Chapter 14 - The Rabbit
The stuffed rabbit became the strangest object in a criminal investigation.
Juniper cried when she learned Bunny was missing.
That hurt more than everything surrounding it.
“Mommy made him.”
“I know.”
“He gets scared without me.”
I held her.
“I think Bunny is being very brave.”
“Will he come back?”
“Yes.”
I did not know if that was true.
I said it anyway.
Police searched around my home.
They found a cut screen.
A partial shoe print.
No Evan.
Security footage showed a figure entering from the neighbor’s side yard.
His face remained covered.
He left carrying a small plastic bag.
Inside would have been Bunny.
Orson’s information had been correct.
That meant Evan was still communicating with someone.
Orson claimed he had no way to contact him from jail.
Investigators did not believe him.
Neither did I.
Naomi examined photographs of Bunny.
“Elise made that?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“During pregnancy.”
“Did she ever repair it?”
“Many times.”
“Any unusual seams?”
I thought.
One.
Along the lower back.
Elise once opened it after Juniper spilled juice.
She removed the stuffing.
Washed the fabric.
Resewed it.
That happened shortly before she died.
My pulse increased.
“Elise touched Bunny about a week before September 14.”
Naomi looked at me.
“She could have hidden something.”
“Yes.”
A bank credential.
A key.
A memory card.
Something.
Evan now had it.
But he still needed something else.
Otherwise, why approach me?
We learned what hours later.
A burner phone sent me a message.
A photograph of Bunny.
Its back seam had been cut open.
Stuffing covered a table.
Beside it lay a tiny metal key.
The message read:
WRONG KEY.
BRING THE LAKE BOX KEY.
I remembered the key found with my mother’s records.
Police had it.
Evan believed I did.
A second message arrived.
MIDNIGHT.
COME ALONE.
Lena read it.
“You are not going alone.”
“Obviously.”
I almost smiled.
Three weeks earlier, I might have.
Not now.
Police took over.
A controlled response was sent.
WHERE?
Evan replied with coordinates.
An abandoned greenhouse outside town.
Investigators prepared.
My role was limited.
I hated that.
But I had one priority.
Juniper.
At 11:30 p.m., I sat beside her bed at Grant’s house.
Meredith had temporarily moved them to a different location.
Juniper held a borrowed stuffed bear.
“It’s not Bunny.”
“I know.”
“Bunny smells like Mommy.”
My throat closed.
Because that was true.
Even after years of washing, I sometimes imagined Elise’s lavender hand cream lingered in the fabric.
“I’ll get him back.”
Juniper touched my cheek.
“Don’t get hurt.”
I nearly broke.
“I won’t.”
At midnight, police surrounded the greenhouse.
Nobody was there.
A burner phone sat on the floor.
Beside it lay a photograph.
Bunny placed on a chair.
The chair stood inside another location.
Detective Alvarez cursed.
“He’s moving us.”
A message appeared on the burner.
NOT CALEB.
NO DEAL.
He had detected police.
A second message came to my phone.
YOU ALWAYS NEEDED SOMEONE TO SAVE YOU.
That sounded less like Evan.
More like Orson.
I showed Alvarez.
He agreed.
Investigators checked jail-call records.
Then discovered something troubling.
Orson had met with a chaplain earlier that day.
The chaplain denied carrying messages.
His car was searched voluntarily.
Nothing.
Then cameras showed Orson handing him a folded prayer request.
The chaplain had delivered it to a church office.
Someone collected it.
A woman.
Tabitha’s former roommate, Marcy.
Police located Marcy.
She admitted acting as messenger.
She thought she was helping reconcile a family dispute.
Orson had used religious language to hide instructions.
The message had contained an email address.
Evan’s.
Orson was still directing him.
From jail.
Police moved to isolate his communications.
But one message had already gone out.
It said:
THE BOY WILL COME IF YOU MAKE IT ABOUT ELISE.
The boy.
Me.
Even now, I was not a man to my father.
Not a parent.
Not an adult.
A boy he could manipulate.
Evan followed instructions.
At 2:03 a.m., my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered under police recording.
“Caleb?”
Evan.
“Where is Bunny?”
He laughed.
“You really care about that thing.”
“My daughter does.”
“Then bring the key.”
“I don’t have it.”
“Get it.”
“What’s the key open?”
“You don’t know?”
“No.”
“Orson really did keep you stupid.”
I ignored it.
“What did you find inside Bunny?”
“A key.”
“To what?”
“Safe-deposit box.”
My pulse jumped.
“Which bank?”
“That’s what your key tells me.”
Two keys.
One identifying a box.
One identifying the bank.
Elise had separated them.
“What do you want from the box?”
“My money.”
“What money?”
“Orson owes me.”
“How much?”
“Enough to disappear.”
“You helped him fake videos of me.”
“I did jobs.”
“You frightened my daughter.”
Silence.
“I never touched the kid.”
“You helped people try to take her.”
“That wasn’t my problem.”
“It became your problem when you broke into my house.”
He laughed again.
“Bring the key.”
“Give me Bunny.”
“After.”
“Proof he’s intact.”
“You’re bargaining over a stuffed animal?”
“Yes.”
A pause.
Then Evan said something unexpected.
“Elise did the same thing.”
My breath stopped.
“What?”
“Bargained.”
“When?”
“The night before she died.”
“What did she bargain for?”
Silence.
“Evan?”
“For the original videos.”
My skin prickled.
“What original videos?”
He lowered his voice.
“The ones showing who really started this.”
The call ended.
I looked at Alvarez.
“What videos?”
He shook his head.
“We don’t know.”
Then a new message appeared.
A single video file.
Ten seconds long.
I pressed play.
The date showed September 13.
Elise stood inside the yellow farmhouse.
Across from her stood Orson.
She held a folder.
He held a camera.
And Elise said:
“If you come after Caleb or Juniper, I expose everything.”
Orson stepped toward her.
Then the recording cut off.
But in the final frame—
someone else entered behind Elise.
Someone I recognized immediately.
My mother’s old estate attorney.
May you like
A man everyone believed had died nine years ago.
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