Chapter 10: The Body Beneath the Bridge
“Ask Damien what happened to the first body.””
Peter Walsh's final words followed Emma out of the office and into the cold Boston night.
An ambulance crew rushed past her. Detective Morgan spoke rapidly into her radio, ordering officers to secure the surrounding streets. Somewhere outside, a siren rose above the rain.
Emma stood beneath the building's awning, staring at the brass key Peter had pressed into her palm.
Damien approached cautiously.
“Emma, we need to get you somewhere safe.””
She closed her fingers around the key.
“Who was the first body?””
His face tightened.
“I don't know.””
“Don't lie to me.””
“I'm not.””
“Peter looked at you when he said it. You looked terrified. That wasn't the expression of a man hearing something for the first time.””
Damien glanced toward the ambulance.
“I heard stories when I was a child. Things my father said when he thought nobody was listening.””
“What stories?””
He rubbed his jaw.
“After Charlotte disappeared, a body was found near the Charles River. It was badly damaged, and the police couldn't immediately identify it. My grandmother told everyone it belonged to a young woman who had run away from home.””
“Charlotte?””
“That's what I assumed.””
“Was it?””
“No one ever told me.””
Emma stared at him.
“You let me believe you knew nothing about your aunt's disappearance.””
“I was six when she vanished. I was never shown the investigation files.””
“But you're thirty-four now. You own an entire restaurant empire. You could have found them.””
His silence was answer enough.
Emma stepped away.
“You could have searched.””
“I did. Years ago. My mother told me the case had been closed.””
“And you believed her?””
Damien's expression hardened with shame.
“Yes.””
Emma looked toward the ambulance, where paramedics were working on Peter.
“Then we're going to find those files.””
Detective Morgan approached them.
“Mr. Walsh is alive, but his condition is critical. The ambulance is taking him to Massachusetts General Hospital.””
“Did he identify the shooter?”” Emma asked.
“No. But the security footage captured a vehicle leaving the area. We're tracing it now.””
Emma held out the brass key.
“Peter gave me this. He said Richard kept original records beneath a bridge.””
Detective Morgan examined it.
“Did he specify which bridge?””
“No.””
Damien looked at the key.
“I think I know.””
Emma turned toward him.
“Where?””
“An old railway bridge near the river. My father used to take me there when I was little. There was a maintenance chamber underneath it.””
“Why would he keep records there?””
“Because my grandmother controlled every room in the family house. If he wanted to hide something from her, he needed somewhere she wouldn't think to look.””
Detective Morgan shook her head.
“We are not going anywhere until the scene is secured.””
“By the time your officers search the bridge,” Damien replied, “whoever shot Peter could get there first.””
“That's why I'm sending a team.””
“And if the records are removed before they arrive?””
The detective studied him.
“Mr. Carter, you are a witness in a murder investigation. You don't get to run your own operation.””
Damien lowered his head.
“You're right.””
He turned to Emma.
“But if those records contain what we think they contain, someone has been hiding the truth for twenty-eight years. Peter nearly died trying to get it to us.””
Emma glanced at the key.
She thought of Isabelle searching hospitals, Margaret raising a child she had been told was dead, and Sophie clutching a photograph because it was the only connection she had left to her mother.
“I want to go,” she said.
Detective Morgan looked between them.
“Fine. But you follow my instructions, and you do not touch anything until my officers clear it.””
An hour later, two police vehicles led them to the abandoned railway bridge.
The structure stretched across the river like a rusted skeleton. Weeds pushed through cracks in the concrete, and the river below reflected the distant city lights.
Damien guided them down a narrow service path.
“My father used to bring me here when I couldn't sleep,” he said.
“He told me that water carried secrets away.””
Emma glanced at him.
“Did he tell you that before or after he learned your family was destroying his children's lives?””
Damien absorbed the question without protest.
“Before.””
They reached a maintenance door hidden behind a cluster of overgrown bushes.
The brass key fit the lock.
Detective Morgan signaled two officers to stand by before allowing Damien to turn it.
The door opened with a metallic groan.
Inside was a narrow chamber lined with concrete shelves. Dust covered a wooden desk, and an old filing cabinet stood in the corner.
