Chapter 6 - The Vanishing Trail
Elena did not panic. Something hard and unyielding had formed inside her chest, replacing the weeping woman who had stepped out of the mansion twelve hours ago. She looked down at Lily, who had quietly placed her toy train into the pocket of her oversized sweater.
"We need to move north," Elena said, her voice steady. "The deed my father left—it’s for a cottage in Blackwood Cove. Is it habitable?"
Marcus gave a tight nod. "It’s off the municipal grid. Wood stove, independent well, no digital trace. But you can't take a bus, and you certainly can't buy a train ticket. Julian’s firm monitors passenger manifests across the interstate corridor." He pulled a set of keys from his jacket pocket and tossed them onto the workbench. "There's an unmarked diesel utility van behind the dry docks. No GPS, plates registered to an agricultural cooperative out of state. It will get you past the toll checkpoints."
"What about you?" Elena asked.
"I’m an old dockhand; they don't look twice at me," Marcus said. "I’ll deposit Arthur’s cashier's checks through a proxy escrow in Chicago. It’ll take three days to clear, but once it does, you’ll have operating capital. But Elena—you have to leave your phone here."
May you like
She pulled the smartphone from her purse. It was a gold-plated device Julian had given her on their fifth anniversary, engraved with their initials on the back casing. It was a digital tether. She placed it on the concrete floor, raised the heavy mechanic's wrench, and brought it down hard across the glass screen, smashing the circuitry into shattered plastic and dead silicon.
Ten minutes later, the utility van sputtered to life in the shadow of the dry docks. Marcus covered the back windows with cargo tarps. Elena placed Lily in the passenger seat, strapping her in securely before climbing behind the wheel. The engine roared with an unpolished growl, vibrating through the steering column. As she steered the van out onto the coastal highway, she glanced into the side mirror. Two black SUVs with dark tinted windows were turning onto the gravel road leading to unit seventy-four. They had missed her by less than five minutes.
