Chapter 6 - The Night Elise Never Came Home
Fourteen months earlier, Elise Kavanaugh had kissed her daughter goodnight at 7:42 p.m.
Renick remembered the time because he'd been on a business call.
He remembered the blue sweater Elise wore.
The silver necklace at her throat.
The way she'd stood in his office doorway waiting for him to look up.
“We need to talk,” she'd said.
“Give me ten minutes.”
“You've been saying that all week.”
He had pressed a finger against his headset.
“Please, Elise.”
She'd studied him for a moment.
Then nodded.
“Tomorrow, then.”
There had been no tomorrow.
At 8:19 p.m., Elise left the estate.
At 9:06, her car was discovered at the bottom of a coastal embankment.
Brinley had been found several yards from the damaged vehicle, frightened but alive, her jacket tangled in the branches of a low tree.
Doctors called her survival extraordinary.
Renick called it impossible.
Yet grief had made every explanation seem believable.
He'd been too busy burying his wife to ask why his daughter couldn't speak.
Now he stood in his office staring at his brother's car on the screen.
“Callum said he was in Providence that night,” he said.
Nathaniel nodded.
“That's what his travel records show.”
“Then why was his car following Elise?”
“We're verifying the original footage.”
Belle watched Renick's expression.
The anger was there.
But beneath it lay something much worse.
Guilt.
“Did your wife ever tell you why she was leaving?” she asked.
“No.”
“Did she have family nearby?”
“A sister in Vermont.”
“Friends?”
“Several.”
“Could she have been going to see someone?”
Renick rubbed his face.
“She'd been worried about something.”
“What?”
“I thought it was our marriage.”
Belle said nothing.
“I was working constantly.”
He looked away.
“She kept asking about Callum's financial reports.”
“Why?”
“I didn't ask.”
Belle recognized the pain in his voice.
The awful human habit of remembering every opportunity we missed after there is no chance to take it.
Nathaniel cleared his throat.
“There may be someone who knows.”
Renick looked up.
“Elise's former assistant.”
“Julia?”
“Julia Penn.”
“She resigned after the funeral.”
“Two weeks before the funeral,” Nathaniel corrected.
Renick frowned.
“Why?”
“Her resignation letter said family reasons.”
“Find her.”
Nathaniel nodded.
But before he could leave, Belle spoke.
“Mr. Kavanaugh.”
Renick turned.
“Your daughter asked for my son yesterday.”
“I know.”
“She might talk to him.”
Renick hesitated.
“I don't want to use your child as an investigator.”
“Neither do I.”
“Then what are you suggesting?”
“That Brinley needs a friend.”
Belle held his gaze.
“Not another doctor. Not another guard. Not somebody asking her to remember the worst night of her life.”
Renick said nothing.
“She needs someone who makes her feel like a little girl again.”
He looked toward the doorway.
For the first time, he understood why Brinley had smiled at Micah.
The boy had not treated her like a broken thing.
He had treated her like a child.
“I'll consider it,” he said.
Belle nodded.
Then Renick added something unexpected.
“And I want you to remain here.”
Her expression changed.
“Mr. Kavanaugh—”
“Not because I'm ordering you.”
He took a breath.
“Because someone threatened your son, and that threat may be connected to my daughter's accident.”
Belle looked down.
“I can't keep him in a house where someone wants him hurt.”
“I understand.”
“Do you?”
Renick stepped around the desk.
“No.”
He surprised her with the answer.
“I don't think I understood what it means to protect a child until yesterday.”
He paused.
“Now I'm trying to learn.”
Belle looked at him for a long moment.
“Then start by telling me the truth.”
“About what?”
“Everything you know.”
Renick's eyes narrowed.
“Some of it could put you in danger.”
“I'm already in danger.”
She lifted her phone.
“Someone made sure of that.”
For the first time, Renick had no argument.
That afternoon, he arranged a temporary relocation to a guarded guest cottage on the estate's southern edge.
Belle would retain her salary.
Micah would remain with her.
And neither would be required to work or assist the investigation.
She accepted only after speaking privately with an attorney recommended by an independent local legal-aid office.
She insisted the arrangement be written down.
Renick agreed.
Meanwhile, Nathaniel located Julia Penn.
She was living in a small town outside Burlington.
When he called, she recognized his voice.
“Mr. Cross?”
“Julia. We need to talk about Elise.”
The line went silent.
Then Julia whispered:
“I told her not to go.”
Nathaniel straightened.
“Go where?”
“She found the records.”
“What records?”
Julia's breathing became uneven.
“I thought Callum destroyed everything.”
Nathaniel glanced at the security monitor.
“Julia, listen carefully. Where are you right now?”
A door slammed in the background.
Julia gasped.
Someone shouted her name.
Then the phone fell.
Nathaniel heard footsteps.
A struggle.
May you like
And one final sentence before the connection died.
“Tell Renick the accident wasn't meant to kill Elise. It was meant to take Brinley.”
