Chapter 11 - Someone Was Already Inside.
Daniel reached the house in seven minutes.
Ortiz arrived less than a minute behind him with two patrol cars.
The front door stood open.
The alarm screamed into the quiet neighborhood.
Daniel started toward the porch.
Ortiz caught his shoulder.
"You wait."
"My wife and son are inside."
"You do not know that."
"Exactly."
He pulled away.
Ortiz stepped in front of him.
"If you go in and get shot, Emma gets to survive this alone."
That stopped him.
Officers entered with weapons drawn.
Daniel stood on the lawn and counted seconds.
Twenty-two.
Thirty-five.
Forty-eight.
Then an officer called from the backyard.
"They're out!"
Daniel ran around the side of the house.
Emma emerged from behind the garden shed carrying Noah.
Her robe was torn at the shoulder.
Blood ran down one knee.
Daniel reached them and wrapped both in his arms.
"Are you hurt?"
"I'm okay."
"Noah?"
"He's okay."
Noah clung to Daniel's neck.
"There was a man."
Daniel looked at Emma.
"What happened?"
Emma swallowed.
"The bedroom window opened."
She had grabbed Noah and headed for the back stairs.
A masked man came through the hallway before she reached the kitchen.
He did not chase them immediately.
He ran to the island.
"The kitchen?" Daniel asked.
Emma nodded.
"He started opening drawers."
Daniel's mind went to the cutting board.
"He was looking for something."
"Yes."
Emma's voice trembled.
"Then he saw me watching."
She had thrown a ceramic bowl at him, grabbed Noah, and kicked open the mudroom door.
The man caught the back of her robe but lost his grip when she slammed the door against his arm.
She cut her knee climbing the garden fence.
Daniel kissed her forehead.
"You did everything right."
Police found the intruder's escape route through a neighboring yard.
They also found a black burner phone beneath the kitchen table.
Ortiz placed it in an evidence pouch.
"Maybe he dropped it."
Daniel looked around the kitchen.
Cabinets hung open.
Drawers had been emptied.
A recipe box Richard had made lay broken on the floor.
The intruder had ignored laptops, jewelry, and a wallet containing six hundred dollars.
He had wanted an object.
"He thinks Dad hid more than one thing," Daniel said.
Emma stared at the broken recipe box.
"Maybe he did."
The burner phone contained only one saved number.
Ortiz called it from an evidence-room line.
A voicemail answered.
A woman's voice said, "You've reached Rachel Hayes. Leave a message."
Daniel closed his eyes.
Ortiz ended the call.
"That proves the phone had her number."
"It doesn't prove she hired him," Maya said.
"I know."
Daniel leaned against the wall.
"Where is Rachel?"
No one knew.
She had checked out of her hotel at 10:06 p.m.
Her rental car had been found at a train station.
Her personal phone was off.
Daniel called anyway.
It went straight to voicemail.
He did not leave a message.
At 3:00 a.m., police identified a fingerprint on the burner phone.
It belonged to Evan Pike.
The missing owner of Blackridge Protective Services.
Daniel stared at the report.
"So Pike was here."
Ortiz nodded.
"Likely."
"And he had Rachel's number."
"Yes."
"And his employee wrote that Rachel was running it."
"Yes."
Daniel looked at Maya.
"How many coincidences do you need?"
Maya did not answer.
Emma did.
"One more."
They all looked at her.
She sat with a blanket around her shoulders, pale but steady.
"Margaret."
Daniel frowned.
"What about her?"
"We keep talking about Rachel because every new clue tells us to."
Emma looked at Ortiz.
"Where is Margaret right now?"
Ortiz checked.
Margaret had been taken to a private hospital claiming chest pain shortly after police requested another interview.
She was under observation, not arrest.
Emma shook her head.
"Convenient."
Daniel looked at his wife.
"You think Mom is planting everything on Rachel."
"I think somebody wants us to stop asking what Margaret was really looking for in this kitchen."
Noah, half asleep against Emma, lifted his head.
"Grandpa's box."
Daniel looked down.
"What?"
Noah pointed toward the broken recipe box.
"Grandpa put a secret under the blue drawer."
Daniel's heart stopped.
"When did he tell you that?"
"Before he went to heaven."
Emma crouched beside him.
"What blue drawer, honey?"
Noah pointed toward the bottom drawer beside the stove.
It was painted white now.
Daniel remembered that years earlier, before the kitchen renovation, its interior had been blue.
He pulled it completely out.
Nothing was inside.
Then he saw two screws on the underside that did not match the others.
He removed them with a screwdriver.
A thin metal plate dropped into his hand.
Behind it was a sealed plastic sleeve.
Inside the sleeve was another memory card.
May you like
On it, Richard had written one word.
RACHEL.
