Chapter 7
I called back immediately.
Nothing.
Again.
Nothing.
“Hayes!”
She was already shouting into her radio.
“Hospital security, pediatric stairwell! Move!”
We were almost two hours away.
I have never hated distance more.
Daniel had his daughter.
Vanessa had found them.
And I could do nothing but stand beneath a boathouse while strangers raced to save them.
Marcus heard what happened.
“She’ll take Emma.”
“Why?”
“She can’t leave loose ends.”
I turned on him.
“She’s seven years old.”
“You think that matters to Vanessa?”
I grabbed the front of his shirt before an officer pulled me away.
“What does loose end mean?”
Marcus stared at me.
“Emma saw too much.”
“What?”
“I don’t know all of it.”
“Then tell me what you do know!”
“I know Vanessa kept records. Videos. She liked proof.”
“Proof of what?”
“That she could control people.”
My stomach twisted.
“Did she record Emma?”
“Yes.”
“Lily?”
“I don’t know.”
“You better hope not.”
Hayes stepped between us.
“Ethan.”
Her voice was sharp.
I released Marcus.
Her phone was pressed to her ear.
She listened.
Then exhaled.
“They found Daniel.”
“And Emma?”
“Both alive.”
My knees weakened.
“What about Vanessa?”
“Gone.”
Of course.
“What happened?”
“Daniel got into a physical struggle with her in the stairwell. A hospital employee heard screaming and opened a door. Vanessa ran.”
“Daniel hurt?”
“Cut on the arm. Not serious.”
“Emma?”
“Physically okay.”
I closed my eyes.
Physically okay.
There were those words again.
Hayes continued.
“Hospital cameras caught Vanessa leaving in medical scrubs.”
“How does she keep doing this?”
Marcus laughed bitterly.
“Because people see what they expect.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
“Vanessa understands uniforms. Roles. Authority. Put on scrubs and people assume nurse. Carry a clipboard and they assume employee. Wear expensive clothes and they assume good mother.”
His eyes moved toward me.
“Marry a wealthy man and everybody assumes respectable wife.”
That one hit.
Hayes’s phone buzzed.
“Forensics accessed the phone we found.”
“What’s on it?”
“Videos.”
Marcus looked away.
I felt sick before I saw a single frame.
Hayes warned me.
“You may not want to watch.”
“If Lily is in them, I’m watching.”
The technician opened the first recovered video.
Emma sat in the hidden basement room at my house.
Vanessa’s voice came from behind the camera.
“Why are you here?”
Emma whispered, “Because I lied.”
“What did you lie about?”
“Daddy loves me.”
“Does he?”
Emma started crying.
Vanessa repeated the question.
“Does he?”
Emma shook her head.
“No.”
“Say it.”
“My daddy doesn’t love me.”
The video ended.
Marcus swore.
I couldn’t speak.
Another video.
Emma cleaning the lake-house room.
Another.
Emma repeating statements.
I am difficult.
I make people leave.
Mom is the only person who stays.
Brainwashing.
There was no softer word.
Then Lily appeared.
My six-year-old daughter stood in the same underground room.
She wore ordinary clothes.
No maid uniform.
Vanessa asked, “What happens to girls who tell secrets?”
Lily stared at the floor.
“They go away.”
“Like who?”
“Emma.”
“And what happens if you tell Daddy?”
“I go away too.”
My vision blurred.
The video had a date.
Three months earlier.
I had been in New York.
Giving a keynote speech.
I remembered calling home from my hotel suite.
Vanessa said Lily was asleep.
She had not been asleep.
She had been in a cell beneath a lake house.
I turned away.
My stomach heaved.
Hayes stopped the video.
“No more.”
“Yes.”
“Ethan.”
“I need to know.”
“You need to stay functional.”
“She’s my daughter.”
“And right now she needs you functional.”
I hated that she was right.
Marcus stared at the frozen image of Lily.
“I didn’t know.”
I turned on him.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I never saw Lily here.”
“You worked for Vanessa.”
“She used me.”
“You took money.”
“Yes.”
“You kept Emma here.”
“Yes.”
“Then stop pretending you’re different.”
His face tightened.
“I’m not pretending.”
For once, he had nothing else to say.
The forensic team found dozens more videos.
Some were from years earlier.
Rachel.
That discovery stopped everyone.
The oldest recordings had been copied from videotapes.
Rachel sitting in a closet.
Rachel crying.
Teenage Vanessa’s voice.
Rachel apologizing.
Then one video was dated the night before Rachel disappeared.
We watched only the opening seconds.
Rachel was in the lake-house basement.
She stared into the camera.
“I’m going to tell Mom and Dad.”
Vanessa answered from behind the lens.
“No, you’re not.”
“Yes, I am.”
“If you do, I’ll tell them what you did.”
“I didn’t do anything!”
“You pushed me.”
“You pushed yourself!”
