Chapter 3 - The Memory Card Shows Another Girl
Detective Lena Ortiz reviewed the card with a digital-forensics technician.
Most clips showed Emma’s bedroom.
Sleeping.
Playing.
Talking to stuffed animals.
Sometimes me reading bedtime stories.
Then the location changed.
A different bedroom.
Pink curtains.
Glow-in-the-dark stars.
A little girl around Emma’s age.
The same camera had been installed there first.
The girl called someone offscreen:
“Mommy, Lucy took my bunny!”
The detective froze the frame.
A family photograph sat on the dresser.
Ortiz recognized the father.
Dr. Nathan Cole.
A pediatric behavioral specialist.
He had disappeared with his daughter nearly a year earlier.
Not abducted.
They moved suddenly after his wife died.
The little girl was named Sophie Cole.
And one object in her bedroom matched something in Emma’s.
The stuffed rabbit.
Same brand.
May you like
Same stitched blue ear.
Same unusual serial tag.
