Chapter 5 - THE EMPTY HOUSE
Detective Ruiz arranged a police aircraft to Baltimore.
Claire signed herself out of the hospital against medical advice.
By late morning, they reached a quiet neighborhood outside the city.
Claire’s mother lived in a narrow brick house surrounded by maple trees.
The front door stood open.
Claire ran from the vehicle before it stopped moving.
“Sophie!”
Ethan followed her inside.
A wooden chair had been overturned in the hallway.
A cup of tea lay shattered near the kitchen.
The back door swung in the wind.
Claire rushed upstairs.
The nursery was empty.
The pink blanket from the photograph rested inside the crib.
A small stuffed rabbit lay on the floor.
Claire picked it up and pressed it against her chest.
“No.”
Ethan checked the other rooms.
There was no sign of Claire’s mother.
Detective Ruiz entered with local officers.
“Do not touch anything else.”
Claire turned toward her.
“They took them.”
A weak sound came from the closet.
One officer opened the door.
Claire’s mother, Margaret Bennett, was tied to a chair.
Tape covered her mouth.
Her face was bruised, but she was conscious.
Claire rushed to her.
“Mom.”
The officers cut the restraints.
Margaret pulled the tape away.
“They took Sophie.”
“Who?”
“Julian.”
Ethan crouched beside her.
“Was Eleanor with him?”
Margaret shook her head.
“Eleanor called through a video.”
“She told Julian to bring the child to the old Hawthorne clinic.”
Ethan looked at Detective Ruiz.
“The facility in Vermont.”
Margaret gripped Claire’s hand.
“They knew you were coming.”
“How?”
“A man called me last night.”
“He said Ethan had sent him to move Sophie somewhere safer.”
“I believed him.”
Claire looked toward Ethan.
“Who knew we were traveling here?”
“Ruiz.”
“The hospital officers.”
“Grant.”
Margaret shook her head.
“Grant didn’t come.”
“It was a younger man.”
“He wore a police jacket.”
Detective Ruiz’s expression changed.
She stepped into the hallway and called her department.
Claire held the stuffed rabbit tightly.
Ethan knelt in front of her.
“We’ll find her.”
“You don’t know Eleanor.”
“I know what she wants.”
“She wants the shares.”
“No.”
Claire looked at him.
“She wants the evidence I hid with Sophie.”
“What evidence?”
“A memory card.”
“I stitched it into the rabbit.”
Ethan looked at the toy in Claire’s hands.
Claire turned it over.
The seam along the back had been cut open.
The card was gone.
Margaret began to cry.
“Julian took the rabbit before he left.”
Claire shook her head.
“This is Sophie’s second rabbit.”
“The original is in her travel bag.”
Ethan understood.
“Sophie still has the evidence.”
Detective Ruiz returned.
Her face was grim.
“One of the officers assigned to Claire’s room disappeared an hour ago.”
“His real name is Martin Vale.”
“He worked for Hawthorne Security until six months ago.”
Ethan stood.
“What is at the Vermont clinic?”
“A private psychiatric facility your family closed twelve years ago.”
Detective Ruiz handed him a tablet.
An old newspaper article appeared on the screen.
The clinic had closed after a patient died during an electrical fire.
The dead patient’s photograph appeared beneath the headline.
Ethan recognized the face.
It was the same man from the photograph found in the metal case.
His father.
But the article listed a different name.
Daniel Mercer.
Claire stared at the screen.
“Your father didn’t die in a boating accident.”
Ethan read the article again.
“He died in that clinic.”
Detective Ruiz shook her head.
“According to the records, Daniel Mercer died there.”
“Your father may have been held there under that name.”
Margaret looked toward the window.
A black sedan was parked across the street.
Its engine was running.
Before anyone could react, the rear window lowered.
A gun appeared.
May you like
Detective Ruiz threw Claire to the floor.
Three shots shattered the living room windows.
