Chapter 3 - Three Knocks
The officers drew their weapons.
“Everybody stay here.”
Nobody argued.
Not even Charles.
The female officer, Sergeant Lena Ortiz, ordered another patrol unit to the house while her partner headed toward the basement with Maya.
I sat frozen.
The paramedics had arrived, but I barely noticed them cleaning the cut near my temple.
Three knocks.
Someone had been down there.
Or something had moved.
Eleanor sat across from me with both hands locked together.
For the first time since I had known her, she looked old.
Not elegant.
Not powerful.
Old.
“What’s in the basement?” I asked.
She stared at the floor.
“Wine.”
“Wine doesn’t knock.”
No answer.
I turned toward Adrian.
He stood near the wall, cuffed.
“Who is Natalie?”
His eyes stayed on the hallway.
“Someone I knew.”
“Your fiancée?”
“Years ago.”
“You told me you’d never been engaged.”
He looked at me then.
“This isn’t the time.”
I almost laughed.
“My head is split open, police are searching your parents’ basement because your former fiancée vanished, and you think now is not the time?”
“Claire—”
“Don’t say my name.”
Footsteps echoed from the hallway.
Sergeant Ortiz returned.
Her face had changed.
“What did you find?” I asked.
She ignored me and spoke into her radio.
“Request detectives. Crime scene unit. Now.”
Charles stood.
“What exactly are you doing?”
“Sit down.”
“This is my home.”
“Sit. Down.”
He did.
Five minutes later, the younger officer returned carrying a clear plastic storage bin.
Inside were cell phones.
At least a dozen.
Old flip phones.
Early smartphones.
Two newer iPhones.
Eleanor covered her mouth.
Adrian whispered, “Jesus Christ.”
Sergeant Ortiz looked at him.
“You recognize something?”
“No.”
“You seemed surprised.”
“Wouldn’t you be?”
The officer set the container down.
Maya stared into it.
Her knees nearly buckled.
“That one.”
She pointed.
A pink phone with a cracked screen.
“That was Natalie’s.”
Adrian shook his head immediately.
“No.”
Maya turned on him.
“I saw her use it every day.”
“That proves nothing.”
“You told everyone she took everything with her when she left.”
“She did.”
“Then why is her phone in your parents’ basement?”
No one answered.
A detective arrived twenty minutes later.
Then another.
Soon the house was filled with uniforms, cameras, evidence bags, whispered conversations.
The Mercers’ expensive dining room had become a crime scene.
As a paramedic wrapped gauze around my head, Detective Marcus Reed crouched beside me.
“Mrs. Mercer, I need to ask you something.”
“Claire.”
“Claire. Did you know your husband had been engaged before?”
“No.”
“Did you know a woman connected to this family disappeared in 2018?”
“No.”
He studied my face.
“Has your husband ever been violent with you before tonight?”
I hesitated.
That hesitation was enough.
Detective Reed noticed.
“Claire?”
“He never hit me.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
I looked toward Adrian.
Suddenly I remembered doors slammed hard enough to crack drywall.
A wineglass thrown across a kitchen.
His hand squeezing my wrist when I tried to leave an argument.
The night he blocked the apartment door and calmly told me we weren’t finished talking.
“No,” I whispered. “This wasn’t the first time he scared me.”
Detective Reed nodded.
Then his partner entered the room carrying a sealed evidence bag.
Inside was a silver necklace.
Maya made a sound like she had been punched.
“What?” I asked.
She began crying.
“That belonged to Natalie.”
Detective Reed looked at her.
“How sure are you?”
“She never took it off.”
I stared at the necklace.
There were dark stains across the chain.
Then the detective’s partner spoke.
“We found something else behind the wine racks.”
Reed stood.
“What?”
The detective looked toward Adrian.
“A section of the basement wall has been rebuilt.”
May you like
Silence.
“And there’s a hollow space behind it.”
