Chapter 4 - The Rabbit With One Eye
“Give me the toy.”
Gabriel’s security chief, Vincent Hale, did not reach for Maya’s rabbit. He crouched six feet away and waited for Clare to decide.
They were in a private lounge off the airport garage. Gabriel had offered it while Elena arranged a safe hotel and the police logged the false custody order.
Maya clutched the rabbit.
“No.”
Clare knelt. “Sweetheart, Mr. Hale needs to look at Bunny.”
“Daddy says strangers steal things.”
The words landed hard.
Gabriel turned his face away.
Clare kept her voice gentle. “I’ll stay right here.”
Maya finally handed over the rabbit.
Vincent examined the seams, the missing eye socket, the stuffing near the belly. He used a handheld scanner from his bag.
Nothing.
Clare almost laughed from relief.
Then the scanner chirped near the left paw.
Vincent stopped.
“What?” Clare asked.
“Could be nothing.”
“Open it.”
Maya whimpered. “No cut Bunny.”
Vincent looked at Clare.
Clare swallowed. “Small cut. I’ll fix him.”
He opened three stitches with a tiny blade.
Inside the paw sat a flat black disk no bigger than a quarter.
The room went silent.
Elena leaned in. “Tracker?”
Vincent nodded. “Bluetooth and cellular hybrid. Expensive one.”
Clare stared at it.
Richard had given Maya the rabbit after one of their worst fights.
He had come home with flowers for Clare and the toy for Maya.
“Daddy made Bunny better,” Maya said suddenly.
Clare turned. “What do you mean?”
“One eye fell. Daddy took him downstairs. He said he made him better.”
The missing eye.
The opened seam.
Clare’s skin crawled.
Vincent slipped the tracker into an evidence pouch.
“Do not destroy it,” Elena said. “We want logs.”
Gabriel looked at Clare. “Now we know how he found the airport.”
“No,” Clare said.
Everyone looked at her.
“He knew Jen’s blue door before we left New York.”
Elena’s eyes narrowed. “Meaning?”
“Meaning he was tracking Maya before I decided to leave.”
Clare sat down because her legs would not hold her.
She remembered every trip to the grocery store. Every visit to the pediatrician. Every afternoon at the park when she thought Richard was at work.
He had not trusted her.
He had mapped her.
Maya climbed into her lap. “Mama, did I do bad?”
Clare hugged her so hard the child squeaked.
“No. Never.”
Gabriel’s phone rang.
Vincent looked at the screen and went still.
“What?” Gabriel asked.
Vincent turned the phone around.
May you like
A message from an unknown number had arrived less than thirty seconds after the tracker was sealed.
YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE CUT OPEN HER FAVORITE TOY.
