Chapter 8 - The Tracker in the Toy
“Lock the nursery.”
Vincent’s voice changed the room.
Gabriel moved first.
Clare grabbed Maya and ran upstairs while two security officers swept the hall.
Leo started crying as alarms quietly sealed exterior doors.
The tracker signal moved again.
Twenty feet.
Ten.
Then stopped directly outside the nursery.
Clare’s heart slammed.
“Someone’s here.”
Vincent listened through his earpiece.
“No person detected.”
“Then what is moving?”
A housekeeper stood frozen at the end of the hall holding a laundry basket.
Vincent scanned it.
The detector chirped.
Inside the basket was Maya’s pink jacket.
Clare snatched it up.
“Where did you get this?”
“From the hotel luggage, ma’am. It was in the child’s bag.”
Vincent ran his fingers along the lining.
A second black disk dropped into his palm.
Clare felt sick.
Two trackers.
One in the rabbit.
One sewn inside Maya’s jacket.
Richard had not been afraid of losing them.
He had planned for it.
Maya watched everyone’s faces.
“Daddy put a button in my coat,” she whispered.
Clare crouched so fast her knees hit the floor.
“You saw him?”
Maya nodded.
“When?”
“In the kitchen. He said it was our secret.”
Elena immediately began recording the statement only after explaining to Clare that they would not question Maya further. A child specialist would do that.
“Do not coach her,” Elena warned everyone. “Not one word.”
Gabriel looked furious enough to break something.
He didn’t.
That restraint mattered too.
Vincent sealed the tracker.
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered on speaker.
Richard’s voice came through.
“You’re making this unnecessarily dramatic.”
Clare went cold.
Gabriel stepped toward the phone.
Clare raised a hand.
No.
She wanted Richard to hear her.
“You put trackers in our daughter’s things.”
“I put safety devices in property I purchased for my child.”
“You tracked me without consent.”
“You’re my wife.”
“Not for much longer.”
Silence.
Then Richard’s voice softened.
“You always say that when you’re emotional.”
Clare nearly lost control.
Instead she said, “You sent a fake court order.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You called my job.”
“I protected a hospital from liability.”
Maya began to cry.
Richard heard it.
“Maya? Baby, Daddy’s here.”
Clare disconnected the call.
The room stayed silent.
Then Vincent’s security tablet flashed red.
A black SUV had stopped outside the front gate.
May you like
The driver lowered the window.
Richard Jensen looked directly into the gate camera and smiled.
