Chapter 2 - The False Bottom
Deputy Hale turned the diaper carton upside down.
Nothing fell out.
Then he ran his hand around the interior.
“Claire.”
“What?”
“The bottom is too high.”
He cut the taped corner carefully.
There was a second layer of cardboard.
Beneath it sat a small metal document box.
The brass key fit.
Inside were:
A prepaid phone.
A flash drive.
Three prescription bottles.
Photocopies of medication-disposal logs.
Bank statements.
And a handwritten note.
CLAIRE—
If Lucy brings you this key, do not return the children to Aaron until police find me in person. Do not believe anyone who says I drove away.
My hands started shaking.
At the bottom:
Tessa may lie for him.
As if summoned by the sentence, my phone rang.
Tessa Monroe.
She lived across the street from Leah and Aaron.
I had met her dozens of times.
Birthday parties.
Neighborhood barbecues.
She worked as a registered nurse for Aaron’s home-health company.
“I just heard the kids are missing,” she said breathlessly.
“Where’s Leah?”
“I saw her leave.”
I looked at Hale.
“What time?”
“Before midnight.”
“Driving?”
“Yes.”
“What car?”
A pause.
“Her Subaru.”
Leah’s Subaru had been in the repair shop for three days.
I knew because I had driven her there.
I wrote Tessa’s statement on the back of an electric bill.
Hale read it.
Then looked toward the gate camera.
Aaron was still waiting.
Hale stepped outside to speak with him.
I watched through the monitor.
Aaron’s concern centered on the children.
At least verbally.
But every few seconds, his eyes moved toward the mudroom window.
Then he asked something that made Hale look back toward the house.
Later Hale told me exactly what it was.
“Did Lucy bring anything with her?”
Not:
Is Miles warm?
Not:
Did Oliver get hurt?
Not:
Did they walk the whole way?
Anything.
Hale did not answer.
Instead he radioed deputies to Aaron’s house.
A child had said her mother remained inside.
Aaron said Leah had driven away.
There were infant children missing during a blizzard.
That was enough for officers to take the discrepancy seriously and move quickly.
I stayed with the children.
Twenty-eight minutes later, Hale’s radio crackled.
A deputy’s voice:
“Female located.”
My knees almost gave out.
“Condition?”
Another pause.
“Alive.”
Lucy looked at me.
“Mommy?”
I pulled her against me.
“Yes.”
I did not know anything else yet.
But for that moment, alive was enough.
Then the radio transmitted another detail.
Leah had not been found in a car.
She had not left voluntarily.
May you like
She was inside her own house—
behind a bedroom door that could only be locked from the outside.
