Chapter 2 - THE CAMERA UNDER WATEROwen was cleared by the hospital shortly after four that afternoon.
The doctor told Adrian they had been lucky.
Another thirty seconds underwater could have changed everything.
Mara sat beside Owen’s hospital crib while the baby slept.
She had changed into dry clothes provided by a nurse, but she still felt cold.
Adrian stood at the window.
For almost ten minutes, neither of them spoke.
Finally he turned.
“Emily Ellis.”
Mara looked up.
He knew the name.
Of course he did.
“You checked me.”
“I check everyone who enters my home.”
“Apparently not well enough.”
“No.”
The answer surprised her.
Adrian pulled a chair across from her.
“Why was your sister outside my house?”
Mara looked at Owen.
“Three years ago, Emily called me at two in the morning.”
“What did she say?”
“That she was in trouble.”
“What kind?”
“She wouldn’t tell me.”
Adrian waited.
“She’d been working for an event planning company. Rich families. Private parties. Charity dinners. She started acting strange about two months before she disappeared.”
“How?”
“She stopped posting online. Changed her number twice. Started looking behind her whenever we went anywhere.”
“Did she tell police?”
“I tried to make her.”
“And?”
“She said the police couldn’t help.”
Adrian’s expression tightened.
“Why?”
“Because the people involved knew police.”
He leaned forward.
“What people?”
“I don’t know.”
“Mara.”
“I really don’t.”
Her voice broke.
“All I have is one photograph.”
She unlocked her phone.
The picture had been saved in three cloud accounts, two email accounts, and on an external hard drive.
She had been terrified of losing it.
She showed it to Adrian.
Emily stood near the front gate of the Cole estate.
Rain blurred half the image.
She was looking backward.
At something beyond the frame.
Adrian enlarged the photograph.
His face changed.
“What?”
He zoomed in.
Around Emily’s neck was a small silver pendant.
A bird with spread wings.
Adrian’s eyes remained fixed on it.
“What is that necklace?”
“It wasn’t hers.”
“You’re sure?”
“I bought her jewelry every birthday. I’d never seen it.”
“Did police ask about it?”
“They said it was probably meaningless.”
Adrian stood abruptly.
“It isn’t.”
Mara followed him with her eyes.
“You recognize it.”
“Yes.”
“From where?”
He hesitated.
“Claire had one.”
The room went silent.
Mara slowly rose.
“Your wife?”
“Yes.”
“The same necklace?”
“Same design.”
“What does it mean?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re a federal agent.”
“That doesn’t mean I know everything.”
“You know more than you’re telling me.”
He looked at her.
“So do you.”
Fair.
Mara crossed her arms.
“I came into your house because I wanted answers.”
“As a maid.”
“You wouldn’t have hired a woman asking questions about your missing wife.”
“My dead wife.”
“You don’t have a body.”
Pain moved across his face.
Mara regretted the words immediately.
But she did not take them back.
Adrian walked to Owen’s crib.
“Claire disappeared four years ago.”
Mara stared.
“You said three.”
“The public story says she died three years ago after evidence from her vehicle was found near the river.”
“But she disappeared earlier.”
“Yes.”
“Why lie?”
“Because someone tried to take Owen.”
Mara looked at the sleeping baby.
“When?”
“He was three months old.”
“Who?”
“We never found out.”
“So you declared Claire dead?”
“I didn’t. A court did later.”
“Why didn’t you correct everyone?”
“Because once the world believed my wife was dead, the threats stopped.”
That answer made horrible sense.
Mara sat back down.
“What was Claire involved in?”
“She was a pediatric nurse before we married.”
“That’s it?”
“No.”
He reached into his jacket.
For a second, Mara thought he was retrieving his badge.
Instead he removed his phone.
He opened a photograph.
Claire.
Blond hair.
Warm smile.
Green eyes.
She was holding an infant Mara did not recognize.
Around her neck was the silver bird pendant.
“Claire volunteered with an organization called Haven House.”
“I know Haven House.”
Most people did.
It was one of the largest private charities for mothers and children in the state.
Adrian nodded.
“She began noticing inconsistencies.”
“What kind?”
“Adoption records.”
Mara’s stomach tightened.
“Children being placed?”
“Children disappearing from records.”
He looked at Owen.
“Names changed. Medical files altered. Birth certificates corrected without proper documentation.”
Mara felt sick.
“Baby trafficking?”
“We never proved it.”
“But Claire thought that.”
“Yes.”
“And then she disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“And now someone tried to put your baby in a pool.”
Adrian stared through the hospital window.
“I don’t believe that was the first attempt.”
Mara stopped breathing.
“What?”
He turned toward her.
“Two months ago, Owen had an allergic reaction.”
“The peanut incident.”
“You heard about it?”
“Mrs. Parker told me.”
