Chapter 12 - THE WOMAN IN THE BACK ROWThe next hearing was packed.
Ethan sat beside Claire.
Amelia sat behind them.
Samuel watched from a protected room.
Then Claire noticed someone.
A woman sitting alone in the back row.
Long auburn hair.
Black coat.
Dark glasses.
Claire stared.
The woman looked familiar.
Then she smiled.
Claire's heart stopped.
She knew her.
She had seen her in one photograph.
The woman was one of the family's lawyers.
But the photograph was twenty years old.
She hadn't aged.
Claire whispered:
“Ethan.”
He turned.
“What?”
“Look.”
The woman stood.
She walked toward the exit.
Ethan followed.
Outside, she disappeared into the crowd.
He ran after her.
“Stop!”
She turned.
“Ethan.”
“How do you know me?”
She smiled.
“Your mother told me everything.”
“Who are you?”
She stepped closer.
“Someone who knows where Child 42 is.”
Ethan froze.
“Where?”
She handed him a card.
“One address.”
Then she walked away.
The card contained a single line:
MOUNT SINAI CEMETERY — SECTION 14.
Ethan stared.
“That isn't an address.”
“No.”
Claire had followed him outside.
She looked at the card.
“It's a graveyard.”
They arrived at the cemetery after dark.
Snow covered the ground.
The cemetery was nearly empty.
Section 14 contained old graves.
Ethan searched.
Then he found it.
A grave marked:
SAMUEL CARTER — 1998–1998.
He stared.
His son's name.
A child supposedly dead.
But the grave was empty.
The coffin had never been buried.
Behind the grave was another marker.
CHILD 42.
Ethan touched it.
A hidden speaker activated.
A voice played.
His mother's voice.
“If you're hearing this, then you have reached the final grave.”
Ethan froze.
“The child was never buried.”
A pause.
“He was moved.”
Another pause.
“Not by the family.”
Ethan looked at Claire.
“Who moved him?”
May you like
The recording continued.
“By me.”
