Chapter 4 - The Price of Getting His Son Back
Lucas read the message until every word burned into him.
Thomas Hayes was alive.
There was no longer any reasonable doubt.
Only Thomas would have understood the psychological cruelty of that sentence.
You bury Claire for real.
He knew Lucas had already buried her once.
Detective Ellison immediately turned the investigation into a hostage case.
Federal agents joined them before dawn.
Lucas was told not to respond.
He agreed.
Then secretly waited for Thomas to contact him.
The call came at 6:17 a.m.
Unknown number.
Lucas answered.
"Lucas Drake."
A man's voice replied.
"You've gotten older."
Lucas gripped the phone.
"Thomas."
A soft chuckle.
"So Evelyn talked."
"Where is Claire?"
"Still alive."
"I want to hear her."
"You don't set conditions."
"Then neither do I."
Thomas paused.
"You sound different from the grieving widower I remember."
Lucas felt rage rise.
"You watched me bury my family."
"I watched you accept what everyone told you."
"Put Claire on."
Silence.
Then breathing.
A woman's voice.
"Lucas?"
Everything inside him stopped.
Seven years disappeared.
He knew that voice.
Older.
Weaker.
But Claire.
"Claire."
She began crying.
"I'm sorry."
"No. Don't."
"Toby—"
"He's alive. He's with me."
Claire made a broken sound.
"He's safe?"
"Yes."
"Tell him—"
The line changed.
Thomas returned.
"Enough."
Lucas closed his eyes.
"What do you want?"
"Evelyn."
"Why?"
"She has something that belongs to me."
"What?"
"A ledger."
Lucas remembered Evelyn's warning.
Thomas kept records on everyone.
"What happens if I bring her?"
"You get Claire."
"And if I don't?"
"You know how convincing I can make an accident look."
The call ended.
Agents traced nothing.
Thomas had bounced the signal through multiple internet services.
Evelyn finally revealed the truth about the ledger.
Years earlier, she secretly copied Thomas's records.
Names.
Payments.
Judges.
Caseworkers.
Private adoption brokers.
Children transferred under false identities.
Politicians who accepted donations.
Families who paid enormous sums for children without asking enough questions.
"If that ledger becomes public," Evelyn said, "Thomas doesn't just go to prison. He takes dozens of people with him."
"Where is it?"
Evelyn looked at Lucas.
"I don't have it."
"You told him you did."
"I wanted him to believe it."
"Then who has it?"
"Claire."
Lucas stared.
Evelyn explained that when she helped Claire escape Rosewood, she gave her a small encrypted drive.
Insurance.
Claire was supposed to release it if Thomas came after them.
"But Claire disappeared before she could use it," Evelyn said.
"Why?"
"I don't know."
Investigators searched belongings recovered with Eli.
Inside the black backpack they found clothing, an old photograph, and a stuffed fabric airplane.
The toy seemed too heavy.
Lucas cut a hidden seam.
Inside was a USB drive.
Evelyn began crying when she saw it.
"That's it."
Claire had sent the evidence with their son.
She had known she might not survive.
The drive contained hundreds of documents.
And one video.
Claire appeared on screen.
The recording was dated eight days earlier.
"If you're watching this, something happened to me."
Lucas leaned toward the laptop.
Claire looked exhausted but determined.
"Toby knows Lucas is his father. I never told him everything because I wanted him to have some childhood left."
She explained that she had spent years moving from town to town because Thomas's network periodically found traces of them.
Recently, someone contacted her claiming Thomas had died.
She stopped running.
That had been the mistake.
Three weeks earlier, she saw one of Thomas's former associates.
She realized they had been found.
"I couldn't contact Lucas directly. I didn't know who was watching him."
So Claire created a plan.
She arranged for Toby to be taken to Mrs. Beatrice.
The woman who transported him was another Rosewood survivor named Sarah.
Claire had kept Lucas's old handwriting samples from their marriage.
She forged the note herself.
Lucas stared at the screen.
The note hadn't been part of Thomas's trap.
Claire wrote it.
She deliberately chose the six days Lucas was away because she knew Thomas monitored him.
While Lucas was unreachable, Toby could be placed safely without Thomas immediately realizing where he had gone.
That was why the boy arrived during the exact spraying contract.
Claire had planned everything.
But then Thomas captured her before she could escape.
The video ended with:
"Lucas, if Toby reaches you, please understand one thing. I didn't stay away because I stopped loving you. I stayed away because every time I considered contacting you, Thomas sent another photograph proving he knew where you were."
Claire wiped tears from her cheeks.
"I'm sorry you buried us. I thought staying dead was the only way to keep you alive."
Lucas covered his face.
For seven years he had believed his family had vanished in seconds.
The truth was worse.
Claire had been alive, carrying the burden alone.
