Chapter 6 - THE DAUGHTER OF THE WOLF
Isabelle Cavallo waited outside while Claire decided whether to trust her.
She was twenty-seven, with the same dark eyes as Seraphina but none of her
mother's theatrical confidence. Rain clung to her coat as she held the
envelope motionless.
Agent Chen arrived before anyone opened the door. Isabelle submitted to a
security check without complaint and surrendered her phone. That willingness
did not prove innocence, but it allowed the conversation to begin under
conditions Claire could understand.
"I haven't spoken to my mother in six months," Isabelle said. "She
threatened to close the youth music program I run if I kept asking about
children brought to her charity houses. I left before she could use the
program against me."
Claire remained standing. "Then why come back now?" Isabelle looked at Noah,
who was drawing a turtle beside Margaret. Her voice faltered slightly.
"Because one of those children is still missing, and I know where the
photographs were taken."
The envelope contained a printed floor plan, a photograph of the white
sailboat painting, and an employee roster from Bayglass House. The roster
identified a night supervisor and a nurse assigned to the separate rehearsal
annex coded BG-2.
"My mother calls it a wellness retreat," Isabelle said. "It has two guest
rooms and a rehearsal hall. The outside doors can only be unlocked by
central security. It's an expensive way to make a place feel like nowhere."
Chen asked how Isabelle obtained the records. The young woman explained that
her old administrator still received maintenance emails mistakenly copied
from Cavallo headquarters. Isabelle had documented each message rather than
contacting her mother, fearing the evidence would vanish.
Ortiz compared the floor plan with Daniel's transfer register. Several
details matched, including the maintenance road and the position of a
generator room beside the annex. The convergence gave them grounds to
investigate without depending on Isabelle's word alone.
"Ava is in that annex?" Claire asked. Isabelle swallowed. "She was there
yesterday afternoon. I saw a staff photograph sent in a maintenance report.
I can't guarantee nobody has moved her again." Claire appreciated the
painful precision of that answer.
Isabelle's relationship with Seraphina had begun breaking long before the
disappearance. As a child, she mistook her mother's lavish gifts for love;
as an adult, she saw how each gift came tied to obedience and a demand for
silence.
"She says everything is for the family," Isabelle explained. "But whenever
someone needs protecting, she chooses the money. Then she calls the damage a
necessary sacrifice." Her hands stayed clasped so tightly that her fingers
had lost color.
Claire studied her. Being Seraphina's daughter did not make Isabelle guilty,
and leaving a cruel parent did not automatically make her trustworthy.
Still, this woman had crossed a dangerous threshold to deliver information
that might save a child.
Chen proposed a careful plan. A small federal team would verify the annex's
occupancy before entering. An emergency medical unit would be positioned
nearby, with the emphasis on protecting children rather than arresting
everyone in a dramatic confrontation.
"My mother's drivers watch the coastal access road," Isabelle warned. "If
they see official vehicles, she will know." She showed them a second
entrance used for food deliveries, reachable from the old botanical gardens
behind the property.
Margaret recognized the garden on the plan. Years earlier, the Cavallos had
hosted charity picnics there. The rear gate had once been opened with a
mechanical key, though Isabelle could not say whether the lock had been
replaced.
Claire wanted to accompany the team. Chen refused initially, explaining that
unfamiliar civilians could complicate a rescue. Claire argued that Ava knew
her voice and might remain hidden if armed strangers entered an unfamiliar
room.
The discussion lasted an hour. In the end, Chen agreed Claire could wait at
a controlled staging point, ready to reassure Ava once officers had secured
the immediate area. It was not the role Claire wanted, but it was safer for
everyone.
Meanwhile, Seraphina called Isabelle's old number. The phone, held by Chen
as evidence, displayed MOTHER in large letters. Isabelle stared at the
screen until it stopped ringing, then laughed once without humor.
"She never used to call unless she wanted something," Isabelle said. "I
spent years hoping that would change." Claire recognized the grief of loving
someone whose idea of love made everyone around them smaller.
Ortiz checked surveillance footage from the mansion gala. A camera
overlooking the broken orchestra platform had captured the fight and the
sudden exposure of the backpack. The video also showed Seraphina instructing
a guard to remove it after Claire escaped.
Another angle revealed Captain Voss entering the ballroom through the
western arch, then speaking closely with Seraphina beside the shattered
pedestal. They appeared to be coordinating, not investigating, while Noah
was hurried toward the service passage.
"That woman," Noah whispered when he saw a still photograph. He pointed to
Voss's polished badge. "She's the one who told Ava that nobody would believe
two little kids." Margaret immediately turned off the screen to spare him
another painful image.
Chen documented his identification without pressing for details. Noah would
eventually need a specialist trained to interview children carefully. For
now, the evidence already spoke loudly enough to make the adults move with
more urgency.
Later that evening, Claire sat beside the club's covered piano. She held
Daniel's letter while rain tapped against the windows. She had imagined
revenge countless times during the search, but the picture of Ava in the
windowless room changed her priorities.
She did not need Seraphina frightened. She needed Ava safe, Noah sleeping
without nightmares, and the people who abused their authority unable to do
it again. Justice could arrive after a door opened and a child walked
through it.
Isabelle joined her, keeping a respectful distance. "She will bargain until
the last possible moment," she said of her mother. "When she sounds kindest,
she's counting which part of you she'll make you surrender first."
"She already tried," Claire answered. Isabelle shook her head. "That was the
rehearsal. She'll send a new threat when she knows you've found Bayglass."
Claire looked toward the window and saw a black sedan creeping slowly past
the shuttered club.
Ortiz noticed the same car and photographed its plate. Within minutes, Chen
confirmed it belonged to a company named in Daniel's ledger. The driver did
not stop, but he circled twice before disappearing toward the waterfront.
"Our location is compromised," Chen said. She arranged safe transport for
Noah and Margaret to a protected residence under federal supervision. Claire
helped gather the boy's crayons, blanket, and carefully constructed
sugar-packet city.
"Will Ava find me there?" Noah asked. Claire knelt before him. "When we find
her, I'll tell her exactly where you've gone." He nodded, then handed her
the paper turtle, folded carefully so its shell would not tear.
Margaret squeezed Claire's shoulder before leaving. "You protected him when
all those rich people looked away," she said. "Whatever happens next,
remember that the first right thing you did was simply refuse to be silent."
An hour later, Claire received a video message. The image showed Ava seated
on a bed beneath the sailboat painting. Seraphina's voice came from behind
the camera, instructing her to hold up a sheet of paper bearing the word
TOMORROW.
Ava looked directly into the lens. Instead of speaking, she tapped three
slow notes against the bedframe. Claire recognized the beginning of their
father's song and felt her throat tighten. The gesture was almost invisible,
but the message was unmistakable.
Then Ava held up a second sheet, pretending to adjust the first. For less
than a second, seven little stars appeared in blue pencil. Claire
understood: her sister was counting, signaling, thinking, and still refusing
to disappear.
Ortiz forwarded the video to Chen's team. Beyond the harbor, lightning
illuminated the dark ridge of Bayglass House. The rescue plan had become a
May you like
race between the people approaching that ridge and the matriarch preparing
to erase her last mistake.
