Chapter 8 - THE BLUE NOTEBOOK
The blue notebook became the investigation's most important clue.
A witness had seen Hannah carrying it during her transfer.
Investigators believed it contained information she had gathered while being held captive.
Lauren remembered Hannah's handwriting.
Small.
Precise.
Always written in blue ink.
Four years earlier, Hannah had kept a similar notebook.
She wrote down names.
Dates.
Vehicle descriptions.
Anything that might help investigators.
Agent Shaw believed the new notebook could identify the people responsible for the current operation.
Then a message arrived.
It was sent to a federal tip line.
Anonymous.
Short.
If you want the notebook, look where the ships sleep.
Investigators traced the message to a public computer terminal.
The sender had left no identification.
But Lauren recognized the phrase.
“Where the ships sleep.”
Shaw looked up.
“What?”
Lauren swallowed.
“Hannah used to say that.”
She explained.
Hannah's father had worked at a shipyard.
When Maisie was little, he took her to see boats in dry dock.
He called the shipyard “where the ships sleep.”
Shaw leaned forward.
“Which shipyard?”
Lauren shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Maisie was asked gently whether she remembered.
She nodded.
“Grandpa took me.”
“Where?”
“Near the big bridge.”
Investigators reviewed old family records.
Hannah's father had worked at a decommissioned naval repair facility outside Norfolk.
The facility had been partially converted into commercial storage.
One section remained unused.
Agents searched it.
Inside an abandoned office, they found a blue notebook wrapped in plastic.
The first page contained a list of names.
The second contained account numbers.
The third contained a handwritten sentence.
If I disappear, protect my children.
And on the final page:
Dr. Harold Grace is not the man in charge.
Agent Shaw stared.
May you like
Below it was another name.
Admiral Richard Prescott.