“Owen’s food was supposed to come from a controlled kitchen. Somehow peanut oil ended up in his puree.”
“Who was caring for him?”
“A nanny named Rose.”
“Did you fire her?”
“She quit the next morning.”
“Where is she?”
“Missing.”
Mara stared.
“Another caregiver disappeared?”
Adrian nodded.
“Before Rose, there was Natalie Kerr.”
“What happened to her?”
“Car accident.”
“And the third caregiver?”
Adrian looked directly at Mara.
“Her name was Julia.”
Mara waited.
“She supposedly stole money from the house.”
“Supposedly?”
“Security footage showed her entering my office. Cash disappeared.”
“So you fired her.”
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
“I found out last week that she never left the city.”
“That’s good.”
“No.”
Something in his voice frightened her.
“She was living under another name.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“You spoke to her?”
“I was supposed to meet her yesterday.”
“And?”
“She never arrived.”
Mara rubbed her forehead.
“This is insane.”
“Yes.”
“And you still hired me?”
“That wasn’t my decision.”
Mara looked up.
“What?”
“Cassandra selected you.”
The words hit harder than she expected.
“She told me she disliked me.”
“She did.”
“Then why hire me?”
“That’s what I want to know.”
Mara stood.
Cassandra had known about Emily.
Cassandra had selected Mara.
Cassandra had been beside the stroller.
None of it was coincidence.
Her phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
Mara stared at the screen.
Adrian noticed.
“Who is it?”
“I don’t know.”
A message appeared.
DON’T GO BACK TO THE HOUSE.
Another followed.
SHE KNOWS YOU SAW THE PHOTO.
Mara’s pulse jumped.
“What photo?”
Adrian moved beside her.
A third message arrived.
The screen contained an image attachment.
Mara opened it.
At first she did not understand what she was looking at.
Blue water.
White tile.
The swimming pool.
The photograph had been taken underwater.
The camera angle pointed upward toward the patio.
Owen’s stroller was visible at the pool edge.
Cassandra stood behind it.
One hand rested on the handle.
Her other hand reached down.
Toward the brake.
Mara whispered, “Oh my God.”
Adrian grabbed his phone.
“Send it to me.”
Before she could, another message arrived.
THIS ISN’T THE ONLY CAMERA.
Adrian stopped dialing.
Mara stared at the pool photograph.
“Underwater camera.”
He nodded.
“I installed one after Owen started crawling.”
“Cassandra didn’t know?”
“No one knew except me and Thomas.”
The phone vibrated again.
A short video appeared.
Mara pressed play.
Cassandra looked around.
Then she released the stroller brake.
She gave the stroller one small push.
Not hard.
She did not need to.
The stone patio sloped toward the pool.
The stroller rolled.
Cassandra stepped backward.
Three seconds later, Mara burst through the kitchen doors.
She ran.
She jumped.
The video ended.
Mara’s hands shook.
“We have her.”
Adrian did not look relieved.
“No.”
“Adrian, the video shows everything.”
“It shows Cassandra trying to hurt my son.”
“That’s enough.”
“No. It tells us what she did.”
He looked at Mara.
“It doesn’t tell us why.”
Another message.
Mara opened it.
This one contained no photograph.
Only an address.
An abandoned warehouse near the river.
Underneath were four words.
EMILY WAS HERE TOO.
Mara grabbed her bag.
Adrian caught her arm.
“You’re not going.”
“She was there.”
“Three years ago.”
“I don’t care.”
“It could be a trap.”
“Then stay here.”
“I’m not letting you walk into it alone.”
“You don’t get to let me do anything.”
“No, but I do get to recognize bait when I see it.”
Owen stirred.
Both of them stopped.
Mara looked at the baby.
Then at Adrian.
“You stay with your son.”
“And you stay alive.”
Before she could argue, the hospital room door opened.
Thomas entered.
His face was pale.
Adrian immediately knew something had happened.
“What?”
“We traced the pool camera shutdown.”
“And?”
Thomas looked at Mara.
“The override came from inside the nursery.”
Adrian frowned.
“Cassandra was outside.”
“I know.”
“Mrs. Parker?”
“In the kitchen.”
“Staff?”
“Accounted for.”
Mara felt a chill.
“Then who shut it off?”
Thomas swallowed.
“We checked the nursery camera.”
Adrian’s voice dropped.
“And?”
“There was a woman in the room.”
“Who?”
“We don’t know.”
Thomas lifted his phone.
He played six seconds of footage.
A woman entered Owen’s nursery wearing a white coat.
Her back remained toward the camera.
She reached behind the bookshelf.
The surveillance system went dark.
But before it did, she turned slightly.
Only for a fraction of a second.
Mara gasped.
Adrian dropped into the chair beside him.
Because around the woman’s neck was a silver bird necklace.
May you like
And although four years had passed, Adrian recognized the profile immediately.
“Claire.”
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