Chapter 5 - Where Mom Still SingsThe grand piano stood in the music room exactly where Emily had left it.
Daniel had not opened it in almost five years.
After Emily died, he could not bear hearing anyone play.
Kate sometimes sat at the keys when she thought he was not watching.
Never songs.
Just single notes.
Fragments.
Memories.
Daniel entered with Maya.
Elise remained with another officer.
The brass key did not fit the piano itself.
Daniel tried the bench.
Nothing.
Then he remembered Emily’s antique metronome.
It sat on the piano beneath a dust cover.
At the back was a tiny brass lock.
The key turned.
Inside the hollow compartment lay a memory card wrapped in tissue paper.
Daniel closed his eyes.
Kate had known.
Whatever happened to her, she had prepared for the possibility that she would not reach him.
Maya inserted the card into an evidence laptop.
Thirty-seven photographs appeared.
The first several were ordinary.
Kate’s stuffed fox.
The swimming pool.
A blurry photograph of Daniel asleep on the sofa.
Then everything changed.
A picture of Vanessa in Daniel’s study.
Marcus Vale stood beside her.
Documents covered Daniel’s desk.
Another photograph showed Marcus holding a stamp containing Daniel’s signature.
Another showed a laptop displaying a banking portal.
Maya enlarged it.
Transfers.
Marlowe Strategic Consulting.
Then came the image that made Daniel sit down.
Vanessa and Marcus were kissing.
Not a friendly kiss.
Not ambiguous.
His wife’s hands were around Marcus’s neck.
Daniel stared at the screen until Maya quietly asked whether he needed a moment.
“No.”
His voice sounded foreign.
“Keep going.”
The next photograph showed Vanessa pulling away and looking directly toward the camera.
Kate had been discovered.
The final image was crooked.
Vanessa walking toward her.
Daniel’s stomach turned.
He had expected fraud.
He had expected conspiracy.
He had not expected the betrayal to have an intimate face.
Maya called financial-crimes investigators.
Within two hours they learned Marlowe Strategic Consulting had received more than five million dollars from Mercer Residential through false consulting invoices.
The company was controlled by a trust registered in Delaware.
Its beneficiary was Marcus.
Daniel sat alone in his study while officers moved through the mansion.
Vanessa had not returned.
Police knew where she was staying, but without proof she had confined Kate, the district attorney was reluctant to arrest her solely on the photographs.
Then Maya entered.
“We found Owen Blake.”
Daniel stood.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Virginia.”
The contractor had rented a room under his middle name.
State police detained him after Maya issued a material-witness alert.
They conducted the first interview by video.
Owen appeared exhausted.
He admitted building the hidden room.
“Who hired you?” Maya asked.
Owen stared downward.
“Mrs. Vanessa.”
“For what purpose?”
“She said Mr. Daniel wanted a secure wine cellar.”
Daniel nearly shouted at the screen.
“I don’t drink wine.”
Owen heard him.
His eyes closed.
“I know that now.”
Maya continued.
“When did you realize the room was being used to confine Kate?”
Owen said nothing.
“Owen.”
“After.”
“After what?”
“After the girl disappeared.”
Daniel gripped the desk.
“Did you see her inside?”
Owen’s face tightened.
“One time.”
Daniel moved closer to the laptop.
“Was she alive?”
“Yes.”
“Was she hurt?”
“No.”
The first relief Daniel had felt in months was almost unbearable.
“What happened to her?”
Owen rubbed his forehead.
“I don’t know.”
“You built the room.”
“I built the wall. I didn’t move the kid.”
“Who did?”
Owen looked offscreen toward his lawyer.
Maya leaned forward.
“If you helped unlawfully confine a child, cooperation matters.”
Owen swallowed.
“There was a man.”
“Name.”
“I never knew his real name.”
“Describe him.”
Owen did.
Late forties.
Heavy build.
Former military posture.
Scar along his left jaw.
Daniel did not recognize him.
Then Owen added one detail.
“He drove a black SUV belonging to Mercer Residential.”
Daniel frowned.
Hundreds of company vehicles existed.
“Anything else?”
“The night they moved her, he told Mrs. Vanessa something.”
“What?”
Owen stared at Daniel through the screen.
“He said, ‘Marcus says the lake house is ready.’”
Daniel felt the room go silent.
Mercer Residential did not own a lake house.
But Emily once had.
A property two hours north that Daniel believed had been sold after her death.
He pulled up the county records.
The lake house had indeed been sold.
To Marlowe Strategic Consulting.
Three years earlier.
The same shell company receiving stolen money.
Before Daniel could speak, his phone buzzed.
May you like
A text from Vanessa.
Please meet me alone. I’ll tell you why Kate had to disappear.
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