Toby had grown up learning to hide.
And Lucas had lived safely because his wife allowed him to believe they were dead.
The USB drive gave investigators enormous leverage.
But Thomas still held Claire.
They needed a location.
One document contained a list of properties formerly used by Rosewood.
Most had been sold.
One remained under an inactive shell company.
An old farmhouse near Pinecrest.
Lucas recognized the area immediately.
He had flown over it.
Aerial photographs showed something unusual behind the property.
A private grass airstrip.
Thomas knew Lucas was a pilot.
That couldn't be coincidence.
Agents prepared surveillance.
But when they reached the farmhouse, it was empty.
On the table sat another note.
Nice try.
Check your own hangar.
Lucas's blood ran cold.
They raced back to Fairview.
His company hangar appeared normal.
Aircraft lined the concrete floor.
Mechanics working.
Then Lucas noticed his locker.
Open.
Inside was Claire's wedding ring.
And beneath it, a set of coordinates.
Lucas knew the location.
An abandoned airfield seventy miles north.
Thomas wasn't inviting police.
He was inviting a pilot.
Lucas understood why.
The coordinates were far from paved roads.
A small plane could reach them quickly.
Vehicles would take hours.
Thomas wanted Lucas alone.
Detective Ellison forbade him from going.
Lucas argued.
Eventually they created a plan.
Lucas would fly.
Agents would track him from a distance using another aircraft.
He would wear a concealed transmitter.
Evelyn would remain protected.
The ledger would stay with federal investigators.
At sunset, Lucas took off.
For the first time in his career, flying didn't calm him.
Every mile brought him closer to the woman he'd mourned for seven years.
The abandoned airfield appeared between trees.
A rusted hangar stood beside the runway.
Lucas landed.
No vehicles.
No movement.
He climbed out.
"Claire!"
His voice echoed.
Then a speaker crackled.
Thomas's voice.
"Welcome back, Lucas."
The hangar doors slowly opened.
Inside sat Claire.
Hands tied.
Alive.
Lucas stepped forward.
"Let her go."
Thomas emerged behind her holding a pistol.
He was older than Lucas remembered from old photographs.
Gray hair.
Thin face.
Calm eyes.
"Where's Evelyn?"
"Safe."
"The drive?"
"Already copied."
Thomas's smile disappeared.
"That was foolish."
"You're finished."
Thomas pressed the gun closer to Claire.
"Men like me aren't finished when they're exposed. We're finished when everyone we can implicate knows we're exposed."
Lucas understood.
Thomas wasn't trying to escape justice anymore.
He was trying to survive his own partners.
Suddenly Claire looked at Lucas.
Not with fear.
With warning.
Her eyes shifted upward.
Lucas followed the glance.
Fuel drums.
Electrical wires.
A timer.
Thomas had rigged the hangar.
"You're going to kill all of us," Lucas said.
Thomas smiled.
"No. I'm going to die eighteen months ago."
Lucas heard aircraft in the distance.
Federal backup.
Thomas heard it too.
His expression changed.
He grabbed Claire and pulled her toward a side door.
Lucas moved.
The gun fired.
A bullet struck metal.
Claire screamed.
Lucas tackled Thomas.
The weapon skidded across the floor.
The timer continued counting down.
00:43.
Claire shouted, "Lucas!"
Thomas punched him.
Lucas fell.
00:37.
Agents were still approaching.
Lucas saw fuel leaking from one drum.
There wasn't time.
He grabbed Claire's chair and dragged it toward the hangar opening.
Thomas lunged for the gun.
Claire kicked his knee.
He collapsed.
Lucas pulled Claire outside.
00:18.
"Run!"
They sprinted toward the plane.
Behind them Thomas stumbled from the hangar.
For one second Lucas thought he was following.
Then Thomas stopped.
He looked toward the trees.
A black SUV was parked there.
Its rear door opened.
Someone inside raised a weapon.
Shots cracked across the runway.
Thomas dropped.
Lucas pulled Claire behind the airplane wheel.
The SUV accelerated away before agents arrived.
Then the hangar exploded.
Fire rose into the darkening sky.
Lucas wrapped his arms around Claire.
She was shaking.
Alive.
Actually alive.
He touched her face as though confirming she was real.
Claire whispered, "Where's Toby?"
"Safe."
She closed her eyes.
"Take me to him."
But Detective Ellison was staring at Thomas.
He was badly wounded.
Still conscious.
Ellison crouched beside him.
"Who shot you?"
Thomas laughed through blood.
"You think I'm the top of this?"
Ellison leaned closer.
Thomas's smile became almost peaceful.
"You have no idea who Lucas's wife used to work for."
Then he lost consciousness.
May you like
And Claire's face turned white.
Because she knew exactly what he meant.
