Chapter 8 - The Housekeeper's Key.
Detective Mercer found Ethan and Mason behind the greenhouse three minutes later.
The shooter was gone.
Mason was taken to the hospital under police guard, and Ethan was ordered back to the ambulance where Lily waited.
She ran into his arms before the paramedics could stop her.
“Don't leave me again.”
“I won't.”
He regretted the promise the moment he made it because he knew the night was not finished.
Claire had been placed in a patrol car for questioning, but Victor was no longer outside.
Mercer noticed Ethan looking for him.
“He says he went to the station voluntarily.”
“Did you see him leave?”
“No.”
Ethan showed him the threat message.
Mercer's expression darkened.
“We trace it quietly.”
A fire captain approached carrying something wrapped in a towel.
“We found this under a loose floorboard in the nursery.”
The memory card.
Ethan stared at the tiny rectangle and imagined Hannah hiding it beneath the floor with shaking hands.
Three years earlier she had been preparing for a fight no one else even knew existed.
Victor's relief had been premature.
Mercer took it and sealed it inside an evidence bag.
Ethan thought of Hannah's recorder.
“Can we see what's on it?”
“Not here.”
A woman's voice came from behind the ambulance.
“You may not have to.”
Ethan turned.
An elderly woman in a dark raincoat stood near the garden gate.
Her silver hair was pinned neatly at the back of her head.
“Mrs. Bell?”
Rose Bell had been Hannah's housekeeper for twelve years and had vanished from Ethan's life shortly after the funeral.
Lily gasped.
“Rosie!”
She ran to the woman.
Rose hugged her tightly, then looked at Ethan with eyes full of grief.
“Hannah told me you would eventually find the picture.”
Ethan could barely speak.
“You knew?”
“I knew enough to be afraid.”
“Why did you leave?”
“Because Victor paid my son a visit.”
Mercer stepped closer.
Rose reached beneath her coat and produced a small brass key.
“Hannah gave me this two days before she died.”
“What does it open?”
“A safe-deposit box downtown.”
Victor had handled every part of Hannah's estate, but Ethan had never heard of a private box.
Rose looked at the burned west wing.
“She said the recorder was only bait.”
Ethan frowned.
“Bait for whom?”
“For anyone who thought the nursery held the real evidence.”
The fire suddenly made sense.
Hannah had expected someone to destroy the room.
Rose placed the key into Ethan's palm.
“The real evidence is at Commonwealth Bank.”
Mercer checked his watch.
“The bank is closed.”
Rose shook her head.
“Hannah rented a private twenty-four-hour legacy vault in the old building.”
Ethan stared at the tiny key.
“Why wait three years?”
Rose's voice broke.
“Because Hannah gave me one condition.”
“What condition?”
“I was not to contact you unless Claire tried to remove Lily from the house.”
Ethan looked toward the patrol car.
Claire was staring back through the rain-streaked window.
Rose lowered her voice.
“Hannah believed Claire might still choose not to betray her.”
Ethan felt anger rise again.
“She put Lily in a suitcase.”
Rose's face hardened.
“Then Hannah was wrong about Claire.”
A police officer suddenly ran toward Mercer.
“Detective, the woman in the cruiser is gone.”
Ethan turned.
The rear door of the patrol car stood open.
May you like
Claire had disappeared.
And so had Lily.