The video cut.
Marcus sat down hard.
“She framed Rachel.”
Hayes said nothing.
Then the forensic technician called her over.
“We found one more file.”
“What?”
“It’s corrupted, but the first frame loaded.”
He turned the screen.
A teenage Vanessa stood beside the lake.
Rachel was visible behind her.
And another person stood near the dock.
A boy.
Marcus leaned closer.
“That’s not me.”
“Who is it?”
He stared.
Then went pale.
“Caleb.”
“Who’s Caleb?”
“Our cousin.”
“Where is he now?”
Marcus swallowed.
“He died five years ago.”
“How?”
“Car accident.”
Hayes looked at the frame again.
“Was he questioned when Rachel disappeared?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because everyone thought he was at college.”
“Was he?”
Marcus stared at the image.
“Apparently not.”
The mystery had just widened.
Rachel’s disappearance had not involved only Vanessa.
At least one other person had been present.
Maybe more.
Then my phone rang.
A Dallas number.
I answered.
“Mr. Carter?”
A woman.
“Yes.”
“My name is Susan Bell. I worked for your family.”
I frowned.
“When?”
“As a nanny. Three years ago.”
I remembered her.
Barely.
She had lasted six weeks.
Vanessa told me Susan stole jewelry.
We fired her.
“What do you want?”
“I saw your wife on the news.”
My chest tightened.
“What about her?”
“I need to tell you something.”
“Tell me.”
“I never stole anything.”
I looked at Hayes.
She moved closer.
Susan continued.
“I left because I saw what Vanessa did to Emma.”
“What did you see?”
“She locked her in a pantry.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I tried.”
I stopped breathing.
“When?”
“I emailed you.”
“I never got it.”
“Then I called your office.”
My mind flashed to executive assistants screening messages.
“What happened?”
“Vanessa called me ten minutes later.”
My skin prickled.
“She knew?”
“She knew everything I had told your office.”
I closed my eyes.
Someone inside my company had been feeding Vanessa information.
“What did she say?”
“She told me if I contacted you again, she would report me for stealing a diamond bracelet.”
“And then she did.”
“Yes.”
“Why are you telling me now?”
Susan started crying.
“Because there was another girl.”
My eyes opened.
“What girl?”
“I don’t know her name.”
Hayes put the call on speaker.
Susan continued.
“One night I came back because I forgot my purse. Vanessa thought I was gone.”
“What did you see?”
“A teenage girl in your garage.”
My pulse jumped.
“What teenage girl?”
“She was crying. Vanessa was yelling at her.”
“What was she saying?”
Susan took a shaky breath.
“She said, ‘You had one job. Watch the girls.’”
Hayes wrote rapidly.
“Can you describe the teenager?”
“Blonde. Maybe sixteen. Seventeen.”
“What happened next?”
“A man came out of the house.”
“Who?”
“I never saw him before.”
“Describe him.”
Susan did.
Tall.
Thin.
Dark beard.
Scar near his left ear.
Marcus went rigid.
Hayes noticed.
“You know him?”
Marcus whispered one name.
“Caleb.”
I stared at him.
“You said Caleb died five years ago.”
“He did.”
Susan heard.
“No.”
We all went silent.
“What do you mean, no?” Hayes asked.
“The man I saw was three years ago.”
Marcus slowly stood.
“That’s impossible.”
Susan’s voice shook.
“I remember his scar.”
Hayes asked, “Are you certain?”
“Yes.”
Marcus backed away from the table.
“No.”
Then Hayes received another message.
She read it twice.
“What?” I demanded.
She looked at Marcus.
“Your cousin Caleb’s death certificate was issued in Nevada.”
“Yes.”
“No body was recovered.”
Marcus stared at her.
Hayes continued.
“Vehicle went over a ravine and burned.”
My stomach tightened.
“No DNA confirmation?”
“Apparently not.”
Marcus whispered, “He faked his death.”
Then a motion alarm sounded outside.
Police lights swept across the trees.
Officers raised weapons.
Someone had approached the lake property.
A car stopped at the gate.
The driver stepped out with both hands raised.
Young woman.
Blonde hair.
Maybe nineteen now.
An officer called back.
“She says she knows Vanessa.”
Hayes went outside.
I followed.
The young woman looked terrified.
Her eyes found mine.
“Are you Ethan Carter?”
“Yes.”
She began crying.
“My name is Nora.”
I waited.
“I’m the girl Susan saw in your garage.”
Hayes stepped closer.
“Why are you here?”
Nora looked over her shoulder as if expecting someone.
“Because Vanessa called me.”
“When?”
“Twenty minutes ago.”
“What did she say?”
Nora looked directly at me.
“She said if I didn’t bring Lily to her, she would kill my father.”
My blood went cold.
“Who is your father?”
Nora started shaking.
May you like
Then she said the name.
“Caleb.”
