Chapter 3 - The House That Had Been Wiped Clean
Police entered the house with body cameras running.
I stayed on the patio while the paramedics finished examining Emily, but Detective Pike came out twice to ask follow-up questions. The first time, she wanted confirmation that Grant’s silver SUV belonged to him. The second time, she asked whether Rebecca had any reason to leave voluntarily without her daughter.
“No,” I said flatly.
She studied my face for a beat and nodded. “That’s what I figured.”
When officers finally allowed me inside, the place looked eerily normal at first glance. The counters had been wiped. The dishwasher was running. The living room pillows were squared perfectly. But once you knew where to look, the panic showed.
A broken ceramic bowl had been swept into the trash under coffee grounds and paper towels.
One of Rebecca’s earrings lay beneath the kitchen table.
There was a smear on the pantry door that had already been half-cleaned. Luminol later confirmed it was blood.
The security system had been disabled Friday at 4:41 p.m.
The breaker controlling the backyard camera had been manually flipped.
Rebecca’s purse was gone.
So was her phone.
Grant’s silver SUV sat in the driveway like bait, but a second vehicle registered through one of his dealerships—a black Escalade with temporary tags—was missing.
That meant he had taken a different car.
Emily sat on a dining chair while an EMT encouraged her to sip electrolyte water. Her gaze kept drifting toward the refrigerator. At first I thought she was dissociating. Then she tugged my sleeve.
“Dad.”
“What is it?”
She pointed at the top of the fridge.
“Mom told me if anything bad happened, I should tell you to look in the blue cookbook.”
Detective Pike heard that.
Three minutes later, she was standing on a chair with gloved hands pulling down a thick blue hardback cookbook Rebecca had gotten for Christmas years earlier. The pages had been hollowed out.
Inside were a flash drive, a storage key, and a folded note with my name on it.
My hands shook opening it.
Ethan,
If you are reading this, Grant found out I copied the Hawthorne files. If Emily is with you, keep her away from him. Do not call anyone from the dealerships. Take the flash drive to police, not to a lawyer he might know. If I can, I’ll come back for her. If I can’t, tell her I didn’t leave her.
—Rebecca
I read that last line twice.
Tell her I didn’t leave her.
Emily had already said exactly that.
May you like
Detective Pike asked for the note and flash drive. I handed them over because, for the first time in my life, I understood what real evidence looked like: not anger, not instinct, not regret. Proof.
And Rebecca had left it behind on purpose.
