Nathan sat back on his haunches and exhaled a long deep breath. The mystery of his mother’s death was solved, but he’d yet to bring the criminals to justice. All of the original bank robbers were dead. Dan had seen to that. Only the fourth man was still breathing, but not for long.
“Did you know anything about a book?”
“Yeah, my dad told me about it three years ago. My mom was part of an underground system that helped battered women disappear and start new lives. She had a ledger of everyone they helped. We thought she died over that. She’d gone to the bank to retrieve it and brought it home to add another woman to the list. I don’t think my dad realized who it was. My mom returned back to the bank the next day with other items in her backpack to put in the safety deposit box. The book stayed at the house. She needed time to get the details figured out and written in. If my mom hadn’t returned to the bank to put more stuff into her deposit box, she might still be alive.”
“Something tells me that Dan wouldn’t have left that to chance.”
“You’re right.” Nathan’s jaw ticked as he answered.
“And I guess Tina never made it out of town or got her name in the ledger.”
“My mom died for trying to help her, though. Funny thing is that she didn’t even tell my dad who she was trying to help. We hadn’t a clue.” Fury filled Nathan’s voice. “We went on fucking family vacations with those people. We’d camped together, done everything together.”
“Let’s hope Marty isn’t anything like them.”
“Amanda,” Nathan whispered as if remembering that there was still a family connection.
“They won’t hurt her. They have to keep up appearances,” I said, resting my hand on his. “My sisters will come looking for us. I’m sure of that.”
“We need to get out of here.” Nathan rose with renewed purpose and continued his search around the area.
I stumbled, and Nathan was quick to my side. “You rest, and I’ll do the heavy lifting.”
I sat back down, ignoring the throb in my foot and the sweat beading on my brow. I couldn’t imagine having to live down here in a confined space. Michael and Janet were much stronger than I could ever be.
