Chapter 9 - THE TUESDAY VIDEO
They watched the video together.
Victoria drank the water. She and Charles argued, but the nursery camera’s sound was faint. Rosie, five years old, sat on the floor playing with a wooden horse.
Charles moved toward the child. Victoria stepped between them.
The audio cleared for a moment.
“You cannot use her to make me stay,” Victoria said.
Charles answered, “Then stop threatening to leave.”
He picked up his phone and called someone. Victoria heard two words clearly: “Send Lena.”
Ten minutes later, on the video, Victoria was unsteady on her feet. She lowered herself into a chair.
Lena entered, confused. Charles spoke to her by the door. She looked at Victoria, then at Rosie. After a long hesitation, she helped Rosie put on her shoes.
Rosie waved at the camera before they left.
Victoria covered her mouth.
She remembered the argument now. She had learned Charles was moving money from the foundation into a company she did not recognize. When she confronted him, he said she was imagining things. She told him she and Rosie would stay with Claire while she had the records checked.
Instead, he had sent Rosie away.
Bell paused the video. “Did you know what was in the water?”
“No.”
“We’ll have to find out whether any records from that week help us. The video shows you becoming unsteady, but it doesn’t tell us why.”
Victoria nodded. She wanted answers that would hold up outside Claire’s kitchen.
The video continued. After Lena left, Charles called Crane.
“Follow them,” he said. “I want the girl back when Victoria calms down.”
A day later, another file showed Charles entering the nursery alone. He looked directly into the camera.
“Where are they?” he demanded into his phone.
A muffled voice answered. Charles slammed his hand against the wall.
By Thursday evening, Lena and Rosie had disappeared from the clinic. By Saturday, Charles was telling the police the two had driven into a lake.
“He lost track of them,” Claire said. “Then he used the lake to explain why they were gone.”
Bell did not answer. She was watching the final minutes of the video.
Maren Vale entered the nursery with a stack of documents.
Charles said, “If Lena shows up, the kidnapping complaint is ready.”
“And Victoria?”
“She believes the lake.”
Maren’s reply was too quiet to make out.
Bell saved a copy of the drive. “This is enough to bring Charles in for questioning. We’re also looking at what happened to Lena eleven days ago.”
Victoria stared at the frozen image of Charles. He had spent eight years standing beside her at the worst moment of her life. Each time she asked if they should keep searching, he held her until she stopped.
The doorbell rang.
Bruno checked the front window. “It’s a courier.”
Bell opened the door while an officer stood behind her. The courier handed over a padded envelope addressed to Victoria and left.
Inside was Lena’s scarf from the Briar Road shed. A note had been pinned to it.
STOP DIGGING OR YOU’LL LOSE ROSIE AGAIN.
Rosie saw the scarf from across the room.
“That’s Mama’s,” she said.
May you like
Then she ran to Victoria, buried her face against her, and asked the question no one could answer.
“Is she coming back?”
