Chapter 3 - THE CAMERA IN THE VENT
The camera was hidden inside the pantry ventilation grille.
Its lens pointed toward the center of the room.
A wireless signal connected it to the home network.
Rachel claimed she knew nothing about it.
She told police that Michael had installed cameras after Laura’s death because he worried about Ava wandering at night.
Michael denied it.
The device was newer than his marriage to Rachel.
Officer Ruiz requested access to the home security system.
Michael gave her every password he knew.
None opened the hidden camera account.
The account belonged to someone using the name Northfield Family Solutions.
Michael had never heard of the company.
At the hospital, Ava slept for several hours.
When she woke, she asked for Baxter.
Michael called the neighbor who sometimes watched the dog.
She had not seen him.
Rachel claimed Baxter ran away two days earlier.
Ava began crying.
“He didn’t run away.”
“What happened?”
“Rachel said he kept scratching at the pantry door.”
Michael’s stomach tightened.
“Where did she take him?”
“I don’t know.”
“She put him in the car.”
Officer Ruiz made another note.
Michael looked at his daughter.
“Tell me what happened yesterday.”
Ava said Rachel collected her from school before lunch.
She told the office Michael had been injured in Chicago.
The school released Ava without calling him because Rachel was listed as an approved guardian.
In the car, Rachel demanded to know where Ava had hidden Laura’s blue journal.
Ava refused to answer.
Rachel drove home.
She searched Ava’s room.
She pulled out drawers and opened the closet walls.
When Ava tried to call Michael, Rachel took her phone.
Then she placed three hundred dollars beneath Ava’s mattress.
“She said you would believe her,” Ava whispered.
“Why did she want your mother’s journal?”
“I don’t know.”
“Mom told me not to let anyone read it until I was older.”
Michael remembered the journal.
Laura wrote in it throughout her illness.
After her death, Michael believed it had been placed in a storage box.
He had not seen it in years.
“Where is it?”
Ava looked toward Officer Ruiz.
“Somewhere safe.”
The police officer did not push her.
Michael did.
“Ava, if Rachel hurt you because of that book, we need to find it.”
Ava shook her head.
“Mom said someone would come looking.”
Michael became still.
“Someone?”
“She wrote a note in the front.”
“What did it say?”
Ava closed her eyes.
“If Michael marries Rachel Bennett, give this journal to Grandma Ruth.”
May you like
Michael stared at her.
Laura had written Rachel’s full name before Michael ever met her.
