Chapter 7 - Mrs. Landry Saw Everything

Ethan did not watch the memory card in the house.

He put it in his pocket, took Isabella by the hand, and walked next door.

Mrs. Landry opened the door before he knocked.

She was seventy-one, wore gardening gloves year-round, and had the expression of a woman who had been waiting months to say I told you so.

When she saw Isabella, her face softened.

"Oh, honey."

Isabella ran into her arms.

Ethan stared. "You two know each other?"

Mrs. Landry looked at him. "Better than you know."

The words hurt, but he let them.

Inside, she handed Isabella hot chocolate and Ethan a stack of printed emails.

"I sent these to you."

There were eleven messages.

The first said Isabella had been outside after dark in February.

The second described seeing Beatriz shove a trash bag into Isabella's arms.

The third asked if Ethan knew his daughter had been crying behind the shed.

"I never got these."

"I figured that out when your replies came back telling me to mind my own business."

"Replies?"

Mrs. Landry opened her laptop.

From Ethan's email address, someone had written: Isabella is going through a difficult phase. Please stop interfering with our parenting.

Ethan felt sick.

"Beatriz had my passwords."

"Then change every one of them."

He inserted the shed's memory card into Mrs. Landry's laptop.

Most clips showed an empty doorway. Then a recording opened from three weeks earlier.

Isabella sat on the mattress, crying quietly.

Beatriz stood over her.

"Who decides the rules?" Beatriz asked.

"Dad."

"And why?"

"Because I'm bad."

"Again."

"Because I'm bad."

Ethan's fingernails dug into his palms.

Then another person entered the frame.

A man wearing a gray work jacket.

Mrs. Landry leaned closer. "That's him."

"Who?"

"The man who's been coming to your house whenever you're out of town."

Ethan recognized him.

Javier Vega. Beatriz's older brother.

On screen, Javier carried two banker boxes into the shed.

"Where'd you get those?" Beatriz asked.

"Sofia's office."

Ethan froze.

His late wife's study had been locked since her death.

Javier smiled into the camera without knowing it was there.

"Everything we need is in these boxes."

Beatriz lowered her voice.

"And the girl?"

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Javier shrugged.

"By the time Ethan understands what's happening, Isabella won't be living here anymore."