Chapter 6 - SOMEONE ELSE WAS INSIDE MY HOUSE
The police searched every room.
Closets.
Garage.
Attic.
Guesthouse.
Pool house.
Nothing.
I stood in the kitchen feeling my mind tear itself apart.
Sophie had vanished from a house surrounded by deputies.
Rachel paced beside the island.
Vanessa sat handcuffed near the breakfast table because the police had finally decided she was more suspect than witness.
Daniel and Mark had already been taken away.
The detective in charge was Maria Torres.
Forty-something.
Calm voice.
No wasted movement.
She approached me.
“Your daughter did not leave through any exterior door.”
“Then where is she?”
“We’re checking.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“I know.”
Rachel stopped pacing.
“There’s another way out.”
Everyone looked at her.
I said, “What?”
Rachel pointed toward the library.
“When the house was renovated, there was an old service corridor behind the original fireplace.”
I stared at her.
“How do you know that?”
“I found it years ago.”
“You never told me?”
“I forgot.”
Detective Torres said, “Show me.”
We crossed the living room.
Rachel pulled a built-in shelf.
Nothing happened.
She tried again.
Then pressed a brass hinge.
The shelf shifted forward.
Cold air came through the gap.
I nearly lost control.
There was a hidden passage inside my own home.
We entered with flashlights.
The corridor smelled like dust and ocean moisture.
Tiny footprints marked the floor.
Sophie’s.
Beside them were adult shoe prints.
We followed.
The passage ended at a narrow staircase.
At the bottom was a door opening into the old storm-drain tunnel beneath the bluff.
Torres cursed under her breath.
“Call units to the beach access.”
We ran.
The tunnel opened near a rocky section below the house.
Waves crashed against the shore.
Fresh tire marks led from a maintenance path.
Sophie was gone.
Again.
Torres turned to Rachel.
“Who knew about this tunnel?”
Rachel answered too quickly.
“Almost nobody.”
“Names.”
She hesitated.
“Me.”
“Who else?”
Rachel closed her eyes.
“Vanessa.”
I stared.
“How would Vanessa know?”
Rachel looked toward me.
“Because I showed her.”
My head felt like it might explode.
“When?”
“Before I disappeared.”
“You knew Vanessa before you vanished?”
Silence.
Torres looked between us.
“That seems important.”
Rachel whispered, “Vanessa worked for me.”
I laughed once.
A broken sound.
“Of course she did.”
“Ethan—”
“No. Keep going. Apparently I’m the only person in Malibu who doesn’t know my own life.”
Rachel looked down.
“She was my assistant.”
“For how long?”
“Eleven months.”
“And nobody thought to mention that?”
“She used a different last name.”
I turned toward Vanessa, who had been brought outside by an officer.
“What was your name?”
She looked at Rachel.
Then me.
“Vanessa Reed.”
“You told me it was Hale.”
“My mother’s name.”
I wanted to throw something.
Rachel said, “I hired her because I needed help collecting evidence against Daniel.”
“And then?”
Vanessa answered.
“Rachel abandoned me.”
Rachel snapped, “I saved your life.”
“You disappeared.”
“I was told Daniel would kill us!”
“You left me holding everything.”
“So you joined him?”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“You make it sound simple.”
“You hurt Sophie!”
Vanessa’s face collapsed again.
“I know.”
Detective Torres cut through the argument.
“Who used the tunnel tonight?”
Nobody answered.
Then Vanessa slowly looked up.
“There’s one person.”
“Who?”
“Rachel’s brother.”
Rachel went still.
I frowned.
Rachel had one brother.
Luke Bennett.
He had died six years ago.
I said, “Luke is dead.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“No.”
Rachel whispered, “Don’t.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
Vanessa stared directly at me.
“Luke isn’t dead.”
Rachel closed her eyes.
Vanessa continued.
“And he hates you.”
My phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A photo arrived.
Sophie sitting in the back seat of a car.
Alive.
Terrified.
May you like
Holding a handwritten sign.
DAD, DON’T TRUST MOM.
