Chapter 3 - The Room Without Windows
Nathan stared at the photograph.
For one terrible second, he forgot how to breathe.
Then he looked closer.
Ivy was holding a white stuffed rabbit.
Her favorite toy.
But the rabbit had a small blue ribbon around its neck.
Nathan had removed that ribbon two days earlier because it was coming loose.
The photograph was old.
He knew because he had been the one who tied the ribbon there.
His mother had sent him an old picture to frighten him.
Which meant she either didn't have Ivy or wanted him to believe she did.
Nathan called Rosa again.
This time, she answered.
"Mr. Vale!"
"Is Ivy with you?"
"Yes."
"Put her on."
A small voice came through the speaker.
"Daddy?"
Nathan shut his eyes.
"Hi, pumpkin."
"Grandma was mean."
"I know, sweetheart."
"Miss Rosa gave me cookies."
"Good."
"Are you mad?"
His chest tightened.
"Not at you. Never at you."
"Are you coming?"
"I'm coming with people who can keep you safe."
"Okay."
He heard the phone move.
Rosa spoke again.
"We're still in the laundry room. Mrs. Vale left with Derek."
"Police are at the property."
"They haven't reached us."
Nathan gave her the dispatcher number and told her to stay on the line with emergency services.
Then he sent the threatening photograph to the responding detective's number, which the dispatcher had provided.
Twenty minutes later, officers entered the laundry room through the connecting staff corridor.
Ivy ran straight into a policewoman's arms.
Rosa and June followed.
By the time Nathan arrived, his daughter was sitting in the back of an ambulance, drinking apple juice.
He dropped to his knees in front of her.
"Hey, pumpkin."
Ivy threw her arms around him.
"Daddy!"
Nathan held her so tightly that the paramedic gently reminded him to let her breathe.
He loosened his grip.
"Sorry, sweetheart."
Ivy touched his cheek.
"Your eyes are wet."
"I know."
"Did you get soap in them?"
Nathan laughed through his tears.
"Something like that."
A detective approached.
She was in her forties, with short dark hair and a direct expression.
"Mr. Vale?"
Nathan stood.
"Yes."
"Detective Maya Bennett."
She showed her badge.
"Your daughter appears unharmed. We're having medical staff check her as a precaution."
Nathan nodded.
"Thank you."
"We need to talk about the vest."
Rosa appeared beside them carrying a sealed evidence bag.
Inside was the bright-orange flotation device.
Detective Bennett examined the damaged panels.
"Who found this?"
"I did," Rosa answered.
"And did anyone else handle it?"
"Mrs. Vale put it on Ivy. I removed it. June saw it before we called."
The detective made notes.
"Where is Mrs. Vale?"
Nathan looked toward the mansion.
"That's what I'd like to know."
Eleanor's car was gone.
So was Derek Shaw.
A preliminary search of the residence found no trace of either.
But something else caught the detective's attention.
The pool's security cameras had stopped recording at 9:58 that morning.
Nineteen minutes before Ivy entered the water.
When investigators checked the control panel, they discovered the system had been manually disabled.
"Who has access?" Bennett asked.
Nathan named four people.
Himself.
His mother.
Derek.
And the estate's technical manager.
The manager had been on vacation in Oregon since Thursday.
Nathan had been in the air when the recording stopped.
That left two obvious possibilities.
Bennett looked at him.
"You understand this could become a criminal investigation."
"I hope it does."
"Your mother will have legal representation."
"She can hire a thousand lawyers."
Nathan stared toward the pool.
"My daughter could have drowned."
Bennett's expression softened slightly.
"Mr. Vale, we intend to find out what happened."
While officers searched the estate, Rosa told Nathan about Eleanor's conversation outside the laundry room.
June played her recording.
Nathan listened without speaking.
When Eleanor's voice said, "Nathan has become unstable," he looked up sharply.
When she said Ivy was not his real daughter, his face hardened.
And when Derek asked whether he should force the door, Nathan turned away.
He didn't trust himself to speak.
Detective Bennett took a copy of the recording.
"Your mother mentioned difficult family decisions," she said.
"Do you have any idea what she meant?"
Nathan hesitated.
Then he told her about Hannah.
About the orange vest.
About Marianne Cole.
And about the storage unit.
Bennett listened carefully.
"Eight years ago?"
"Yes."
"Do you still have the original police records?"
"I have copies."
"Bring them."
Nathan nodded.
"Detective, there's something else."
"What?"
"My mother's been trying to take control of Ivy's trust."
Bennett's pen stopped.
"What trust?"
Nathan glanced toward his daughter.
"Her birth parents left her a substantial inheritance."
"How substantial?"
"Forty-two million dollars."
Rosa gasped.
Nathan continued.
"I serve as trustee until Ivy turns twenty-five."
"And your mother?"
"She's the alternate trustee if I'm declared incapable of managing the trust."
Bennett studied him.
"Has anyone suggested you're incapable?"
Nathan gave a humorless laugh.
"My mother has spent six months telling everyone I'm emotionally unstable."
"Any medical evaluations?"
"She convinced me to see a psychiatrist last winter."
"Why?"
"She said I wasn't sleeping enough."
"Were you?"
"No. I was working too much and worrying about Ivy."
The detective's expression became more serious.
"Did your mother choose the doctor?"
"Yes."
"And did you sign anything?"
Nathan looked at her.
He remembered a thick packet of documents.
A private family office.
His mother explaining that some paperwork was routine.
His stomach tightened.
"I signed a release."
Bennett closed her notebook.
"You're going to want an independent attorney."
"Why?"
"Because someone may be building a record to challenge your legal authority over your daughter's assets."
Nathan's phone vibrated.
An email arrived from the family law firm.
Subject: URGENT GUARDIANSHIP MATTER.
He opened it.
The first sentence made his hands turn cold.
Mr. Vale, we have been instructed to notify you that a petition questioning your parental fitness and financial judgment was filed this morning.
Nathan looked at the time.
9:30 a.m.
Forty-seven minutes before Ivy entered the pool.
The petition had already been filed.
Which meant the pool incident wasn't an isolated act.
May you like
It was part of a plan.
And his mother had started the paperwork before the little girl ever touched the water.