Emma's flashlight swept across the room.
“There.””
A metal box sat beneath the desk.
Damien knelt and dragged it into the light.
The lid was secured with a combination lock.
Emma examined the surface.
Three numbers had been scratched into the metal.
11:47.
Her birth time.
She tried the numbers.
The lock clicked.
Inside were hospital records, photographs, and a small tape recorder wrapped in plastic.
Emma lifted the first document.
It was a death certificate.
The name was missing.
The date was October 15, twenty-eight years earlier.
Under cause of death, someone had written:
Undetermined. Female infant.
Emma's stomach turned.
“An infant's body.””
Damien stared at the paper.
“This is what Peter meant.””
“Was this Charlotte?””
“I don't know.””
Emma found another document beneath it.
A transfer order from St. Catherine's Hospital.
Female infant transferred to private care at 12:19 a.m.
The authorization carried Evelyn Carter's signature.
Beside it was another name.
Richard Carter.
Emma's pulse quickened.
“Your father signed this?””
Damien shook his head.
“The signature doesn't look right.””
Detective Morgan photographed the document.
“We'll have it examined.””
Emma picked up the tape recorder.
A label was attached to its side.
Richard Carter — October 16.
She pressed play.
A man's voice crackled through the tiny speaker.
“If anyone finds this recording, it means I failed to protect my daughters.””
Emma covered her mouth.
It was Richard.
“My mother has arranged for the children to be separated. She believes one of them will inherit everything if the other is declared dead. She has convinced Harris to falsify the records, and she has threatened Isabelle into silence.””
Damien's face crumpled.
“Dad,” he whispered.
The recording continued.
“I have found a way to stop her. The original records are here. The child taken from the hospital is alive, and the child declared dead may not be the one everyone thinks.””
Emma felt her blood run cold.
“What does that mean?””
Richard's voice became faint.
“I cannot trust the police. I cannot trust my mother. I cannot trust the doctors who signed the papers. There is only one person who knows where the children were taken.””
A pause.
Then he spoke a name.
“Charlotte.””
Emma looked at Damien.
The recording continued.
“If Charlotte is still alive, she will know which child was removed. She witnessed the exchange. She saw the woman who carried the baby away.””
A sudden burst of static swallowed the next few seconds.
Then Richard spoke again.
“If anything happens to me, find the original photograph. The truth is not in the death certificate. It is in the child's wristband.””
The tape stopped.
Emma stared at the recorder.
“The wristband.””
She remembered the one from Margaret's box, bearing Charlotte's name.
But there had been another wristband in the hospital records, one that had been deliberately altered.
Detective Morgan took out her notebook.
“We need to compare the original hospital bands with the surviving records.””
Damien remained motionless.
“My father knew.””
Emma looked at him.
“He tried to stop it.””
“He knew his mother was doing this, and he couldn't stop her.””
“He left evidence.””
“Evidence that sat under a bridge for twenty-eight years while my sister died without knowing whether her child was alive.””
Emma had no answer.
Then one of the officers called from the entrance.
“Detective! You need to see this.””
They hurried outside.
A black sedan sat abandoned near the service road. Its driver's door was open, and the engine was still running.
Detective Morgan approached cautiously.
Emma stayed behind the officers.
On the passenger seat lay a photograph.
It showed Charlotte standing beside the river.
Beneath it was a handwritten message.
You have the records. Now return the girl.
Emma's phone rang.
An unfamiliar number.
She answered without speaking.
A woman's voice whispered, “Emma, listen to me. Don't give them the records.””
“Charlotte?””
“I'm sorry I couldn't find you sooner.””
Emma's eyes filled with tears.
“Where are you?””
“I'm close. But you need to understand something before we meet.””
“What?””
The woman took a shaky breath.
“The baby who was declared dead wasn't me.””
Emma's grip tightened around the phone.
“Then who was it?””
A long silence followed.
Then Charlotte whispered, “It was your sister.””
The call ended.
Emma stared at the dark screen.
Behind her, Damien had gone completely still.
May you like
Because if Charlotte was telling the truth, the family had spent twenty-eight years hiding a third child.
And someone had just demanded that Emma return a girl who was supposed to be dead.
