Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN IN THE PHOTOGRAPH
Noah asked me why I had stopped pushing his swing.
I gave him a gentle push and counted to ten before I trusted my voice.
Later, Alexander found me in the kitchen. He looked stunned.
“My mother says she meant Noah’s first caregiver,” he said.
“Do you believe her?”
“I don’t know.”
Noah’s mother, Hannah, had died after a car accident when he was two. Alexander had been in London when it happened. He had seen the hospital records and attended her funeral. Eleanor’s sentence could have referred to a caregiver who left afterward.
It could also have been meant to frighten him.
“Who was the caregiver?” I asked.
“Lena Ortiz. She worked here for seven months after Hannah died.”
“Where is she now?”
“According to my mother, she quit without notice.”
I remembered a photograph in Noah’s room. Hannah held a younger Noah in a garden. A woman stood at the edge of the frame, one hand reaching toward him. Someone had folded the photo so that only Hannah and Noah showed.
I took it from the shelf and carefully opened the crease.
The woman was not Lena. She was Mrs. Bell.
On the back, Hannah had written: Noah’s second birthday. Bell made the cake.
“She was close to Hannah,” I said.
“Bell has worked for this family for twenty-six years,” Alexander answered. “She was close to all of us.”
Claire called while we were looking at the photograph. Vanessa had arranged an interview for the next morning. The publicist was promising “new information about the maid.”
“Let them speak,” I said.
Alexander frowned.
“If they name me and accuse me of harming Noah, they’ll have to say where they got that footage. Marcus is already preserving the original files.”
He studied me. “You want to set a trap.”
“I want them to show who’s feeding them.”
Claire offered to help. She had told Vanessa she would consider a joint statement, so Vanessa was still sending her messages.
That evening, Claire forwarded a draft. It said I had “a troubling history involving a child in her care.” Attached was part of my old preschool incident report.
Only one page of that report had ever been given to New Start. The attachment was that page.
Eleanor denied sharing it.
Mrs. Bell said she had no access to agency files.
Alexander’s assistant checked the download history. Someone had opened my application from Eleanor’s private account at 11:46 the previous night.
Eleanor was with guests at that time. Mrs. Bell had her office key.
For the first time, Alexander asked me to stay beside him while he questioned her.
Mrs. Bell listened without blinking.
“I downloaded nothing,” she said.
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Then Noah came into the doorway holding Bunny.
“Mrs. Bell,” he asked, “why did you tell me Mommy Hannah tried to come home?”
