Page 61 of See How They Hide

“I don’t know.”

“Do you mean it moves around? They relocated after you left?”

“No. I mean, I don’t know. I never left Havenwood until I was nineteen, and I’ve never been back. It’s somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, but I don’t know where or how to get there. I was born there and left in the middle of the night.” Riley paused, then said, “Andrew knows because he came to Havenwood in his teens. But the only road into the valley is monitored. They know when people are coming.”

“Someone must know how to get there.”

“Thalia.”

“What’s her full name?”

Riley shrugged. “I don’t know what name she uses. We only had first names at Havenwood.”

Kara glanced at Michael, as if they were silently communicating. Then Kara said, “Riley, I’m going to tell you what we know, and we need your help to fill in the holes. You may not know how to give directions to Havenwood, but youcanhelp us find it and put an end to this.”

“I doubt it.”

“Jane wasn’t the only person who died ten days ago.”

Riley squeezed back tears. She didn’t think she had any left inside her, but suddenly, this was all so overwhelming.

“I know. Chris Crossman. After I saw you in Ashland, I went to Chris because he knows how to contact Thalia. They needed to know about Jane and I thought we could come up with a plan...but he wasn’t at his house, and I read online that he had been killed. I knew then that we were all in danger.”

Michael asked, “Do you know the other people who escaped?”

“I know everyone who left before me.” She didn’t know how much to tell them. Should she give them names? Should she explain the process?

“The more you tell us, the more we can help,” Kara said. “If you hold back, you’re not going to help anyone.”

Riley wanted to believe her. Maybe she was grasping at straws, but Andrew’s suicide attempt had really rattled her, almost as much as finding Jesse dead.

“I identified people in Havenwood who were ready to leave,” Riley said. “I brought them to the meeting spot, then Thalia took them to Chris, who gave them new identities and helped find them jobs, homes, anything they needed. He gave Jane and me money for our apartment and more than enough to live on. But I don’t know where anyone else is. I’d only been to Chris’s house, and the only reason I knew where Andrew and Donovan lived is because Chris told me.”

“So,” Kara said, “you stayed behind in Havenwood after Thalia left in order to help others escape.”

Riley nodded.

“For how long?”

“Eight years.”

“And no one there suspected you?” Kara asked.

She didn’t believe her. “I’m not lying.”

“I didn’t say you were,” Kara said, “but you helped people escape for eight years and no one thought it was you.”

“Calliope is my mother.”

“Calliope?” Michael said.

They didn’t know. Riley almost stopped talking. If they didn’t know about her mother, they didn’t know anything.

Yet, somehow, now that she’d started, she wanted to share. Where did she start?

“Yes. Calliope is my mom, the leader of Havenwood ever since my grandmother died. No one would suspect that I’d help anyone leave. Thalia knew that—that’s why she made me stay behind.”

Kara’s eyes narrowed as if she wanted to ask more questions, then Michael said, “How many people did you help?”

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