Chapter 8 - The Rabbit in the Locker.
The welfare review was scheduled for Friday morning.
That gave Adrian three days to document the household routines, the twins' care plan, and every staff role in the home.
It also gave whoever had started the campaign against Elena three days to create another problem.
Elena expected tension.
She did not expect Nora's rabbit to disappear.
The stuffed rabbit had been returned to the nursery after security photographed the key and ribbon.
Nora slept with it every night.
On Wednesday afternoon, the nanny called Elena from the staircase.
“Have you seen Bun?”
Nora was crying in her arms.
Elena shook her head.
“It was in the crib after lunch.”
The nanny looked worried.
“Mrs. Vale used to keep backup toys in the linen closet, but I checked.”
Elena searched the nursery, playroom, laundry room, and hallway benches.
Adrian joined the search when he came home early.
Nora refused to settle without the rabbit.
Lily began crying because Nora was crying.
The house filled with exactly the kind of noise everyone had worked so hard to prevent.
Vivian arrived without invitation at four thirty.
“I heard something happened.”
Adrian looked at her sharply.
“Who told you?”
Vivian ignored him and approached Nora.
“Sweetheart, where is your bunny?”
Nora buried her face against the nanny's shoulder.
Adrian stepped between Vivian and the child.
“We are handling it.”
Vivian looked toward Elena.
“Are you?”
Elena did not answer.
At five ten, the security chief entered the nursery holding a clear evidence bag.
Inside was the stuffed rabbit.
Nora reached for it immediately.
Adrian stopped her gently.
“Where did you find it?”
The guard looked uncomfortable.
“In Miss Brooks's staff locker.”
Elena's stomach seemed to drop through the floor.
“That is impossible.”
Vivian stared at Adrian.
“You cannot be serious.”
Elena looked at the guard.
“My locker was locked.”
“It was.”
“Then how did you open it?”
“With the master key.”
Elena turned toward Adrian.
“Who has the master?”
The guard hesitated.
“Security, Mr. Curto, and household management.”
Mrs. Vale's access had supposedly been removed.
Vivian shook her head.
“This is becoming embarrassing.”
Adrian ignored her.
He looked at Elena.
“Did you put the rabbit there?”
“No.”
“Did you touch it today?”
“No.”
“Did you go into the staff locker room after breakfast?”
“No.”
Vivian laughed under her breath.
“Of course not.”
Adrian's face tightened.
Elena could see the battle inside him.
He wanted to believe her.
He also had a crying child, a welfare review in forty hours, and an object found in her locked space.
Nathan Hale arrived while the guard reviewed footage.
The camera outside the locker room showed Elena entering at seven in the morning and not returning.
It also showed nobody else entering through the main door.
Nathan asked about service access.
The guard looked grim.
“There is a maintenance passage from the laundry room.”
“Camera?”
“No.”
Vivian spread her hands.
“So now we are inventing secret tunnels.”
“It is a service corridor,” Adrian said.
“This is an old house.”
Vivian stepped close to him.
“You are risking your daughters' stability for someone who has been here sixteen days.”
Elena hated that the sentence sounded reasonable when stripped of everything else.
Adrian looked at her.
“I need to suspend you from direct childcare until we know what happened.”
Elena swallowed.
“I understand.”
Nora heard the tone, if not the words.
She reached toward Elena.
“Yena.”
Elena's eyes burned.
She stayed where she was.
Adrian took the rabbit from the evidence bag after it was cleared and gave it back to Nora.
Nora hugged it tightly.
Then she looked at the locker key hanging from the guard's hand.
Her little face changed.
She pointed at it.
“Vale.”
Everyone went silent.
Nora pointed again.
“Vale key.”
Vivian's face hardened.
Adrian crouched in front of his daughter.
“What did you say?”
Nora pointed toward the hallway.
“Vale take Bun.”
Elena stopped breathing.
Vivian stepped forward.
“She is not even two.”
Adrian lifted one hand without looking at her.
Nora repeated the sentence more clearly.
“Vale take Bun.”
The security chief looked at Adrian.
“Sir, Mrs. Vale's master key was disabled electronically.”
Nathan asked the obvious question.
“Was there ever a physical copy?”
The guard went pale.
“There was one emergency brass master.”
“Where is it?”
The guard looked down.
“It has not been inventoried since Mrs. Vale took over household management six years ago.”
Adrian stood.
Vivian reached for her handbag.
Nathan noticed.
“Ms. Mercer, please stay.”
Vivian froze.
A phone began ringing inside her bag.
She did not answer it.
The ringtone was four soft notes repeated twice.
Lily turned toward the sound.
Nora stopped crying.
May you like
Both twins whispered the same words.
“Mama song.”
