CHAPTER 20 : DR. HELENA WARD
Helena Ward appeared exactly as powerful people expected compassion to look.
She wore soft colors.
She spoke quietly.
She never interrupted.
Her office walls displayed photographs of smiling children beside senators, judges and celebrities.
When Reyes entered with a search warrant, Helena did not appear surprised.
She offered everyone tea.
“I’ve spent thirty years protecting children,” she said.
Reyes placed Claire’s photograph on the desk.
“You also spent years working with Margaret Hart.”
“I consulted at Rosehaven before I understood what Margaret was doing.”
“What was Harbor?”
“A discontinued research program.”
“Where is Ava Monroe?”
Helena’s expression remained unchanged.
“I’ve never met her.”
Reyes placed the red sweater on the desk.
It had been issued by Helena’s foster-care organization.
Helena looked at it for one second too long.
Then she smiled.
“Detective, children run away. They lie. They create stories to survive emotional discomfort.”
Reyes leaned forward.
“That is exactly what Margaret used to say.”
The search uncovered no children.
No illegal files.
No direct evidence connecting Helena to the lighthouse.
Every computer had been professionally wiped six hours earlier.
Someone had warned her.
Only seven people knew about the warrant.
Ethan returned to the center and reviewed each name.
One belonged to Nathan Bell, the foundation’s financial director.
Nathan had helped recover Margaret’s offshore accounts.
He had also overseen construction of the Claire Bennett Center.
Ethan found him in the conference room.
Nathan did not deny the accusation.
“I told Helena about the warrant,” he admitted.
Ethan closed the door.
“Why?”
“Because she has my daughter.”
Nathan explained that his daughter, Olivia, had disappeared fifteen years earlier.
Helena contacted him after the Rosehaven investigation began.
She claimed Olivia was alive.
In exchange for information, Nathan received photographs proving she had survived.
He slid one across the table.
A young woman stood near a lake holding that day’s newspaper.
“You endangered every child in this center,” Ethan said.
“I know.”
“You endangered Sophie.”
Nathan’s eyes filled with tears.
“I know.”
Ethan wanted to hate him.
Instead, he saw a father trapped by the same fear that had once controlled him.
“Where does Helena send the information?”
Nathan handed him a small black phone.
“She contacts me through this.”
The phone rang.
A message appeared.
BRING SOPHIE TO PIER 19 TOMORROW AT MIDNIGHT.
COME ALONE.
OR OLIVIA AND AVA BOTH DISAPPEAR.
A second message followed.
To prove Helena was watching, it contained a live photograph.
May you like
Sophie was sitting in her classroom.
The picture had been taken through the window.
