter say someone is waiting?"
"Because Robert believed Daniel might still be alive."
I gripped the key.
"Where is my father?"
My mother looked at me.
"He went looking for Daniel."
"When?"
"Three days ago."
I stared at her.
"Three days?"
"Yes."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I didn't know whether he would come back."
"Mom, he's been missing for twenty-two years."
She shook her head.
"No. The man who disappeared in 1994 was not your father."
I remembered Samuel's words.
Two men.
One name.
Two identities.
"Then who disappeared?"
"Adrian Cross."
"Who was the man who came home?"
"Adrian."
"And my father?"
My mother began to cry.
"Robert escaped Northfield in 1994. He came to me once, but he couldn't stay. He told me that if he returned, Adrian would know where to find us."
I looked at the key.
"Where has he been all this time?"
"Trying to expose the people who built the system."
"Why didn't he come back?"