Chapter 7 - THE MAN WITH THE CAMERA
The man’s name was Aaron Pike.
According to Detective Torres, he had worked as a private investigator for seventeen years. Margaret Ashford’s personal assistant had hired his firm two months earlier.
But Aaron Pike was not listed as an employee of any catering company.
The uniform he wore at the engagement party had been stolen from a delivery van that morning.
Police discovered his abandoned car near the estate’s rear entrance.
Inside the trunk, they found camera equipment, printed photographs of Rachel and Emma, a copy of Emma’s daycare schedule, and a sealed envelope containing five thousand dollars in cash.
Aaron Pike had disappeared.
“Why would a private investigator disguise himself as a caterer?” Rachel asked.
Detective Torres stood at the foot of Emma’s hospital bed.
“To access areas where normal guests could not go.”
“Did he take Emma?”
“We do not have footage.”
“Then find him.”
“We are trying.”
Rachel looked at Emma’s sleeping face.
The sedative was leaving her system, but she had not fully awakened. Every few minutes, her fingers moved against Rachel’s palm.
“Was he hired to hurt her?”
“We do not know.”
Daniel stood beside the window, silent.
Detective Torres turned toward him.
“Mr. Bennett, did you ever communicate with Aaron Pike?”
“No.”
“Did you know his name?”
“No.”
“Did your mother discuss the investigator’s reports with you?”
“Some of them.”
Rachel stared at him.
“You said you only knew she hired someone.”
Daniel looked exhausted.
“She showed me photographs.”
“What photographs?”
“You at the park. At lunch. Leaving the pediatric clinic.”
“Why did she show them to you?”
“She wanted me to see how much time you spent away from home.”
Rachel almost laughed.
“I was with Emma.”
“She said it could establish a pattern.”
“A pattern of parenting my child?”
Daniel’s silence answered for him.
Detective Torres made another note.
“Did the reports contain allegations of neglect?”
“No.”
“Infidelity?”
“No.”
“Drug use?”
“No.”
“Criminal behavior?”
“No.”
“Then why did the surveillance continue?”
Daniel looked toward Emma.
“My mother believed Rachel was planning to leave.”
“How would photographs prevent that?”
“They wouldn’t.”
“What was she looking for?”
“I don’t know.”
Rachel knew he was hiding something.
The detective knew it too.
But before she could press further, Emma made a small sound.
Rachel leaned forward.
“Emma?”
Her daughter’s eyelids fluttered.
“Mommy?”
Rachel began crying.
“I’m here.”
Emma opened her eyes halfway.
Her voice was weak.
“Dark.”
“What was dark, sweetheart?”
Emma looked frightened.
“Box.”
Daniel moved closer.
Rachel placed one hand protectively across Emma’s body.
“Who put you in the box?”
Emma’s lower lip trembled.
“Lady.”
“What lady?”
“White hair.”
Rachel looked at Daniel.
Margaret had silver-white hair.
Detective Torres stepped closer but kept her voice gentle.
“Emma, did the lady give you something to drink?”
Emma closed her eyes.
“Juice yucky.”
Rachel’s heart pounded.
“Who gave you the juice?”
Emma whispered one word.
“Grandma.”
Daniel moved backward as though struck.
Detective Torres wrote it down.
Rachel stroked Emma’s hair.
“Did Grandma put you in the green box?”
Emma shook her head weakly.
“No.”
Everyone froze.
“Who did?” Rachel asked.
Emma’s fingers curled around the blanket.
“Man.”
“What man?”
“Camera man.”
Aaron Pike.
Detective Torres stepped into the hallway and began making calls.
Rachel looked at Daniel.
“Your mother drugged her. The investigator hid her.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Emma just told us.”
“She is two. She was unconscious.”
Rachel stood.
“Get out.”
“Rachel.”
“Get out of this room.”
“She is my daughter too.”
“Then why are you still defending the people who nearly killed her?”
Daniel’s eyes filled with tears.
“I don’t want to believe my mother could do this.”
“You don’t need to believe it. You need to face it.”
He remained beside the door.
Rachel pointed toward the hallway.
“Leave.”
Daniel looked at Emma.
Then he walked out.
Amelia entered a few minutes later.
“I heard Emma woke up.”
Rachel nodded.
“She said Margaret gave her the juice.”
“That statement will need to be handled carefully because of her age, but it is important.”
“She said the investigator put her in the trash can.”
“Police will find him.”
“What if Margaret paid him to disappear?”
“Then the financial records may show it.”
Rachel looked toward the glass wall.
Daniel stood alone at the end of the corridor.
Amelia followed her gaze.
“Do you still have access to your husband’s financial accounts?”
“Yes.”
“Check them now.”
Rachel opened the family banking application.
Their shared checking account appeared normal.
Savings appeared normal.
Then she noticed a transfer from Daniel’s private investment account.
Fifty thousand dollars.
Sent three days earlier to a consulting company called North Vale Strategies.
Amelia searched the company name on her phone.
“It was formed six weeks ago.”
“Who owns it?”
“The registered address is a mailbox.”
Rachel scrolled through Daniel’s transaction history.
There were three payments.
Twenty thousand.
Thirty thousand.
Fifty thousand.
One hundred thousand dollars in total.
All sent after Margaret hired the investigator.
Rachel took screenshots.
“Do you think Daniel paid Aaron?”
“I think we should not assume anything,” Amelia said. “But we preserve everything.”
May you like
Rachel looked at her husband through the glass.
For the first time, she wondered whether Margaret was not the only person who had been planning to take Emma away.
