Page 120 of Veil of Silence

“They hosted traveling groups. We stayed there more than once.”

“It was outside Harriman,” Dad said. “We usually stopped there if we had concerts around Knoxville.”

“The bus got stuck in the mud the first time,” Marlowe added.

Dad tapped the drawing. “This looks like the place.”

Nora’s pulse quickened. “Who owned it?”

“I don’t remember,” Dad said. “Roy arranged the stays. He said using the house would save the cost of hotel rooms.”

Mom touched the edge of the drawing. “The Daltons were there one of those nights. They were the other family staying at the house.”

Nora stared at her. “Zander was there?”

“Yes. He would have been fifteen or so.”

Two years before he disappeared.

Dad studied the pictures again. “Roy booked both families there.”

The connections aligned with sickening clarity. A farmhouse that hosted traveling Gospel groups. The Lovelesses and Daltons staying there. Two boys from those families disappearing. Roy asking questions about unexplained money before his death.

And now the boy who had lived in Christian’s room had drawn that same farmhouse three times.

The property wasn’t a random hiding place.

It was part of whatever had begun on the Southern Gospel circuit years ago.

Nora gathered the drawings. “We need to find that house.”

Now.

Chapter

Forty-Nine

Austin’s phone vibrated in his hand. Nora’s name flashed across the screen, and he answered before the second ring.

“I found three drawings,” she said. “They’re all of the same farmhouse. My family stayed there several times when we were traveling.”

Austin turned away from Cross’s abandoned cruiser. “Where?”

“Outside Harriman. I don’t know the address, but I’m sending you the pictures.”

Three images appeared on his phone: a steep roof and stone chimney, a barn with a circular window, and a road curving between two stone pillars.

Austin carried the phone to Prine. “Nora recognizes this place.”

Prine enlarged the drawings while he told her what Nora knew. Luke brought up a map of the area.

“There are dozens of old farms out there,” Luke said. “Can her parents remember the road?”

Austin put Nora on speaker.

“They’re trying,” she said. “Roy Callahan arranged for us to stay there. The Dalton family stayed there with us one night.”

Prine looked up from the phone. “Zander was there?”