Chapter 12 - THE EMPTY CASKET
Victoria had never seen the casket opened. Charles told her it held only Rosalind’s favorite blanket.
The funeral home records said it held a small sealed box delivered by Elliot Crane. Its contents were not listed.
Bell obtained an order to recover the box. Victoria stayed away from the cemetery. She could not bear to watch strangers lift her daughter’s name out of the ground again.
By evening, Bell called.
Inside the box were a child’s bracelet, a lock of red hair, and a vial of medicine labeled with Victoria’s name. The vial’s date matched the Tuesday Rosie left the house.
“Can you tell what it was?” Victoria asked.
“Not yet. We’ve sent it for testing.”
“Why put it in the casket?”
“That’s what we’re trying to establish.”
Victoria remembered Charles asking her to put Rosie’s blanket in the casket. She had been so numb she could barely hold it. He had arranged everything else.
That night, she sat with Lena at the safe apartment’s kitchen table. Rosie slept down the hall.
“I thought you took her,” Victoria said.
“I know.”
“I hated you.”
“You had reason to.”
“I still don’t know how to feel when I look at you.”
Lena folded her hands. “Rosie doesn’t need us to figure that out tonight.”
Victoria glanced toward the bedroom. “No.”
For the first time since the gala, they sat together without an officer in the room.
At the station, Bell questioned Charles about the box. He said Crane handled the funeral arrangements. He claimed he knew nothing about the vial. Bell showed him a photograph of the label.
According to Bell, he stopped answering questions.
The lab worked quickly on the bank documents. Maren’s fingerprints were on the account application. Bell issued a warrant for her arrest.
Bruno supplied another piece. While reviewing old security invoices for the Hale house, he found a payment to Crane dated the morning of the funeral. The description said “personal delivery.”
Victoria asked Bell if Crane might have kept the vial as insurance, then hidden it in the casket where no one would look. Bell said it was possible, but they had no proof.
Near midnight, Bruno called from the house. He had returned with officers to collect security records.
“We found something,” he said. “A second camera file.”
“What’s on it?”
“The hallway outside the nursery. Tuesday morning.”
May you like
Victoria heard him take a breath.
“Claire came to the house that day. Charles told her you were gone. But you were standing right behind the nursery door, trying to get out.”
