Chapter 3 - Six Missing MinutesBy noon, Daniel had changed the locks.
Vanessa watched from the front steps as the locksmith worked.
“You’re throwing me out?”
“I’m asking you to stay somewhere else.”
“This is my home.”
“It was Kate’s home first.”
Pain crossed Vanessa’s face.
Whether it was genuine, Daniel could no longer tell.
“You think I hurt her.”
“I think you lied about Owen Blake.”
“I forgot one phone call from four months ago.”
“On the night my daughter disappeared.”
Vanessa lowered her voice.
“You want someone to blame. I understand that.”
Daniel almost answered.
Instead he closed the door.
Maya had advised him not to confront Vanessa further. Legally, there was not enough to arrest her.
Suspicion was not evidence.
The hidden room was evidence of a crime.
The sandals suggested Kate had been there.
Neither proved who had confined her.
At two in the afternoon Maya returned.
She carried a laptop.
“We recovered part of your exterior camera archive.”
Daniel led her into his study.
Months earlier, police had reviewed every camera on the property.
Nothing had shown Kate leaving.
That had supported the theory that she had slipped through a section of woodland not covered by cameras.
Maya opened a timeline.
“Your pool cameras backed up footage to a local server before uploading to the cloud.”
“Yes.”
“Someone deleted six minutes from both locations.”
Daniel stared.
“When?”
“Between 8:42 and 8:48 p.m. the night Kate disappeared.”
“How did nobody find that?”
“The cloud file looked continuous because the timestamps were altered.”
“Who could do that?”
“Someone with administrator access.”
Daniel felt cold.
He and Vanessa both had administrator access.
So did the mansion’s longtime technology manager, Aaron Price.
Maya played recovered fragments.
8:41:54.
Kate crossed the terrace wearing blue pajamas.
She carried a small silver digital camera Emily had given her years earlier.
Daniel leaned toward the screen.
“She had that camera?”
“You recognize it?”
“It belonged to her mother.”
The footage froze.
Then jumped.
8:48:11.
The terrace was empty.
Six minutes gone.
Maya switched to another recovered file.
A corrupted thumbnail.
It showed Kate near the newly renovated side of the pool.
Behind her stood an adult.
The image was badly damaged.
Daniel could see only dark clothing and one pale hand.
“Vanessa?”
“We can’t identify the person.”
Daniel stared harder.
Kate appeared to be looking upward.
Not afraid.
Arguing.
Maya enlarged the child’s hand.
Kate was pointing toward the camera she carried.
“She may have photographed something,” Daniel said.
“That’s what I’m thinking.”
The digital camera had never been found.
Daniel sat back.
A memory returned.
Three days before Kate disappeared, she had come into his office while he was on a conference call.
“Dad, Vanessa keeps going into your drawer.”
He had covered his microphone.
“Kate, not now.”
“But she—”
“Sweetheart, please.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
He had forgotten the exchange completely.
“What?”
Maya had noticed his expression.
Daniel told her.
“What drawer?”
He looked toward his desk.
The lower left drawer contained corporate documents.
Daniel’s family business, Mercer Residential Group, owned apartment complexes and commercial developments in four states.
Emily had once been the company’s general counsel.
After her death, Daniel became CEO.
Kate inherited a protected block of nonvoting shares from Emily, held in trust until adulthood.
Vanessa had no ownership.
Daniel opened the drawer.
Nothing looked unusual.
Then he noticed a folder.
It was labeled WESTBRIDGE REFINANCE.
Inside were copies of loan guarantees bearing his signature.
Daniel frowned.
“I didn’t sign these.”
Maya leaned closer.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
The signature looked perfect.
But the transaction involved a lender he had rejected the previous year.
Maya photographed the documents.
“How much?”
Daniel scanned the page.
“Twenty-eight million dollars.”
Maya looked at him.
“Did Vanessa have access to your corporate accounts?”
“Limited access. Household expenses, some foundation work.”
“Could she authorize company transactions?”
“No.”
Daniel turned another page.
A name appeared repeatedly.
MARLOWE STRATEGIC CONSULTING.
He had never heard of it.
Payments totaling $3.6 million had been made to the company during the months before Kate vanished.
Maya looked at the figures.
“Who handles your internal finances?”
“My CFO. Marcus Vale.”
“Does Vanessa know him?”
Daniel almost said everyone knew Marcus.
Then remembered a Christmas party six months earlier.
He had walked onto the terrace and found Vanessa and Marcus speaking quietly by the pool.
When they noticed Daniel, both stopped talking.
He had thought nothing of it.
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
Daniel answered.
No one spoke.
“Hello?”
Breathing.
Then a distorted whisper.
“You broke the wall.”
Daniel stood.
“Who is this?”
Maya grabbed another phone and began signaling an officer to trace the call.
The voice continued.
“You should have left it closed.”
Daniel’s heart hammered.
“Where is Kate?”
A pause.
Then:
“Ask your wife what the blue door is.”
The call ended.
Daniel looked at Maya.
She was already moving.
But Daniel remained frozen.
Because Kate used to have a name for the small servants’ entrance at the east side of the mansion.
May you like
She called it the blue door.
And according to Daniel, almost nobody knew that.
Related Stories
