Chapter 4 - The Woman I Believed
Ortiz photographed the key before placing it in an evidence envelope.
Lucy watched every movement.
“You’ll give it back?”
“When we’re done figuring out what it opens,” Ortiz said.
“Mommy needs it.”
“We’re trying to find your mommy.”
Lucy looked at her for a long time.
Then nodded.
By midnight, the house no longer felt like mine.
People wore gloves to touch the walls.
Small numbered markers stood in rooms where I’d celebrated birthdays.
A technician photographed a wire running behind the bookshelf in my office.
Emily waited in the kitchen.
I stood in the doorway.
“Tell me what happened to Caroline.”
“I already did.”
“Tell me again.”
She stared at the untouched glass of water in front of her.
“She stole.
She left.”
“Did you see her take anything?”
“Daniel—”
“Did you?”
“I found things missing.”
“Which things?”
“My bracelet.
Some cash.”
“Your bracelet is in the upstairs safe.”
She lifted her head.
“The other bracelet.”
I almost laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because I remembered helping her look for it three years ago.
I remembered her crying.
I remembered apologizing for bringing someone into our home who had betrayed her.
Caroline had worked for us while my niece stayed with us during my sister’s medical treatment.
After my niece returned home, Caroline stayed on to help manage the household.
She had been quiet.
Reliable.
Always careful to knock before entering my office.
Once, she’d asked whether we could speak alone.
Emily interrupted us.
Later, my wife said Caroline wanted more money.
I never asked Caroline myself.
Now that memory felt like a door I had walked past while someone knocked on the other side.
Ortiz appeared behind me.
“We found a storage device connected to the recording equipment.”
Emily pushed back her chair.
“You can’t just take our private property.”
Ortiz’s expression didn’t change.
“We’re documenting everything under the search authority obtained tonight.”
Emily looked at me.
“Tell them this has gone far enough.”
A technician passed the doorway carrying a sealed evidence bag.
Inside was a dark rectangular drive.
Emily’s eyes followed it.
Not the officers.
Not Lucy, who was asleep under a borrowed blanket in the next room.
The drive.
I stepped away from the kitchen door.
For the first time, I understood that my wife wasn’t afraid of strangers searching our home.
She was afraid they might finish.
Ortiz motioned me into the hallway.
“Do you know a man named Colin Mercer?”
“My biggest competitor.”
May you like
She glanced toward the kitchen.
“We may need you to explain why his name is connected to your home recording system.”
