Chapter 16 - Black Pine
Black Pine wasn’t a town.
It was an abandoned youth camp buried in the mountains east of Eugene.
The property had closed after wildfire damage twelve years earlier.
Officially, nobody lived there.
Unofficially, the network had used it as a transfer site.
Jenna remembered arriving there twice as a child.
“You’d stay one night,” she explained from inside a secured federal safe location. “Sometimes two. Then another person came.”
“Children?” Morales asked.
“Sometimes.”
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
“Adults?”
“They didn’t use names.”
Jenna stared down at a paper cup of hot chocolate.
“They called each other colors.”
“Colors?”
“Blue. Gray. Red. White.”
“What was Katherine?”
“Gold.”
The word meant nothing to us yet.
Maybe it would later.
Federal teams prepared to move toward Black Pine before midnight.
I was told to stay behind.
I refused.
Reeves didn’t waste time arguing.
“You’re a patrol officer, Dunham. This is now a federal operation involving organized kidnapping, identity trafficking, and possible public corruption.”
“Katherine asked for me.”
“That doesn’t make you qualified for a tactical raid.”
“No. It makes me useful.”
Morales backed me.
“If Katherine sees a tactical team first, she runs. If she sees Jack, she might talk.”
Reeves hated the idea.
But he agreed.
Black Pine sat behind twelve miles of narrow mountain road.
Rain had turned the final stretch into mud.
Our convoy stopped nearly a mile away.
No headlights from that point forward.
I wore a ballistic vest beneath a dark jacket.
Morales walked beside me.
“You realize Miller is going to murder me if you get shot.”
“He’ll have to get in line.”
“Not funny.”
“Little funny.”
She almost smiled.
Then we saw the first cabin.
Black.
Silent.
Windows boarded.
The camp looked dead.
A federal thermal drone detected one heat source inside the main lodge.
One person.
No vehicles.
We approached.
The front door opened before we touched it.
An older woman stood inside.
Gray hair.
Simple sweater.
No weapon visible.
Karen Voss.
Katherine Vale.
The woman who had served muffins at school meetings.
The woman who had hugged Liam.
“Officer Dunham,” she said.
Her voice sounded exactly as I remembered.
“Hands where I can see them.”
She raised them.
“You came.”
“Turn around.”
“I will.”
“Now.”
She obeyed.
Morales handcuffed her.
No resistance.
No argument.
Almost too easy.
“Where’s the ledger?” I asked.
Katherine looked toward a fireplace.
“Not here.”
Reeves entered with agents.
“Where is it?”
“Safe.”
“From us?”
“From everyone.”
Reeves stepped closer.
“You are facing federal charges that could keep you incarcerated for the rest of your life.”
Katherine barely reacted.
“I know.”
“Then start helping yourself.”
Her eyes moved toward me.
“I didn’t ask him here to help myself.”
“Why did you?”
“To make sure the children are found before the network disappears.”
I felt anger burn through me.
“You built the network.”
“I helped build it.”
“That distinction won’t matter to Liam.”
Pain flickered across her face.
“I know.”
“Then where is the ledger?”
Katherine looked toward the broken windows.
“Harlan was only one protector.”
“How many?”
“At least six.”
“Police?”
“Police. Lawyers. social workers. private investigators.”
Reeves swore under his breath.
“Names.”
“In the ledger.”
“Where?”
“I’ll tell Officer Dunham.”
“No.”
“I don’t trust you.”
Reeves laughed humorlessly.
“You’re in handcuffs. You don’t get conditions.”
Katherine looked at him.
“Then children disappear tonight.”
Silence.
I stepped closer.
“What happens tonight?”
“They’re clearing the final active houses.”
“How many children?”
“Eleven.”
The number punched the air from my lungs.
“Where?”
“Multiple states.”
“What do you want?”
“One guarantee.”
“I can’t make deals.”
“You can make a promise.”
My jaw tightened.
“What promise?”
“That Liam never hears the worst parts of what happened to him.”
I stared at her.
“You don’t get to decide what truth belongs to him.”
“No.”
Her voice cracked.
“His mother does.”
For the first time, Katherine looked old.
Exhausted.
Ashamed.
“I saw Liam in that basement two years ago. I should have taken him out. I didn’t. I told myself removing him would expose everything and endanger more children.”
I could barely contain my anger.
“You chose the network over a seven-year-old boy.”
“Yes.”
She didn’t defend herself.
“And I will live with that until I die.”
She looked directly at me.
“The ledger is hidden inside Evergreen Elementary.”
Every officer in the room froze.
May you like
“Where?”
Katherine whispered, “Behind the cornerstone.”
