Chapter 3 - THE GIRL WHO DISAPPEARED
Vanessa was taken to the station for questioning.
She was not formally charged that night.
There were still facts to verify.
But Rachel made one thing clear.
Vanessa would not be returning to the Malibu house.
Ethan spent the night beside Sophie.
She refused to sleep unless his hand remained on her shoulder.
At 2:17 in the morning, she woke screaming.
“Don’t close the door!”
Ethan turned on the bedside lamp.
“I’m here.”
Sophie stared around the room.
Then she saw him.
Her breathing slowly settled.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“Are you mad?”
“At you?”
She nodded.
“Never.”
“I told.”
“You did the right thing.”
Sophie stared at the blanket.
“She said you wouldn’t believe me.”
Ethan felt tears burning behind his eyes.
He had not believed her.
Not because Sophie had lied.
Because he had never asked the right questions.
“I should have listened sooner.”
Sophie touched his face.
“You’re listening now.”
That sentence stayed with him.
The next morning, Rachel called.
The memory card contained recordings.
Dozens of them.
Some showed Sophie sitting alone in the hidden room.
Others recorded Vanessa speaking to her through a small speaker.
There was no need for Ethan to hear all of them.
Rachel strongly recommended that he did not.
But the recordings established a pattern.
Control.
Isolation.
Fear.
There was something else.
The second phone contained messages dating back almost seven years.
Many had been deleted.
Investigators recovered fragments.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Lucy.
Rachel came to the house that afternoon.
Ethan met her in the living room while Sophie played outside with Ethan’s sister, Claire.
Rachel placed a photograph on the table.
“This is Lucy Grant.”
The same teenager from the hidden box.
“She was seventeen when her father died.”
“What happened to her?”
“She disappeared six months later.”
Ethan stared at Rachel.
“Disappeared?”
“She left school one afternoon and never came home.”
“Was Vanessa investigated?”
“Briefly.”
“And?”
“Nothing connected her directly.”
Rachel opened a folder.
“Lucy had been telling friends she believed Vanessa caused her father’s death.”
Ethan felt cold.
“She accused her publicly?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Apparently she was afraid.”
Rachel slid another paper across the table.
“This came from Lucy’s school counselor.”
Ethan read the handwritten note.
Lucy believes stepmother watches her.
Lucy says father planned to change insurance beneficiary.
Lucy fears she will be next.
Ethan stopped reading.
“Where is Lucy now?”
“We don’t know.”
A sound came from the doorway.
Sophie stood there.
Claire was behind her.
“Sophie wanted you.”
Ethan quickly closed the folder.
Sophie climbed onto his lap.
She noticed Lucy’s photograph.
“Who’s that?”
“No one you need to worry about.”
Sophie stared at the picture.
Then her expression changed.
“I know her.”
Rachel leaned forward.
“What did you say?”
Sophie pointed.
“That lady.”
Ethan looked at Claire.
Claire looked equally confused.
“Sophie, where did you see her?”
The little girl thought for a moment.
“Mommy Vanessa’s phone.”
Rachel became very still.
“When?”
“Lots.”
“Was it a picture?”
Sophie shook her head.
“She talked.”
Ethan’s heartbeat accelerated.
“You heard Vanessa talking to this woman?”
Sophie nodded.
“What did they say?”
“I don’t know.”
“Anything you remember?”
Sophie looked at Lucy’s photograph again.
Then she whispered.
“Mommy Vanessa said, ‘If Ethan finds you, everything is over.’”
Rachel immediately stood.
She called the station.
Ethan stared at the photograph.
Lucy Grant had supposedly vanished years earlier.
But if Sophie was right, Vanessa knew exactly where she was.
Rachel ended the call.
“We’re tracing every number connected to that second phone.”
Ethan looked at her.
“Find Lucy.”
Rachel nodded.
Then her phone rang.
She answered.
Her expression changed almost immediately.
“What?”
Ethan stood.
Rachel listened for several seconds.
Then she slowly looked at him.
“They found a number.”
“Lucy?”
“We don’t know.”
“Where is it?”
Rachel swallowed.
“Malibu.”
Ethan stared at her.
“How close?”
May you like
Rachel turned the screen toward him.
The last signal from the number had come from a location less than three miles from Ethan’s house.
