Chương 8
“We’re going to ask questions you think you should know the answers to.”
“I already figured that out.”
“We may ask them more than once.”
“Why?”
“Because people remember differently after shock wears off.”
Daniel glanced at Sophie.
“And because people lie?”
“Yes.”
“At least you say it.”
“I’m not here to make tonight comfortable.”
“No one seems to be.”
Ortiz looked toward the house again.
An evidence technician had arrived and was carrying cases through the front door.
“Do not go back inside tonight.”
Daniel blinked.
“What?”
“We’re securing the bedroom, hidden room, hallway access, and any connected areas.”
“I need clothes for Sophie.”
“We can retrieve essentials.”
“She needs her stuffed rabbit.”
Ortiz paused.
“The one in the bedroom?”
“Yes.”
“We’ll photograph it before moving it.”
The absurdity almost broke him.
A stuffed rabbit now required chain-of-custody consideration.
“Fine.”
Ortiz studied his face.
“There’s something else.”
Daniel waited.
“We examined the phone taken from Vanessa.”
His pulse increased.
“The live feed?”
“Yes.”
“It was showing Ethan?”
“The hidden room.”
“So she was watching him.”
“Possibly.”
Daniel stared at her.
“Possibly?”
“The application was open on the phone when officers recovered it.”
“That sounds pretty clear.”
“It tells us the phone had access.”
Ortiz’s voice remained steady.
“It does not yet tell us when she obtained access, who installed the camera, whether anyone else had credentials, or who controlled the system.”
Daniel hated the discipline of every answer.
He wanted certainty.
The night had become unbearable because everyone kept offering him pieces.
Ortiz reached into a small notebook.
“There was also a message on the lock screen.”
Daniel’s attention fixed on her.
“From who?”
“Unknown number.”
“What did it say?”
Ortiz glanced at Sophie.
Daniel understood.
He stepped down from the ambulance.
“Tell me.”
Ortiz moved several feet away with him.
The paramedic stayed beside Sophie.
Ortiz kept her voice low.
“The message arrived less than a minute before Vanessa tried to leave.”
Daniel felt the warm night air against his face.
“What did it say?”
“‘They found him.’”
Daniel looked toward the house.
“Anything else?”
“Yes.”
Ortiz’s eyes stayed on him.
“A second message came while officers had the phone.”
Daniel waited.
Ortiz said, “It read, ‘If Mercer has the card, Claire’s mistake becomes yours.’”
Daniel’s hand instinctively touched the inside pocket where the memory card had been.
Ortiz saw the movement.
“Whoever sent that apparently knows the card exists.”
Daniel looked toward Sophie in the ambulance.
She was asking the paramedic something about the cabinets.
His daughter’s feet did not reach the floor.
“How would they know I have it?”
Ortiz’s expression tightened.
“That is exactly what concerns me.”
Daniel looked toward the bedroom windows above them.
The curtains were closed.
For the first time, he noticed a tiny movement behind the fabric.
A shadow crossed from one side to the other.
Daniel pointed.
“Who’s upstairs?”
Ortiz turned.
The upstairs curtain moved again.
Her hand went immediately to her radio.
“Unit inside, confirm all personnel locations.”
Static burst from the speaker.
One officer answered from the hallway.
Another from Sophie’s bedroom.
A third from the concealed room.
Ortiz kept staring at the window.
“Who just crossed the front bedroom?”
A pause followed.
Then the answer came.
“Nobody.”
Ortiz’s hand tightened around the radio.
“Lock down the second floor.”
The answer came back immediately.
“Copy.”
Another voice followed.
“Bedroom clear.”
Daniel did not take his eyes off the window.
“I saw someone.”
“I believe you saw movement.”
“That is not the same sentence.”
Ortiz looked at him.
“No, it isn’t.”
She pointed toward the ambulance.
“Get back inside with your daughter.”
Daniel stayed where he was.
“If someone is in that house—”
“Then you are the last person I need walking toward them.”
“She’s five feet away.”
“And currently surrounded by police and paramedics.”
Daniel glanced at Sophie.
She was watching him now.
The paramedic had stopped pretending not to listen.
Daniel climbed back into the ambulance.
“Daddy?”
“I’m right here.”
“Was somebody in my room?”
He sat beside her.
“I don’t know.”
Her face folded slightly.
“You said grown-ups were figuring it out.”
There was no accusation in her voice this time.
That made it worse.
Daniel looked at the open ambulance doors.
Ortiz had moved toward the front steps with two officers.
One officer drew his weapon before entering.
The neighborhood had become completely awake.
More porch lights were on.
A dog barked somewhere behind the houses.
The teenager with the phone had vanished, though Daniel suspected that meant he had simply found a better angle.
Sophie leaned into him.
“Can we go now?”
“Yes.”
The paramedic closed one ambulance door.
Before she could close the other, Ortiz returned.
Her breathing was slightly faster.
“We found something.”
Daniel stood.
“What?”
“Stay seated.”
“Tell me.”
Ortiz glanced at Sophie and stepped closer so she could lower her voice.
“There’s another access point.”
“To the hidden room?”
“To a service corridor behind the wardrobes.”
Daniel stared at her.
“How big?”
“Runs behind at least three upstairs rooms.”
His mouth went dry.
“What rooms?”
“Your daughter’s bedroom, the upstairs hall closet, and what looks like part of the primary bedroom.”
Daniel pictured the layout automatically.
His bedroom shared the long interior wall with Sophie’s room.
Claire had chosen that arrangement because she wanted Sophie nearby when she was a baby.
“Someone could move between them?”
“Potentially.”
“And you didn’t find anybody?”
“Not yet.”
Daniel looked at the house again.
A dark shape crossed one of the lower windows, but this time he recognized an officer.
“What moved the curtain?”
“We don’t know.”
“You just said—”
“I said we found another access point.”
Ortiz kept her voice calm.
“I did not say we found the person who moved the curtain.”
A new radio call interrupted her.
“Detective.”
Ortiz touched the radio.
“Go.”
“We’ve got an exterior panel open on the north side.”
Ortiz looked toward the side yard.
“Recently?”
“Looks that way.”
May you like
Daniel heard her exhale through her nose.
“Secure the yard.”
