Chapter 3 - The Child Seat in the Burning Car
Detective Mercer was still talking, but I could barely hear him.
A burned car.
My wife's car.
A child safety seat in the back.
Three facts that had turned the world beneath my feet into something unstable and terrifying.
"Was there a child inside?" I demanded.
Mercer held my gaze.
"We don't know yet."
"Then find out."
"Our investigators are working on it."
"That's my son!"
My voice cracked so violently that one of the officers standing near the doorway turned around.
Mercer lowered his voice.
"Mr. Keaton, I need you to listen carefully. The presence of a child seat doesn't establish that a child was in the vehicle when the fire started."
I grabbed his arm.
"Then tell me he's alive."
"I can't tell you something I don't know."
I released him.
For years, I had believed that money could solve almost anything.
A delayed permit.
An angry investor.
A contractor threatening litigation.
There was always a phone call, a favor, or a number large enough to make the problem disappear.
But no amount of money could force the detective standing in front of me to say that my son was safe.
Mrs. Pearl emerged from the kitchen carrying a glass of water.
She had overheard everything.
"Corinne wouldn't have put Owen in danger," she said.
Mercer turned.
"Mrs. Pearl, did you help Mrs. Keaton leave the residence?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"Twelve days ago."
"Was she driving her own vehicle?"
"No."
My head snapped toward her.
"What?"
"Her sister picked her up."
I stared.
"You told me you didn't know where she went."
"I don't."
"But you knew her sister came."
"Yes."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Mrs. Pearl's face hardened.
"Because your wife asked me not to."
Mercer raised one hand.
"Let's establish the facts. Mrs. Keaton left with her sister, not in the vehicle recovered tonight?"
"That's correct."
"Did you see the baby?"
"Of course. I carried him to the car myself."
"Was he healthy?"
"He was sleeping."
Mercer wrote something down.
"Did Mrs. Keaton appear frightened?"
Mrs. Pearl hesitated.
"She kept looking at the street."
"Did she say why?"
"No. But she told me something strange."
"What?"
"She said if anyone asked, I was to say she'd gone to her mother's house."
I felt a sickening twist in my stomach.
Corinne's mother had died four years earlier.
Mercer noticed my expression.
"What is it?"
"Her mother is dead."
The detective's pen stopped moving.
Mrs. Pearl lowered her eyes.
"I know."
"Then why would she tell you that?"
"Because she wanted whoever was asking to know I wasn't going to help them."
Mercer considered that.
Then his phone rang.
He stepped outside.
I stood beside the staircase, staring at the envelope.
Tessa's signature.
The Westbridge transfer.
The missing accountant.
The man with the gun.
And now Corinne's burned car.
Everything was connected.
I just couldn't see how.
My phone vibrated.
An unknown number.
A text message.
You should have listened to Tessa.
A photograph followed.
It showed the interior of a hospital nursery.
A newborn lay beneath a white blanket.
A tiny blue hospital bracelet circled his wrist.
I enlarged the image.
The name on the bracelet was unmistakable.
OWEN KEATON.
My hands began shaking.
A second message appeared.
Your wife took something that doesn't belong to her.
Then a third.
Give it back before your son pays for her mistake.
I ran toward the front door.
"DETECTIVE!"
Mercer turned.
I shoved the phone into his hand.
He read the messages.
His expression changed instantly.
"Where did these come from?"
"I don't know."
"Have you responded?"
"No."
"Don't."
He called another officer.
"Get digital forensics on this. Now."
Then he looked at me.
"Mr. Keaton, I need to know exactly what was on that flash drive."
"I haven't opened it."
"Good."
"Why?"
"Because whoever sent these messages believes you have something worth killing for."
I stared at him.
"Then take it."
I reached into my pocket.
Mercer held out an evidence bag.
I placed the drive inside.
He sealed it.
For the first time since coming home, I felt a small amount of relief.
It lasted less than ten seconds.
Mercer's phone rang again.
He answered, listened, and slowly turned away.
When he returned, his face was grim.
"The medical examiner has made a preliminary identification."
My chest tightened.
"Corinne?"
"No."
I nearly collapsed.
"Then who?"
"The body recovered from the driver's seat is male."
I stared.
"Male?"
"Approximately fifty years old."
A terrible suspicion began forming.
Mercer continued.
"The dental records appear consistent with Leonard Pike."
The missing accountant.
The man who had been investigating my company.
Someone had killed him and burned his body in my wife's car.
I looked at the detective.
"Why would they do that?"
Mercer didn't answer.
He was watching my phone.
Another message had appeared.
This one contained no photograph.
Only six words.
Ask Tessa about the second baby.
I read it twice.
Then I looked up.
"What second baby?"
Mercer frowned.
"Mr. Keaton?"
I could barely speak.
"Tessa told me she couldn't have children."
And suddenly I remembered something from our last night together.
A small prescription bottle in her bathroom.
A prenatal vitamin.
When I'd asked about it, she'd laughed and said it belonged to her sister.
May you like
I had believed her.
Just as Corinne had once believed me.
