Chapter 12 - The Bear Remembered Everything
Torres moved fast. She ordered Keene to place his hands on his hood and asked Emma to roll down the window. “Natalie told me you might be headed this way.”
Emma almost cried with relief. Torres didn't ask for Lily. She first asked whether Lily needed medical care. Then she had an arriving paramedic look at the girl in the warmth of an ambulance.
At headquarters, Torres inserted the memory card into a secure computer. Daniel sat opposite Emma in the interview room. Rosa stayed with Lily down the hall, helping her draw pictures while a child advocate spoke gently with her.
The first recording showed Victoria in her study, speaking to Keene and a suited man Emma recognized as attorney Paul Merrick.
“The mother will panic,” Victoria said. “The cameras will show she took the child. Daniel will sign what I put in front of him.”
Merrick tapped a folder. “The trust board won't act on a temporary petition without a medical finding.”
“Then get one,” Victoria replied. “I can buy a doctor faster than I can buy another judge.”
Daniel buried his face in his hands. Emma kept watching.
The recordings were ugly in a way Emma had never imagined ugliness could be: casual, organized, discussed over a polished desk as if they were planning a charity dinner. Victoria hadn't lost her temper. She had calculated how to erase a mother, and that cold planning made the truth impossible to dismiss.
In the second clip, Victoria discussed the mansion's alarm system and the insurance payout. Keene asked, “And if the wife refuses to leave?”
Victoria answered, “Then a tragic house fire ends the marriage for us.”
Emma heard Daniel make a sound like somebody had punched him. She felt nothing for him yet. All her feeling was in the room where Lily sat with a box of crayons.
“Where's Victoria?” Torres asked an officer.
“Her car's empty, Detective. She ran when she saw us.”
Torres checked the time. “We'll get a warrant to pick her up.”
Natalie entered the room wearing a navy sweater and a coat too thin for the night. She looked older than the photographs Emma remembered, but her eyes were clear.
“You're safe,” Natalie said.
“Not until she is caught,” Emma answered.
May you like
Natalie nodded once. “Then I need to tell you why Victoria really picked Lily.”
CHRISTMAS EVE BETRAYAL • THE MISSING DAUGHTER
