Chapter 16 - The Place She Hid Things
I tore through the house so fast I nearly ripped a door off its hinges.
“Emma!”
No answer.
Ortiz heard me and came running. Officers fanned out instantly across the property.
The front gate was closed. The backyard officer swore nobody had gone through. My brain was running in circles so hard it hurt.
Then Rosa grabbed my arm.
“She hides things in the playhouse,” she said. “Special things. Treasures.”
I looked at the charred little structure and ran.
The fire had only damaged one side. Smoke still hung in the air. The tiny door was blackened but intact.
Inside, kneeling on the floor with soot on her bare knees, was Emma.
I nearly collapsed.
She turned and saw me. “Daddy, I’m sorry.”
I pulled her into my arms so hard she squeaked.
“Don’t ever do that again.”
“I had to get Mommy.”
I pulled back. “What?”
Emma pointed into the corner beneath the little toy stove. There was a loose board I had never noticed.
Behind it sat a metal cookie tin.
We took it inside and opened it on the kitchen table.
Inside were drawings, ribbon scraps, a tiny seashell, and three letters tied with blue string.
Melissa’s handwriting covered the envelopes.
To Emma, for when you miss me.
To Ethan, for when you forget how strong you are.
To whoever loves my little girl after me.
That last one hit like a knife.
Emma looked at the letters, then at me. “Mommy hid them in the playhouse when she got sick. She told me it was our secret.”
I had to sit down.
Claire had tried to burn the one place Melissa had left behind pieces of herself.
Ortiz gently lifted the third envelope. “There’s more,” she said.
Tucked under Melissa’s letters was a folded legal pad page in Claire’s handwriting.
A list.
Emma cries = remove dessert.
Says “Mommy” at dinner = isolate.
Clings to Ethan = no TV, no backyard.
More boundaries. More pressure. Make him see.
My vision blurred.
Ortiz looked up from the page, her jaw tight.
“This,” she said, “is the beginning of the end for her.”
Then she pointed to the back of the sheet.
There was a hotel address written there.
Claire hadn’t made it all the way through processing.
May you like
Somewhere in the transfer chaos, she had slipped free.
And now we knew where she might be going.
