The Old Ferry Cabin
Chapter 10 - The Old Ferry Cabin
They found the next clue in the chapel.
One pew cushion had been pulled slightly forward. Beneath it was a crayon rubbing from a hymn board.
One word:
BELL.
“Camp bell,” Boone said.
Behind the old dinner bell outside the dining hall, they found one of Lily’s shoelaces tied around a nail.
Then blue ribbon on a branch.
Then crayon marks on a rock.
Lily was marking her trail.
The marks led to a muddy service road.
There they found Evelyn.
Alive.
Barefoot.
Tied with her own scarf.
She sobbed when Rachel lunged toward her.
“I tried to bring her back! Preston said Noah would be hurt if I didn’t take her. But Lily kept leaving notes. She said the biker would understand.”
Captain Hayes grabbed her shoulders.
“Who has Lily now?”
Evelyn looked toward the river road.
“Preston’s mother.”
The name landed like a new storm.
Margaret Vail.
Seventy years old. White hair. Pearls. Hospital boards. Charity dinners. The woman no one suspected because everyone thought monsters stopped being dangerous when they became grandmothers.
“She runs everything when Preston can’t,” Evelyn whispered. “She took Lily to the old ferry cabin.”
State police surrounded the cabin within the hour.
Margaret stepped onto the porch with Lily in front of her.
Her hand rested on Lily’s shoulder.
Too tight.
“This child belongs to the Vail family,” Margaret called.
Rachel shook with rage.
“My daughter belongs to herself.”
Lily looked at Mason across the yard.
Then, very carefully, she dropped a folded paper from her sleeve.
Boone began coughing loudly to distract Margaret. Dolly joined in, scolding him about imaginary cigars.
A trooper crawled through the weeds and retrieved the note.
Mason read it.
Back door has chair. Bathroom window opens. She has no gun. She has my wrist.
The raid was quiet and fast.
Lily dropped to the porch floor the second troopers came through the back.
Rachel reached her first.
Margaret was cuffed screaming about the family name.
As they led her away, Mason asked, “Where is Noah?”
Margaret smiled.
“Ask the boy’s father.”
Then Mason saw it.
A gray boat tied to the old ferry dock.
May you like
Its motor was warm.
On the passenger seat sat Noah’s blue baseball cap.
