Chapter 8 - Rachel After the Funeral)
Christopher demanded the exact location.
Margaret gave it to him.
A private medical clinic near Albany.
She had gone there for a cardiac consultation.
A woman had passed her in a corridor.
Margaret noticed her because the woman dropped a folder.
Margaret helped pick it up.
The name on the folder was not Rachel Whitmore.
It was Rebecca Lane.
"But you're sure it was Rachel?"
Margaret stared at the photograph.
"I spoke to her for perhaps ten seconds. I can't swear to something this impossible."
Christopher could barely hear her.
His wife had died.
He had identified her body.
There had been a funeral.
A grave.
He remembered standing beside the coffin with Emma, then only two years old, asleep against his chest.
He remembered believing his life had ended with Rachel's.
Cole remained cautious.
"Photographs can be manipulated."
"Margaret saw her."
"Margaret saw someone who resembled her."
Christopher looked at the image again.
Rachel had a small crescent scar beneath her left ear.
The woman in the photograph had the same mark.
"That's her."
Cole examined it.
"Maybe."
"No. That's her."
"If Rachel survived, we need to determine who was buried."
Those words struck Christopher harder than anything else.
Who was buried?
By afternoon, a court order was being prepared to examine the records connected to Rachel's death.
Christopher hated every second of it.
But truth no longer gave him choices.
Meanwhile Juliette's attorney requested an emergency hearing.
She was claiming that Christopher's assault proved she was unsafe in the marriage.
Her lawyer suggested Emma's accusations had been influenced by Christopher.
Then the pool surveillance system was recovered.
Juliette's lies collapsed.
A camera positioned above the garden door had captured the entire incident.
There was no slip.
No attempt to rescue Emma.
Juliette placed both hands against the child's back and pushed.
Then she watched.
She did not move toward the water.
Christopher did.
The footage transformed the case.
By evening, prosecutors were preparing attempted murder charges.
Christopher should have felt satisfaction.
Instead he sat in Cole's office staring at Rachel's photograph.
"Why would she let me believe she was dead?"
Cole did not answer.
"Why would she leave Emma?"
Still nothing.
Christopher stood.
"Rachel would never leave Emma."
"Then assume there's an explanation."
"What explanation?"
"Maybe the woman isn't Rachel."
Christopher looked at him.
"Or maybe Rachel didn't have a choice."
That possibility frightened him more.
Cole opened another forensic report.
"We recovered several messages from Juliette's phone."
Christopher sat again.
"What do they say?"
"Most were with the prepaid number we believe Grant used."
Cole read one message.
You don't need to love the child. You only need to make Christopher believe you do.
Another.
Once you're married, wait.
Christopher's stomach turned.
Juliette's entire relationship with him had been engineered.
Cole continued.
Six months before the wedding:
Has he updated the spouse provisions?
Juliette replied:
Yes. He signed yesterday.
Three months before the pool incident:
I can't do this.
Grant:
You've already taken the money.
Juliette:
I never agreed to hurt Emma.
Grant:
You agreed to finish the job.
Christopher clenched his jaw.
"So Grant pressured her."
"It appears that way."
"That doesn't excuse her."
"No."
"She pushed Emma."
"Yes."
Cole showed him the final recovered exchange.
Grant:
Tomorrow. Use the drink. Then the pool.
Juliette:
And Christopher?
Grant:
Later.
Christopher read the final word repeatedly.
Later.
He had been next.
Cole said, "This gives us probable cause to charge Grant with conspiracy."
"Find him."
"We will."
Christopher's phone vibrated.
Evelyn.
"Christopher, come home."
"What happened?"
"It's Emma."
He stood instantly.
"What's wrong?"
"She's fine."
"Then what?"
"She found something."
Christopher returned to the mansion under police escort.
Emma sat on the library sofa holding Bunny.
Yvette was beside her.
On the table lay a small silver locket.
Christopher recognized it.
Rachel had worn it almost every day.
He had buried her with it.
His skin went cold.
"Where did you get that?"
Emma pointed toward Bunny.
"Inside."
Christopher stared.
Yvette explained.
"The seam on the rabbit's back was loose. Emma said something felt hard."
Christopher opened the tiny compartment.
Someone had hidden the locket inside Emma's stuffed toy.
"When?"
Yvette shook her head.
"I don't know."
Christopher opened the locket.
There was no photograph.
Instead, a tiny folded strip of paper had been inserted inside.
Christopher unfolded it.
A sequence of numbers.
Coordinates.
Cole entered the room seconds later.
He entered them into his phone.
The location appeared.
A rural property forty miles north.
Christopher looked at the map.
"What is there?"
Cole searched the address.
His expression changed.
"A private recovery clinic."
Christopher's pulse hammered.
"Name?"
Cole looked at him.
"St. Catherine's."
Margaret had seen the woman resembling Rachel at a clinic.
Christopher grabbed his coat.
Cole stopped him.
"You're not going alone."
"Fine."
"You may not be going at all."
"My wife might be alive."
"And whoever tried to kill your daughter may expect you to run directly there."
Christopher stared at him.
From the sofa, Emma spoke.
"Daddy?"
He turned.
She held Bunny against her chest.
"Mommy gave me this."
Christopher stopped.
"What?"
"The bunny."
"I know, sweetheart."
Emma shook her head.
"No."
She pointed to the locket.
"Mommy put that inside."
Christopher's breath caught.
"When?"
Emma's forehead wrinkled.
"A long time ago."
"Before Mommy went away?"
Emma shook her head.
Christopher moved closer.
"Emma."
She looked at him.
"When did Mommy put the locket inside Bunny?"
May you like
Emma answered with the terrifying certainty only a child could possess.
"When she came to my window."
