Chapter 3
The House Was Watching Them
Police arrived within twelve minutes.
By then, Michael had locked Lucas and Sophie inside his private study with Emily and two uniformed officers.
He refused to let them out of his sight until the police secured the property.
Victoria was questioned separately.
She demanded an attorney.
Michael almost told her that her attorney had just vanished with evidence from his dead wife.
Instead, he said nothing.
Detective Nora Briggs arrived just after midnight.
She had worked Rachel’s crash three years earlier.
Michael remembered her.
Straight dark hair.
Gray coat.
No patience for theatrics.
She walked into the ballroom, looked at the broken glass, the overturned champagne stand, the abandoned riding crop on the marble floor, and then at Michael.
“Tell me everything.”
He did.
Almost.
He stopped at the part about Rachel’s video.
Briggs noticed.
“You’re holding something back.”
Michael looked toward the study.
“My children are terrified.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“No.”
He swallowed.
“It’s the reason.”
Briggs studied him.
“Mr. Hayes, if this connects to Rachel’s death, I need the truth now.”
Michael gave her the phone with the threatening messages.
Then Emily described the memory card.
Briggs listened without interrupting.
When Emily mentioned Rachel’s final recording, something changed in the detective’s face.
“You said she was being followed?”
“Yes.”
“Headlights behind her.”
“Yes.”
Briggs looked away.
Michael noticed.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“That wasn’t nothing.”
She hesitated.
“The official accident report says there were no other vehicles captured on the nearest traffic camera.”
Emily frowned.
“Nearest?”
Briggs nodded.
“One camera covered the northbound entrance to the highway. Rachel’s car appears alone.”
Michael felt cold.
“But her video showed headlights.”
“Which means either they turned away before the camera…”
“Or the footage was incomplete.”
Briggs looked at him.
“Exactly.”
Michael stared at her.
“You knew?”
“I suspected something was wrong.”
His voice rose.
“You closed the case.”
“My supervisor closed the case.”
The room went silent.
“Who?”
Briggs hesitated.
“Captain Warren Pike.”
Michael knew the name.
Pike was retired now.
He had received an award from the Hayes Family Foundation two years ago.
Michael suddenly remembered Daniel arranging it.
His skin crawled.
Briggs continued.
“I requested additional traffic-camera footage. The request disappeared from the system.”
“Disappeared?”
“I filed it twice.”
“And you said nothing to me?”
“I had no proof.”
Michael laughed bitterly.
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
Briggs didn’t defend herself.
“That’s because proof matters.”
She looked toward the broken window.
“But tonight changes things.”
One officer approached.
“Detective.”
He held a small black device in a plastic evidence bag.
“Found this behind the ballroom thermostat.”
Briggs examined it.
A wireless transmitter.
Emily stared.
“What is that?”
“A camera.”
Michael’s heart stopped.
“Inside my house?”
The officer nodded.
“Very small lens. Hidden behind the vent.”
Briggs looked at Michael.
“Anyone have authorized surveillance?”
“Only exterior security.”
They searched the ballroom.
Then the hall.
Then the kitchen.
They found four more devices.
One faced the main staircase.
One faced the children’s playroom.
One was hidden in the corridor outside Michael’s bedroom.
And one was inside the study.
The room where Lucas and Sophie were sitting now.
Michael ran.
He pushed open the door.
Emily stood immediately.
“What happened?”
Michael looked at the ceiling.
A detective followed and pointed.
Tiny lens.
Smoke detector.
Michael’s stomach twisted.
Someone had been watching his children.
Not tonight.
For weeks.
Maybe months.
Lucas saw his father’s face.
“What?”
Michael forced himself to breathe.
“Nothing. We’re leaving.”
“Where?”
“A hotel.”
“No.”
Lucas’s voice came too quickly.
Michael knelt.
“What’s wrong?”
Lucas stared toward the door.
“She knows hotels.”
Michael felt a chill.
“Who?”
“Victoria.”
Sophie whispered, “She took us to one.”
Michael looked at her.
“When?”
Neither child answered.
Emily slowly sat beside them.
“You can tell us.”
Sophie’s eyes filled.
“It was when Dad went to Denver.”
Michael remembered the trip.
Four months earlier.
Two nights.
Investor meetings.
Victoria had told him she stayed at the mansion with the children.
Lucas spoke.
“She woke us up after midnight.”
“Why?”
“She said the house had a gas leak.”
Michael looked at Emily.
She shook her head.
There had been no gas leak.
Lucas continued.
“She drove us somewhere.”
“A hotel?”
He nodded.
“There was a man there.”
Michael’s pulse pounded.
“What man?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did he look like?”
Lucas thought.
“Gray hair. Big ring.”
Sophie added, “He smelled like smoke.”
Briggs entered the room just in time to hear.
“What kind of ring?”
Sophie held up her little fist.
“Gold. It had a bird.”
Briggs stopped moving.
Michael looked at her.
“You know who that is.”
The detective’s face hardened.
“Captain Pike wore a gold eagle ring for thirty years.”
Michael felt the nightmare widen again.
“What did he want with my children?”
Lucas lowered his eyes.
“He asked us questions.”
“What questions?”
“About Mom.”
Michael’s throat closed.
“What about her?”
Lucas whispered, “He wanted to know if Mom ever gave us anything before she died.”
Michael looked toward Barnaby.
Still in Lucas’s arms.
The same bear that had held the card.
Pike had been searching for it.
For three years.
And then Michael realized something worse.
Victoria had taken the bear once.
She must not have found the card.
But she knew Rachel had hidden something.
That was why the children were being watched.
That was why Victoria frightened them into silence.
Not just cruelty.
Control.
Michael stood.
“Detective, find Pike.”
Briggs nodded.
“We will.”
An officer entered.
“Mr. Hayes?”
He held Michael’s phone.
“It rang while you were in here.”
Unknown number.
A voicemail.
Michael played it on speaker.
Daniel’s voice filled the room.
Breathing hard.
Terrified.
“Michael, I took the laptop because if Pike got those files, we’d all be dead.”
Michael froze.
Daniel continued.
“You think Victoria is the worst person in this story.”
A pause.
“She isn’t.”
Then a sound in the background.
A door opening.
May you like
Daniel whispered, “Oh God.”
The message ended.
