Chapter 7 - Milo’s Route
The idea came from Claire.
“Milo’s collar.”
Daniel looked up.
They were eating breakfast.
“What about it?”
“You bought that tracker after he got out last spring.”
Daniel set down his coffee.
The collar contained a GPS activity monitor.
It was not precise enough to prove exactly what happened inside the pool, but it recorded Milo’s movement around the property.
Detective Monroe obtained the data.
The timeline began at 5:13 p.m.
Milo was inside the kitchen.
At 5:17, he moved rapidly through the rear hallway.
At 5:18, he reached the pool.
His movement became erratic for approximately two minutes.
Then the tracker registered him inside the pool zone.
For nearly four hours, Milo remained within a radius of only several yards.
“He stayed with her,” Daniel whispered.
Monroe nodded.
At 8:58 p.m., Milo began moving toward the shallow side.
At 9:01, Daniel’s phone automatically connected to the mansion Wi-Fi.
At 9:04, the emergency call was placed.
The data matched the rescue.
But another event caught Monroe’s attention.
At 6:11 p.m., Milo’s movement suddenly spiked.
He moved toward the west gate.
Then back toward the water.
“What happened then?” Daniel asked.
“We don’t know.”
Monroe reviewed security data.
The west gate had opened at 6:09.
Using Vanessa’s code.
Daniel stared at the screen.
“She came back.”
“Possibly.”
“Where had she gone?”
“Her vehicle left the property at 5:32.”
Vanessa had told Daniel she spent the afternoon at home.
She had later driven to meet him downtown before they returned to search for Nora.
But between those events, she had apparently returned.
“Why?”
Monroe did not answer.
At the mansion, investigators searched the west side again.
Behind the hedge they found mud, shoe impressions, and disturbed leaves.
Nothing definitive.
Then an officer discovered a small black object beneath a decorative bale of hay.
A wireless earbud.
Daniel recognized it.
Vanessa owned the same model.
Her attorney later claimed thousands of people did.
That was true.
But serial-number records could be checked.
They were.
The earbud belonged to Vanessa.
It had last connected to her phone at 6:10 p.m.
Daniel sat inside Monroe’s car while she explained.
“She returned to the pool.”
“Yes.”
“And left Nora there.”
“That is what the evidence is beginning to suggest.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
He had tried to imagine Vanessa pushing Nora in a moment of madness.
Then panicking.
Running away.
It had been horrible, but somewhere inside that version existed a fraction of humanity.
Now that possibility was disappearing.
Vanessa had come back.
She had returned while Nora was crying in the water.
Then she had left again.
The following morning, Monroe received another development.
A neighbor across the western property line had a security camera pointed toward his driveway.
Part of Daniel’s west gate appeared in the distance.
The video showed Vanessa’s car stopping near the service entrance shortly after six.
A blonde woman crossed through the gate.
She returned to the vehicle several minutes later.
The pool itself was not visible.
But the timeline was.
Daniel watched the footage once.
Then refused to watch again.
That evening Nora asked about Vanessa.
“Is she mad at me?”
Daniel knelt beside her bed.
“No.”
“Because I told?”
“No, sweetheart.”
Nora looked at Milo.
“She said I sleep forever.”
Daniel swallowed.
“You did the right thing telling me.”
“Vanessa come back?”
“No.”
“Ever?”
Daniel could not promise what courts would do.
He chose different words.
“She will not be living with us.”
Nora considered that.
Then she touched his cheek.
“You sad?”
Daniel almost broke.
“Yes.”
“Because Vanessa?”
“Yes.”
Nora climbed into his lap.
Daniel held her carefully.
For the first time since Halloween, he allowed himself to cry.
Later that night Monroe called.
“We recovered data from the earbud connection.”
Daniel sat upright.
“What kind of data?”
“Not audio. Location confirmation.”
She hesitated.
“But Vanessa’s phone connected to your home Wi-Fi at 6:09.”
The defense could no longer plausibly argue someone else had used the gate code.
Vanessa had returned.
Monroe continued.
“And there’s another problem for her.”
“What?”
“At 6:14, her phone opened the weather application.”
Daniel frowned.
“So?”
“The phone was active.”
He understood.
Vanessa could not claim she had dropped the phone somewhere.
She had been carrying it.
At the mansion.
While Nora remained in the pool.
And according to Milo’s tracker, the dog had raced toward the gate when she arrived.
As if he had heard someone.
As if he expected that person to help.
May you like
She had not.
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