Chapter 9 - The Second Key)
Emma was examined at Saint Anne's Medical Center less than forty minutes later.
The injury to her foot was painful but limited.
The doctors expected it to heal.
Sophie cried when she heard that.
Margaret did too.
Neither woman cared who saw.
Police remained outside the room.
Eric had not been found.
Vanessa was being interviewed at the house.
Jonathan arrived shortly after one.
Laura arrived twenty minutes later.
Sophie recognized her immediately from an old photograph Margaret had shown her.
Laura stopped at the hospital room entrance.
For several seconds she simply stared at Sophie holding Emma.
Then she said, "I'm sorry."
Sophie looked exhausted.
"For what?"
"For not stopping him years ago."
Laura entered.
Margaret closed the door.
For nearly an hour, the three women compared stories.
The similarities were worse than Margaret expected.
Eric had used identical phrases.
You need rest.
You're emotional.
Your family is controlling you.
Let me handle the money.
People are worried about you.
Laura had heard all of them.
So had Sophie.
Then Margaret showed Laura a photograph from the hidden room.
Laura stared at the wall of files.
"Rebecca."
"You know her?"
"Only from the documents."
"What happened to her?"
Laura looked away.
"I think Eric took her house."
Sophie hugged Emma tighter.
"Did he hurt her?"
"I don't know."
Margaret removed the external drive from her cardigan.
"I took this from the desk."
Laura's eyes widened.
"That's the same kind he used before."
Jonathan looked at it.
"We should give it directly to investigators."
Margaret nodded.
Sophie looked at Laura.
"Vanessa said there's another safe."
Laura slowly sat down.
"Of course there is."
"What does that mean?"
"Eric never trusted digital evidence alone."
Margaret remembered the silver key.
"The first key opened the room."
Laura shook her head.
"The key I remember opened a safe."
Everyone went silent.
Margaret frowned.
"Then the key Sophie found wasn't the same one?"
"Maybe he changed locks."
Jonathan asked.
"What was in the old safe?"
Laura's face tightened.
"Original documents."
"What kind?"
"Signed papers. Identity cards. Cash. Recording cards."
Margaret thought of Vanessa's words.
Enough to destroy all of us.
Laura continued.
"And sometimes things he took from people."
Sophie looked at her.
"What things?"
"Insurance documents. Jewelry. Passports."
Sophie whispered.
"Why?"
"Control."
A detective named Rosa Martinez entered the room.
She was calm, direct, and had already spoken with Vanessa.
"We need to ask you something."
Sophie nodded.
Martinez looked at Margaret.
"Mrs. Cole, did Eric know the baby had a trust?"
"Yes."
"How much?"
"Two million four hundred thousand dollars."
The detective's expression changed.
She wrote it down.
"That helps."
Sophie swallowed.
"Did Vanessa tell you where Eric went?"
"She claims she doesn't know."
"Do you believe her?"
Martinez did not answer.
Instead she looked at Emma.
"We also recovered something from the basement."
"What?"
"A second phone."
Sophie frowned.
"Whose?"
"We don't know yet."
The detective removed a photograph.
The phone had been found inside a filing cabinet.
On the screen was a message thread.
The most recent message had been sent the previous evening.
E: Tomorrow. Once M reacts, we have enough for emergency order.
V: What about S?
E: Keep her upstairs.
V: And baby?
E: I know what I'm doing.
Sophie covered her mouth.
Margaret looked at the detective.
"That's Eric and Vanessa."
"We think so."
Laura whispered.
"He was setting Margaret up."
Martinez nodded.
"That's one possibility."
Margaret remembered the kitchen.
The pot.
Eric holding Emma.
Vanessa blocking the doorway.
The camera mounted above the hall.
"Was the kitchen camera recording?"
The detective looked at her.
"Yes."
Margaret exhaled.
"Then you saw."
Martinez's expression remained unreadable.
"The primary recording device was removed."
Margaret's hope disappeared.
"By Eric?"
"Possibly."
Sophie looked at Laura.
"He planned it."
Laura nodded slowly.
"He wanted your mother to react."
Margaret felt sick.
He had put Emma in danger because he wanted Margaret angry on camera.
The realization was almost impossible to absorb.
Detective Martinez looked at Sophie.
"There's something else."
"What?"
"Vanessa says Eric planned to leave the state tonight."
Sophie stared at her.
"With what?"
Martinez looked toward Emma.
The answer was obvious.
Sophie went white.
"He was going to take my daughter."
"According to Vanessa, yes."
"Where?"
"She claims she doesn't know."
Laura suddenly stood.
"I might."
Everyone looked at her.
Laura walked toward the window.
"Eric's father owned a cabin near Lake Placid."
Margaret frowned.
"His father is dead."
"I know."
"Who owns it now?"
Laura turned.
"Vanessa."
Detective Martinez was already reaching for her phone.
Before she could dial, Sophie's phone rang.
Unknown number.
Everyone froze.
Sophie answered on speaker.
"Hello?"
Eric's voice came through.
"Are you proud of yourself?"
Sophie looked at Emma.
"Where are you?"
"You destroyed our family."
"You burned our daughter."
"That was your mother."
Margaret laughed in disbelief.
Eric heard it.
"Of course she's there."
Sophie closed her eyes.
"What do you want?"
"The drive."
Margaret touched her empty pocket.
The detective had already bagged it.
Sophie said, "What drive?"
"Don't play games."
Eric's voice hardened.
"Your mother took something from the basement."
Margaret looked at Martinez.
The detective motioned for them to keep him talking.
Sophie said, "Come back and ask her."
Eric laughed.
"You think I'm stupid?"
No one answered.
Then he said something that made Laura go pale.
"Tell Laura I still have her box."
Sophie looked at her.
Laura stopped breathing.
"What box?" Margaret whispered.
Laura shook her head.
Eric continued.
"Ask her what happens if it opens."
The call ended.
Laura sat down slowly.
Margaret moved beside her.
"What is in the box?"
Laura stared at the floor.
"Proof."
"Of what?"
Laura raised her eyes.
"That Vanessa was never just helping him."
May you like
She swallowed.
"She was the one who started it."
