Chapter 9
The envelope contained a letter written in crooked block letters.
DADDY,
I AM NOT BAD.
MOMMY IS NOT BAD.
VANESSA SAYS IF I TELL, YOU WILL SEND MOMMY TO JAIL.
I AM SORRY I LIED.
LOVE LILY.
Daniel read it twice.
Then a third time.
Grace sat on the floor and cried silently.
Lily touched Daniel's knee.
"Are you mad?"
He pulled her into his arms.
"At you? Never."
"But I lied."
"You were scared."
"She said scared people still lie."
Daniel looked at Grace.
Grace said softly, "Scared children survive however they can."
The second recorder contained hours of fragments.
Most were ordinary.
Doors.
Television.
Lily singing.
Then a conversation between Vanessa and Dr. Mercer.
Mercer's voice was clear.
"She needs to stop asking for Grace."
Vanessa replied, "Then write that contact destabilizes her."
"I need something observable."
"I gave you the clips."
"They are suggestive, not enough."
Vanessa lowered her voice.
"What if there is an incident?"
Mercer paused.
"What kind?"
"Something frightening. Something we can say happened after Grace made contact."
Daniel stopped the recording.
Grace stared at him.
"Play the rest."
He did.
Mercer said, "I do not want details."
Vanessa answered, "You never do."
The conversation ended with a door closing.
Daniel stood.
"I'm calling Ruiz."
His phone buzzed before he could.
A message from an unknown number.
STOP DIGGING OR THE NEXT RECORDING WILL BE OF GRACE BREAKING THE LAW.
Attached was a photograph.
Grace entering the mansion through the side door the night before.
Taken from outside the property.
Daniel showed Mason.
"The SUV," Mason said.
Grace looked at the photo.
"They wanted me here."
Daniel nodded.
"To create the scene."
His phone buzzed again.
Another image.
This one older.
Grace outside Lily's preschool three months earlier.
She had been legally barred from approaching the school.
Grace went pale.
"I was never there."
Daniel zoomed in.
The face looked like Grace.
The coat looked like Grace's.
But the hand on the car door wore a ring Grace had not owned in years.
Daniel looked closer.
The image had been altered.
Then a third message arrived.
A single sentence.
May you like
ASK YOUR SECURITY CHIEF WHAT HE DELETED.
Everyone in the room turned toward Mason.
