Chapter 7 - The Blue Rabbit Holds Answers
Ethan did not show Noah the photograph.
Not immediately.
He forwarded it to Detective Ortiz, shut every curtain in the house, and told the school Noah would be absent until further notice.
Then he called the private security company his firm used at construction sites.
For once, money felt useful.
By noon, two licensed guards were posted outside.
Noah noticed everything.
“You got a threat.”
Ethan looked at him.
It was useless to lie to the child who had hidden a camera because adults kept missing the truth.
“Yes.”
“About me?”
Ethan hesitated.
Noah’s face answered for him.
“I’m not scared.”
“You’re allowed to be.”
“I said I’m not.”
His voice cracked on the last word.
Ethan knelt.
“You don’t have to protect me.”
Noah looked toward Emma’s bassinet.
“Somebody has to protect people.”
That sentence broke something in Ethan.
He had made his son feel like the only adult in the house.
He put a hand on Noah’s shoulder.
“That’s my job now.”
Noah did not say he believed him.
Trust would have to be earned.
Detective Ortiz arrived with news from the Riverfront Tower.
Security footage showed Mark entering the building at 3:31 a.m.
At 3:47, the cameras on the executive floor went dark.
At 4:03, a second person entered using Claire’s badge.
“Claire was in custody by then,” Ethan said.
“Exactly.”
“Who had her badge?”
Ortiz placed a photograph on the table.
It showed a hooded figure crossing the parking garage.
Small build.
Dark jacket.
Face hidden.
Noah leaned in.
“That’s not Claire.”
“No,” Ortiz said. “We don’t think it is.”
Ethan frowned.
“Mark had another person helping him.”
“Possibly.”
Noah stared at the image longer.
Then he pointed.
“The shoes.”
The figure wore white sneakers with a black stripe.
Noah stood suddenly.
“I’ve seen those.”
“Where?” Ortiz asked.
“In our house.”
Ethan’s pulse jumped.
Noah ran upstairs before anyone could stop him.
He returned holding his tablet.
He opened an older hidden-camera clip.
Claire was in the nursery.
Behind her, reflected faintly in the dresser mirror, someone stood in the doorway.
White sneakers.
Black stripe.
Only the lower legs were visible.
Ortiz froze the image.
“When was this?”
“Eight days ago,” Noah said.
Ethan checked the timestamp.
He had been at a board meeting.
Noah had been at school.
Emma’s nanny had called in sick.
Claire had been alone in the house.
Or Ethan had believed she was.
Ortiz asked, “Who else had access?”
“Housekeeper. Nanny. My assistant sometimes. Mark.”
“Anyone else?”
Ethan thought.
Then he remembered Sarah’s younger sister, Lauren.
She had stopped visiting after an argument with Claire two months earlier.
Lauren wore running shoes like those.
But the idea seemed impossible.
“Sarah’s sister has a key.”
Ortiz wrote the name down.
Ethan called Lauren.
No answer.
Again.
Voicemail.
Noah looked uneasy.
“Dad, Aunt Lauren hates Claire.”
“I know.”
“She told me not to trust her.”
“When?”
“The last time she came over.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Noah gave him a look Ethan deserved.
Because you weren’t listening.
Nobody had to say it.
At three that afternoon, Lauren finally called back.
Her voice shook.
“Ethan, don’t ask me anything over the phone.”
“Where are you?”
“I need to show you something.”
“Police are here.”
“Good.”
She arrived twenty minutes later carrying a grocery bag.
Inside was the missing blue rabbit.
Ethan stared at her.
“You took it?”
“No.”
“Then how do you have it?”
Lauren looked at Noah.
“He gave it to me.”
Noah’s mouth opened.
“I didn’t.”
Lauren frowned.
Then she reached into the bag and removed a folded note.
It had been pinned beneath the rabbit’s ear.
Noah,
If you found the camera, don’t trust the woman wearing Mom’s necklace.
Noah went white.
Ethan did too.
Claire did not own Sarah’s necklace.
May you like
Lauren did.
And she was wearing it now.
