Chapter 3 - the secret hidden beneath the investigator's floor)
Daniel read the sentence six times.
Claire read it once.
Then she walked outside.
Daniel found her standing beside the swimming pool, arms wrapped around herself.
Night had fallen.
The water reflected the lights from the house.
"Claire."
She did not turn.
"Did you know him?"
"No."
"Jonathan Hayes?"
"No."
"Did Mara?"
"I don't know."
"You knew Mara."
"Of course I knew Mara."
"You worked with her."
"Seven years ago."
"Tell me everything."
Claire finally faced him.
"We've been over this."
"Tell me again."
She stared at him for several seconds.
Then nodded.
Claire had met Mara at Bennett Children's Foundation.
Mara volunteered there.
Claire managed fundraising.
They had become friendly but never close.
After Claire moved to Boston, they lost contact.
Years later, after Mara's death, Claire returned to Westbridge.
She met Daniel at a charity dinner.
Their relationship began slowly.
Daniel had resisted it.
He still wore his wedding ring.
Still woke reaching toward Mara's side of the bed.
Claire never pushed.
That patience had eventually allowed him to love her.
Or believe he did.
"Did Victor introduce us?" Daniel asked.
"No."
"Are you sure?"
Claire frowned.
"What are you suggesting?"
"Victor convinced me to attend that charity dinner."
"So?"
"He was also on your foundation board."
"Half the wealthy people in Westbridge were."
Daniel stared across the garden.
"Maybe our meeting wasn't accidental."
Claire's expression hardened.
"Do you think I was planted in your life?"
"I don't know what to think."
"I loved you."
"Loved?"
Claire closed her eyes.
"Love. I love you."
Daniel lowered his voice.
"Then help me understand why Jonathan Hayes wrote that I shouldn't marry you."
"I can't explain a message written by a dead man I never met."
Behind them, the patio door opened.
Lila stood there.
Eli beside her.
Daniel immediately went inside.
"What's wrong?"
Lila held something.
A small silver key.
Eli explained.
"It fell out of the photograph."
Daniel examined it.
The photograph had been placed inside an old paper frame.
A narrow slit ran along the cardboard backing.
The key had been hidden there.
A number was engraved on it.
317.
Alvarez arrived again twenty minutes later.
She photographed the key.
"Could be a locker."
"Bus station?" Daniel asked.
"Train station. Safe deposit box. Storage unit."
Eli spoke.
"My dad used the old station."
Everyone turned.
"What station?" Alvarez asked.
"Millstone Central."
The station had been closed to passenger trains for years.
Part of it had been converted into private storage lockers.
Police obtained permission to search.
Locker 317 contained a brown leather suitcase.
Inside were children's clothes.
Photographs.
A digital recorder.
Two passports.
One belonged to Jonathan Hayes.
The other belonged to a woman named Anna Ward.
The photograph showed Mara.
Daniel nearly collapsed when Alvarez called him.
The passport had been issued fourteen months before Mara's death.
The date made no sense.
Mara had apparently possessed a false identity before the accident.
Even worse, several photographs showed Mara entering a hotel with Jonathan Hayes.
Daniel's first reaction was betrayal.
The second was shame for thinking it.
There might be an explanation.
There had to be.
The recorder contained only one playable file.
Jonathan's voice.
Daniel listened in Alvarez's office at 2:14 in the morning.
"If you're hearing this, then I failed."
Static.
"Mara Mercer came to me before Daniel ever hired me."
Daniel stopped breathing.
"She believed someone close to the family was watching her. At first she suspected Victor Mercer. Later she became uncertain."
More static.
"She discovered financial transfers connected to Hollow Creek Holdings. She believed those transfers were tied to a death that occurred nine years earlier."
Daniel looked at Alvarez.
He had never heard of Hollow Creek Holdings.
Jonathan continued.
"Mara asked me to create an exit plan for her and Lila. She did not want to leave Daniel permanently. She wanted to disappear long enough to expose the person threatening them."
Daniel closed his eyes.
His wife had been terrified.
And she had not told him.
"I arranged temporary identification under the name Anna Ward."
Daniel looked at the passport.
"So she never used it?"
Alvarez whispered.
"Keep listening."
Jonathan's voice became weaker.
"The night of the accident, Mara changed the plan. She called me at 8:41 p.m. She said somebody had found the safe house. She told me to take the children."
Children.
Plural.
Daniel looked toward the observation room, where Eli slept on a sofa.
"Lila wasn't the only child there," he whispered.
The recording continued.
"I arrived at 9:17. Lila was there. So was my son, Eli. My wife had brought him because I couldn't find childcare."
Daniel's mind raced.
Jonathan's wife.
The woman in the photograph.
"Mara never arrived."
Static.
"At 9:32 someone entered the property."
A pause.
"I took the children through the basement and drove to another location."
Daniel leaned closer.
"Mara called again at 10:03."
The recording abruptly distorted.
Then Jonathan said the sentence Daniel would remember forever.
"She said Daniel was not the target."
Silence.
"She said Lila was."
The recording ended.
Daniel sat motionless.
Alvarez rewound it.
Nothing more.
Daniel whispered, "Why would anyone target a seven-year-old child?"
Alvarez looked toward the case files.
"Maybe because she saw something."
Daniel remembered Lila pointing at Claire's emerald ring.
He called home.
Marcus answered.
"Where's Lila?"
"Upstairs."
"Check."
A pause.
Then footsteps.
Another pause.
Daniel heard Marcus swear.
"What?"
"The window is open."
Daniel stood.
Marcus shouted for security.
Daniel's heart stopped.
Then Marcus said, "She's here."
Daniel almost collapsed with relief.
"Where?"
"In the hallway."
A small voice came through the phone.
"Daddy?"
Daniel closed his eyes.
"I'm here."
Lila sounded frightened.
"There was a lady outside."
Every person in Alvarez's office went still.
Daniel forced himself to breathe.
"What lady?"
"The lady from the fire."
Daniel tightened his grip on the phone.
"What did she look like?"
May you like
Lila began crying.
"She had Mommy's face."
