Chapter 3 - The Blue Room
Ethan was still at the police station when Claire called him.
She did not begin with a greeting.
“Why is your signature on a Northbridge consent form?”
Silence filled the line.
Detective Ortiz stood on the other side of the hospital room, watching Claire without interrupting.
“Claire,” Ethan said, “I can explain.”
“You signed away our daughter’s privacy.”
“That isn’t what they told me the form was.”
“What did they tell you?”
“That it was grief counseling. They said Evelyn’s death might have caused separation anxiety.”
“And you believed them?”
“I believed Richard Bell. He said Ava had become withdrawn.”
“So you took her to a private clinic without telling me.”
“I was going to tell you after the first session.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Another silence.
“Because after the first session, Dr. Wynn showed me a report.”
“What report?”
“It claimed Ava had described instability at home. It said she was afraid of your moods.”
Claire looked toward Ava, who was drawing quietly with Naomi at the table.
“Ava never said that.”
“I know that now.”
“You should have known it then.”
“I did. That’s why I challenged them.”
“What happened?”
“They said refusing treatment could be considered neglect. They said the school had already documented concerns.”
Claire felt anger rising, but beneath it was something worse. Ethan had been manipulated, but he had also chosen secrecy.
“You kept taking her.”
“For two weeks. Then I stopped.”
“Ava says she continued going every Tuesday.”
Ethan’s voice changed.
“What?”
“She was being transported after school.”
“I thought the Tuesday sessions were reading club.”
“So did I.”
On the other side of the line, Claire heard a chair move.
“Put Ortiz on.”
Claire handed the phone to the detective.
Ethan spoke quickly.
“Northbridge had access to Evelyn’s trust documents.”
Detective Ortiz’s expression sharpened.
“How?”
“I don’t know. But three weeks ago I found a charge in the trust’s administrative records. Forty-eight thousand dollars paid to something called Child Stability Consulting.”
“That company exists?”
“Only on paper. The registered address is a mailbox.”
“And Thomas Reed?”
“He’s a private investigator.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“You hired an investigator without telling me?”
Ethan heard her.
“I didn’t know who I could trust.”
“You could have trusted your wife.”
“I was afraid they were building a case against both of us.”
The detective took the call off speaker and stepped into the hall.
Claire sat beside Ava.
“Did Dad know about the blue room?”
Ava shook her head.
“Did you try to tell him?”
“They made me promise.”
“Who?”
“The woman in the white coat.”
“Dr. Wynn?”
“I don’t know her name.”
Ava selected a blue pencil.
“She said Dad had already made one mistake. If I told him, she would show the court his signature.”
Claire watched Ava draw a rectangle in the center of the page. She colored it dark blue.
Inside the rectangle, she drew seven small chairs.
Along one wall, she added a black circle.
“What is that?” Claire asked.
“The camera.”
Beside the door, Ava drew a silver shape resembling a tree.
“And that?”
“The handle. It had branches.”
“Where was this room?”
“We went down the gray stairs at school. Mr. Bell opened a door with a card. Then there was a tunnel.”
Claire assumed Ava meant a covered passage or service corridor rather than an underground tunnel.
“What was at the other end?”
“A garage. A white van waited there.”
“Did the van take you to Northbridge?”
Ava shook her head.
“Not the building with the glass windows.”
“Then where?”
“I don’t know.”
Ava added a house to the drawing. It had green shutters and a tall fence.
“There was a sign near the road.”
“Can you remember what it said?”
Ava wrote slowly beneath the house.
LARKSPUR LANE.
Detective Ortiz returned.
“We’re sending officers to Northbridge’s official office and obtaining a warrant for the school’s security records.”
“What about Larkspur Lane?” Claire asked.
Ortiz examined the drawing.
“There are forty-two properties on that road. We’ll check all of them.”
Ava turned the page over.
On the back, a series of names had been printed in a narrow column.
Claire recognized Ava’s name near the bottom.
Six other children were listed above her.
Beside each name was a letter and a number.
Ava’s code was M-17.
May you like
At the top of the page, someone had typed a heading.
EVELYN HARPER LEGACY TRANSFER PROGRAM.
