Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN ON THE SCREEN
I reached for the laptop, then stopped. If I touched the screen, it wouldn’t bring Nora back.
She had died eight months earlier when her car went off a rain-slick road. I knew the date, the highway exit, and the exact words the officer used when he called me. I had spent enough nights wishing for one more minute with her.
Now there she was, alive on a recording I had never seen.
“When was this taken?” I asked.
Ruiz checked the file. “Fourteen months ago.”
Nora stood beside the other little girl’s bed, speaking to someone beyond the camera.
“You said Ava was safe here.”
A man answered, “She is, as long as you stop asking questions.”
The girl under the yellow blanket sat up. “Miss Nora?”
Nora crossed the room and held her hand. Then the clip ended.
“Who’s Ava?” Ruiz asked.
“I don’t know.”
But Emma pulled her rabbit closer. “Mommy knew her.”
Ruiz kept the card for evidence. She asked me not to discuss the video with Vanessa, who had already told the responding officer that she’d lost track of time and said something cruel because she was frustrated. Ruiz said she would investigate both the laundry room incident and the camera.
After they took Vanessa away for questioning, I sat with Emma on her bedroom floor.
“Did you see the camera before today?” I asked.
She nodded. “Mommy called it our little eye.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Mommy said only tell you if the bad lady came back.”
A cold feeling spread through my chest. “Which bad lady?”
Emma frowned, searching for words. “The one with the shiny bird.”
Before I could ask more, my phone rang. It was my mother-in-law, Diane.
“I heard the police were at your house,” she said. “Is Emma okay?”
“She’s with me.”
“Thank God. Vanessa always seemed off.”
I had never told Diane that Vanessa was involved.
“How do you know this was about her?”
The line went quiet.
Then Diane said, “I’m coming over.”
I ended the call and looked at Emma’s rabbit. A small gold bird charm hung from its neck. I had assumed Nora had put it there years ago.
May you like
Emma caught me looking.
“That’s not mine,” she said. “The bad lady put it on Bunny when Mommy went away.”
