CHAPTER 6 — The Name That Came Back
CHAPTER 6 — The Name That Came Back
The words echoed in my mind.
Recently.
Not years ago.
Not when Luke lived in Colorado.
Recently.
I looked through the hospital room window at the dark parking lot below, my pulse hammering against my ribs.
"You're saying another child was in that room?" I asked.
Detective Ruiz nodded.
"That's what the preliminary forensic report suggests."
"How recently?"
"We don't know yet."
"The lab is still processing the samples."
Mark Davis crossed his arms.
"But it wasn't old enough to have been left there eight years ago."
A cold wave swept over me.
If another child had been inside that hidden room...
Where was that child now?
Addie had drifted back to sleep.
The breathing treatments had finally eased the strain in her chest, and each breath came a little easier than the last.
I brushed a strand of hair away from her face.
"I'm so sorry," I whispered.
"I should never have left you."
Detective Ruiz spoke gently.
"This isn't your fault."
"You trusted someone who presented himself as a loving parent."
I wanted to believe her.
But guilt settled over me like a heavy blanket.
I'd ignored too many moments.
Luke insisting Addie was "too emotional."
Punishing her by making her sit silently in the corner for an hour because she'd spilled juice.
Taking away her stuffed rabbit for "acting like a baby."
Each incident had seemed small on its own.
Together, they painted a picture I had refused to see.
A knock sounded at the door.
A young officer entered carrying a sealed evidence envelope.
"Detective."
Ruiz accepted it.
"The lab rushed these over."
She opened the envelope carefully.
Inside was a faded photograph.
The edges were worn.
The colors slightly faded.
She stared at it for a long moment before handing it to me.
"This was hidden inside the notebook."
I looked down.
A little boy.
About four years old.
Dark hair.
Brown eyes.
A wide smile missing one front tooth.
He was holding a stuffed green dinosaur.
The same dinosaur Addie had described.
On the back of the photograph, written in neat blue ink, were three words.
My brave Ethan.
I looked up.
"Ethan?"
Ruiz nodded.
"We believe that's Luke's son."
"So we finally know his name."
Mark leaned closer.
"I remember him."
His voice was almost a whisper.
"He carried that dinosaur everywhere."
"He wouldn't let anyone touch it."
He stared at the photograph.
"He was a sweet kid."
A long silence followed.
Then Mark frowned.
"Wait."
He pointed toward the picture.
"Turn it over again."
I did.
Near the bottom corner was something I hadn't noticed before.
A small photography studio stamp.
Willow Creek Portraits
And beneath it...
A date.
October 18... last year.
I blinked.
"No."
Ruiz took the photograph back.
"That can't be right."
She examined it carefully.
"The paper is new."
"The ink hasn't significantly faded."
She looked at Mark.
"If this date is accurate..."
He finished the sentence.
"Then Ethan was alive last year."
"But that's impossible," I whispered.
"The police thought he'd disappeared eight years ago."
Ruiz's eyes narrowed.
"Unless someone wanted everyone to think that."
She immediately called the forensic team.
"Check the photograph."
"I want the print date confirmed."
She listened.
Then nodded once.
"Call me the second you know."
My phone vibrated.
Another unknown number.
This time, there was no text.
Only a voicemail.
Ruiz looked at me.
"Put it on speaker."
My hands shook as I pressed play.
For several seconds...
Nothing.
Just static.
Then a child's voice.
Soft.
Frightened.
Barely above a whisper.
"Mom..."
My heart stopped.
It wasn't Addie.
The voice sounded older.
Maybe eleven.
Then another voice entered the recording.
Luke's voice.
Calm.
Controlled.
"You know the rules."
Silence.
The child whispered,
"I'm sorry."
The recording ended.
Every person in the room stared at the phone.
Mark's face had gone pale.
"I know that voice."
"You do?" Ruiz asked.
He nodded slowly.
"I'd recognize it anywhere."
He swallowed.
"That's Ethan."
A technician called Ruiz back less than five minutes later.
She answered immediately.
"What have you got?"
She listened carefully.
Then closed her eyes.
"The photograph is authentic?"
Another pause.
"I understand."
She ended the call.
Her face had changed completely.
"The lab confirmed the print."
"The photograph was developed eleven months ago."
"So Ethan was definitely alive eleven months ago."
I could barely breathe.
"If he was alive..."
"Then where is he now?"
Before Ruiz could answer, another detective hurried into the room carrying a laptop.
"You need to see this."
He opened a video file.
"Our cyber unit recovered deleted footage from one of the hidden cameras."
The timestamp read:
Six days ago.
The grainy black-and-white video showed the hidden basement room.
The little table.
The chair.
The shelves.
The dinosaur.
For several seconds, the room was empty.
Then the door opened.
Luke walked inside.
Holding Addie's hand.
My stomach lurched.
She looked frightened but unharmed.
He sat her in the chair.
Knelt in front of her.
Spoke quietly.
There was no audio.
Then...
Another figure stepped into the frame.
Tall.
Thin.
A teenage boy.
Maybe thirteen.
His face was partially hidden beneath a hood.
The moment Addie saw him, she smiled.
The boy smiled back.
He reached into his pocket...
...and secretly handed her something before Luke turned around.
The video froze there.
The detective looked at us.
"We enhanced the image."
He zoomed in.
Resting in Addie's tiny hand...
Was a folded piece of paper.
Ruiz looked at me.
"We searched her room."
"We never found it."
I stared at the screen.
"If that boy is Ethan..."
I couldn't finish the thought.
The detective nodded gravely.
"There's one more thing."
He clicked to the final frame of the footage.
The teenage boy briefly looked toward the hidden camera.
Just before the recording ended.
For one split second...
His face was perfectly visible.
Mark Davis gasped.
"Oh my God..."
Ruiz turned to him.
"What?"
Mark pointed at the screen, his voice barely audible.
"That's not just Ethan..."
May you like
"...he looks exactly like Luke did when I first met him."
And for the first time in eight years, investigators finally had a current image of the missing boy they had been searching for.
