Chapter 7 - the woman who died twice)
Ellen Price had not committed suicide.
At least not according to the woman who answered Ava's phone call the next morning.
Her name was Rebecca Price.
Ellen's younger sister.
For six years Rebecca believed Ellen had died in a house fire outside Columbus.
Dental records had supposedly confirmed her identity.
But Rebecca had never seen the body.
Lydia Vale had paid for the funeral.
Thomas Vane had handled the estate.
Daniel listened from across Ava's desk.
Rebecca's voice trembled through the speaker.
"Why are you asking about my sister?"
Ava answered carefully.
"We have reason to believe she may have been alive after the date of her reported death."
Silence.
Then Rebecca began crying.
Daniel looked away.
Six years of grief.
He knew what that felt like.
Ava asked whether Ellen had worked for Vale Industries.
"Yes."
"What did she do?"
"Financial audits."
"Did she ever mention problems?"
Rebecca hesitated.
"A week before she died, she called me."
"What did she say?"
"She said she found something."
"What?"
"Accounts that didn't exist."
Daniel leaned forward.
Rebecca continued.
"Money moving through medical companies. Care facilities. Consulting firms."
Northstar.
"Did she mention Lydia Vale?"
"She said Mrs. Vale knew."
"What about Thomas Vane?"
A long pause.
"Yes."
Daniel closed his eyes.
Ava asked another question.
"Did Ellen know Mara Vale Reed?"
"They were friends."
Daniel looked up.
Rebecca explained that Mara had interned at Vale Industries during college.
Ellen had taught her accounting.
After Ellen's supposed death, Mara became suspicious.
She believed the fire had been staged.
Years later, shortly before her own disappearance, Mara contacted Rebecca.
"Why didn't you tell police?"
"I tried."
Rebecca's voice hardened.
"Thomas Vane contacted me first."
"What did he say?"
"That Mara was emotionally unstable. That she was obsessed with conspiracy theories."
Ava asked, "Did Mara tell you anything specific?"
Rebecca was quiet for a long time.
Then she said the words Daniel had feared.
"She said Ellen was alive."
Daniel gripped the edge of the desk.
"Did she say where?"
"She called it North House."
Ava and Daniel exchanged a look.
Rebecca continued.
"She said people were being kept there."
"What people?"
"People whose families needed them gone."
Daniel felt sick.
"Why would Mara go there?"
"She wanted proof."
"Did she find it?"
"I don't know."
The warrant for North House arrived thirty minutes later.
Ava left with a tactical team.
Daniel was ordered to stay home.
He lasted forty minutes.
Then Lily walked into his office.
"Daddy."
"What?"
"Someone is outside."
Daniel looked through the curtain.
A dark SUV was parked across the street.
Engine running.
Black windows.
Daniel called Ava.
No answer.
He called police dispatch.
Then the SUV moved.
It accelerated toward the house.
Daniel grabbed Lily and pulled her away from the window.
The SUV jumped the curb.
Glass exploded.
The vehicle smashed through the front fence but stopped short of the house.
A man jumped out.
Dark jacket.
Baseball cap.
Daniel recognized the shape from the hospital corridor.
The man ran toward the front door.
Daniel locked it.
"Lily, upstairs. Bathroom. Lock the door."
She ran.
Daniel grabbed a fireplace poker.
The man broke a side window.
Daniel heard glass.
Footsteps entered the kitchen.
Daniel moved silently through the hall.
The intruder went directly toward Daniel's office.
He was not looking for them.
He was looking for something.
Daniel stepped behind him.
"Don't move."
The man turned.
Daniel swung.
The poker struck his shoulder.
The intruder tackled Daniel into a bookshelf.
They crashed to the floor.
The man reached inside his jacket.
Daniel saw a knife.
Before he could react, the front door burst open.
Police.
The intruder ran toward the kitchen.
Officers caught him in the backyard.
Daniel sat against the wall breathing hard.
One officer entered the office.
"Was anything taken?"
Daniel looked around.
The storage unit recorder was gone.
His blood went cold.
Then he remembered something.
The recorder itself did not matter.
Ava had copied the audio.
But Lily had been playing with it before police collected the evidence.
She had discovered a removable memory card.
Daniel ran upstairs.
"Lily."
She opened the bathroom door.
He knelt.
"The little card from Mommy's recorder. Do you remember where you put it?"
Lily nodded.
"In Bunny."
Her stuffed rabbit.
Daniel found a zipper beneath the rabbit's dress.
May you like
Inside was the memory card.
And on it was a second recording nobody had heard.
