Chapter 5 - The House with Two Sets of EyesEthan read the letter three times.
Claire had written it in blue ink.
Her handwriting was steady, though several words had been pressed so hard against the paper that the pen left faint impressions beneath them.
Ethan,
If you're reading this because someone has made me disappear from the truth, I need you to remember something.
I am not confused.
I am not imagining things.
Someone has been entering my office, accessing the family records, and using the security system to watch conversations that should be private.
I don't know how far this goes.
I do know I was wrong to believe that money could protect our family from people who want it.
Please trust the girls when they tell you they're frightened.
And don't let anyone convince you that your past makes you unfit to love them.
I love you.
Claire.
There was no accusation naming Adrian.
No declaration that she expected to be murdered.
Just the words of a woman who knew someone was trying to make her doubt her own senses.
At the bottom, beneath her signature, she had added:
Ask about the second archive.
Ethan looked at Naomi.
"What archive?"
"I don't know."
"She didn't mention it?"
"Not to me."
He studied the paper again.
"She knew someone was watching her."
"She suspected surveillance or unauthorized access."
"That's why she wouldn't discuss it over the phone."
"Possibly."
Ethan folded the letter carefully.
"How many people knew about this?"
"Only my senior paralegal and me."
"Adrian?"
"No."
"Victor?"
"No."
Ethan leaned back.
For the first time since Lily's whisper, he felt something other than fear.
He felt direction.
That afternoon, Detective Ortiz visited the hotel.
She was accompanied by a child-advocacy coordinator named Rebecca Sloan, who explained how Lily's forensic interview would be arranged.
Ethan asked whether it could happen immediately.
Rebecca gently explained that the child needed a suitable environment and a properly scheduled interviewer.
"What if someone tries to reach her first?" he demanded.
Ortiz answered.
"That's why we'll help you make a safety plan. Don't disclose your location to the household. Keep a record of any threats. If anyone approaches the girls, call us."
Ethan nodded.
Then Ortiz asked to speak with Mara separately.
Mara looked frightened.
"Am I in trouble?"
"No," Ortiz said. "We need to understand what you've observed."
They met in the adjoining hotel room.
Ethan waited outside with the girls.
Forty minutes passed.
When Mara emerged, her face was pale.
Ethan stood.
"What did you tell her?"
"Everything I could remember."
"About what?"
Mara looked toward the children.
"About the night Claire died."
Ethan moved closer.
"Mara."
She shook her head.
"Please. The detective asked me not to discuss details that might affect anyone else's recollection."
Ethan stared at her.
"You knew something was wrong."
Tears appeared in her eyes.
"I knew things didn't make sense."
"And you said nothing."
"I was afraid."
"Of whom?"
Her mouth trembled.
She didn't answer.
Ethan stepped away.
He felt betrayed.
Then he remembered Lily's fear.
He forced himself to consider that adults could be threatened, too.
"Are you afraid for yourself?"
Mara wiped her face.
"For my son."
Ethan blinked.
Mara rarely discussed her personal life.
He knew she had a teenage son named Caleb who lived with her mother in Poughkeepsie.
"What happened to Caleb?"
"Nothing yet."
The word yet changed everything.
At Ashcroft House, Adrian entered Claire's study shortly after sunset.
The room remained exactly as she'd left it.
Books covered one wall.
Family photographs lined the mantel.
A carved mahogany desk faced the garden.
Adrian closed the door.
He opened a locked drawer using a brass key from his pocket.
Inside lay a leather-bound notebook.
He turned the pages until he found a series of handwritten figures.
Payments.
Dates.
Account references.
Several entries had red circles around them.
Adrian removed his phone and called someone.
"We have a problem," he said.
A man's voice answered, low and controlled.
"What kind?"
"Ethan took the children out of the house."
"Where?"
"I don't know yet."
A pause.
"Can you find them?"
"He's using Naomi Chen."
The voice became sharper.
"Then Claire told her more than we thought."
Adrian looked toward the desk.
"Probably."
"What about the notebook?"
"I have it."
"Destroy it."
Adrian hesitated.
"No. Not yet."
"Why?"
"Because we may still need to know what she discovered."
The man on the telephone said nothing.
Adrian closed the notebook.
"Listen carefully. The police are asking questions again. If they come here, everyone needs to remember the same thing."
"What thing?"
"Claire fell. She was alone. Nobody touched her."
Silence.
Then the voice asked:
"And the older girl?"
Adrian looked at the closed study door.
"She's six."
"She's old enough."
Adrian's expression darkened.
"Let me handle her."
Back at the hotel, June refused to fall asleep.
She lay beside Lily on the bed, hugging a stuffed elephant.
"Daddy?"
Ethan looked up from his laptop.
"Yeah, sweetheart?"
"Does Mommy know where we are?"
The question hollowed him out.
He sat beside her.
"I think Mommy would be glad we're together."
June considered that.
"Can she come here?"
Ethan swallowed.
"No, baby."
"Because she's in heaven?"
"That's what we believe."
June stared at the ceiling.
"Is heaven far?"
He brushed her hair away from her forehead.
"I don't know."
She thought for a moment.
Then touched his tattooed hand.
"Can she see this?"
Ethan smiled sadly.
"She used to tease me about that one."
It was a small compass tattooed near his thumb.
Claire had once told him he needed it because he couldn't find his own shoes.
June kissed the compass.
"Maybe she can find us."
Ethan held his youngest daughter until she fell asleep.
Lily watched silently from the other pillow.
When June's breathing became slow and even, Lily whispered:
"Daddy?"
"I'm here."
"Mommy told me something before she died."
Ethan kept his voice calm.
"What did she tell you?"
"She said if I ever got scared, I should remember our baking game."
"The baking game?"
Lily nodded.
"Two turns, then wait."
Ethan remembered.
Claire used to let the girls stir cookie dough while she counted aloud.
Two turns of the spoon.
Then a pause.
Then two more.
It had always seemed like an ordinary game.
"Why did she tell you to remember that?"
Lily looked down.
"She said it was how we would find something important."
Ethan felt his heartbeat quicken.
"Did she say what?"
Lily shook her head.
"No."
May you like
Then she looked toward the darkened hotel window.
"But I think it's still in Mommy's kitchen."
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