Chapter 6 - The Room Painted Yellow.
Alex was halfway to the elevator before Emily understood what he intended to do.
"Where are you going?"
He stopped but did not turn around.
"Home."
"Absolutely not."
"Someone was in our daughter's room."
"Which is exactly why you don't go charging in alone."
Detective Ortiz stepped between them.
"She's right."
Alex looked at her as though patience had become physically painful.
"That's my house."
"And potentially an active crime scene."
"Then move faster."
Ortiz took the phone from him and forwarded the photograph to her team.
Emily stared at the yellow nursery on the screen.
The crib sat beneath the painted wooden letters that spelled GRACE.
A stuffed rabbit leaned against the pillow.
The curtains were open.
Nothing looked disturbed.
That was what made the image terrifying.
Whoever had entered had wanted them to know they could come and go without leaving a mess.
"I want an officer outside Grace's NICU room," Emily said.
Ortiz nodded.
"Already happening."
Ben looked toward Alex.
"I'll go with the detectives to the house."
Alex shook his head.
"Stay here."
"You don't trust anyone right now."
"I trust you."
Ben glanced at Emily.
"Then let me be useful."
Alex finally agreed.
The search of the Carter home found no forced entry.
The back door was locked.
Every window was intact.
The alarm system showed no breach.
But someone had disabled one interior camera at 1:38 a.m. using the correct administrator password.
Emily knew only three people who had ever had that password.
She and Alex were two of them.
The third was Captain Reed.
He had installed the system after a series of burglaries in their neighborhood and had joked that firefighters were terrible at securing their own homes.
When Ortiz relayed that fact, Alex's face hardened into something Emily had never seen before.
Not anger.
Betrayal.
"He stood in that nursery," Alex said.
Emily looked at the tiny sleeping form of Grace beyond the glass.
"And we invited him to the baby shower."
Alex rubbed both hands over his face.
"I should have seen it."
"Seen what?"
"The Mercer fire."
Emily turned toward him.
He had spoken about Jake Morrison's death only in fragments over the years.
Jake had been Alex's best friend and partner.
A warehouse roof had collapsed fifteen minutes after inspectors said the fire was contained.
Alex had survived because Reed ordered him outside to change an air cylinder seconds before the collapse.
For years, Alex had called it the luckiest order of his life.
Now he looked as though the memory had become poison.
"Reed knew the roof was unsafe before we went in."
"You don't know that."
"The reports on Claire's card say the steel supports had failed inspection six months earlier."
"That doesn't prove Reed saw them."
"His signature is on the approval."
Emily closed her eyes.
"Oh God."
Alex's voice was barely audible.
"He sent us inside anyway."
The implication sat between them.
If Reed had known the building was unsafe, Jake's death was no longer simply a tragedy.
It was a choice.
A nurse entered and asked Emily to return to bed because her blood pressure was climbing.
She refused until Grace's latest scan was complete.
The neonatologist returned just before noon.
"The ultrasound doesn't show a major hemorrhage."
Emily nearly collapsed with relief.
"So she's okay?"
"It's encouraging, but we still need to watch her closely."
Alex exhaled shakily.
For the first time since arriving at the hospital, Emily let him touch her.
His hand closed around hers.
Neither of them mentioned it.
The fragile moment lasted less than a minute.
Detective Ortiz came through the NICU doors with a sealed evidence envelope.
"We found something in your nursery."
Emily's stomach tightened.
Ortiz placed a small silver button on the table.
It was stamped with the emblem of the city fire department.
Alex picked it up.
"Dress uniform button."
"Could it belong to Reed?"
"Could belong to hundreds of people."
Ortiz slid a photograph beside it.
It showed the underside of the crib.
Someone had taped a prepaid phone there.
"The device was set to record audio."
Emily stared at it.
"They bugged our baby's room?"
"It appears so."
Alex stood so abruptly his chair struck the wall.
"I'm done waiting."
Ortiz blocked him again.
"And I'm telling you that if you go after Reed, you become the easiest person in this case to frame."
"He put a recorder under my daughter's crib."
"Exactly."
Ortiz lowered her voice.
"Which means he wants you angry."
Alex forced himself to sit.
The detective placed one more photograph on the table.
"There's something else."
The prepaid phone contained only one saved contact.
It was labeled A.C.
Emily looked at Alex.
"Those are your initials."
"I know."
Ortiz tapped the screen capture.
"And the last outgoing call from that phone was placed three nights ago."
Alex frowned.
"To who?"
Ortiz met his eyes.
May you like
"To Claire Monroe."
GIVE THIS TO ALEX
