Chapter 4 - THE EMPTY ROOM
Nobody breathed until Officer Moreau took the phone.
“This is the police. Identify yourself.”
The call ended.
Valérie’s face had lost all color.
Alexandre grabbed his car keys.
Moreau stepped in front of him.
“You’re staying here.”
“My wife is out there.”
“And we’re sending officers to the address.”
“You heard him. She’s gone.”
Lucie looked at the payment records.
Maison des Pins sat outside a village nearly two hours away. The invoices called it a private rehabilitation residence.
The amounts paid for Claire included security, medication, and something labeled compliance support.
Lucie pointed.
“What does that mean?”
Valérie stared at the floor.
Alexandre slammed his hand against the table.
“What does it mean?”
Mathéo flinched again.
Lucie touched Alexandre’s sleeve.
“Lower your voice.”
For a second, he looked furious with her.
Then he saw the boy.
He stepped back.
Officer Moreau took Valérie into the adjoining room. Another officer stayed at the door.
Lucie knelt beside Mathéo.
“Do you want water?”
He shook his head.
“Did I get Mom in trouble?”
Lucie couldn’t give him the easy answer he wanted.
“You told the truth.”
“Sometimes she says telling the truth hurts people.”
“Sometimes people say that because the truth will stop them.”
He considered this.
Then he reached into his jacket.
“I took something.”
Lucie’s stomach tightened.
“What?”
An envelope, folded twice.
Mathéo explained that he had found it on Valérie’s desk that morning while looking for tape.
There was no stamp. Someone had delivered it by hand.
Inside was a sheet of paper.
Alex, if you ever receive this, I did not leave you.
Under the words was a drawing of a bird with one crooked wing.
Alexandre took the page.
His eyes filled.
“She used to draw these on my lunch bags.”
On the back was another sentence.
The boy is in danger if she finds the blue book.
Lucie looked toward the room where Valérie sat.
“What blue book?”
Mathéo’s fingers tightened around her wrist.
“The one Dad gave me.”
A crash sounded upstairs.
Everyone looked up.
A staff member screamed from the landing.
“Someone’s in Mathéo’s room!”
Alexandre reached the stairs first.
Lucie followed close enough to see a man in a gray jacket burst from the child’s doorway.
May you like
In his hand was a small blue notebook.
And in the other was a knife.
