Chapter 12 - The Second Man
Police reached the house before we did.
Linda was gone.
The second person wasn't.
He was sitting on the curb in handcuffs.
I recognized him from Ryan's company Christmas party.
Peter Lang, a junior IT administrator.
Ryan stared at him. "What are you doing at my house?"
Peter looked terrified.
"She said you asked me to come."
"My mother?"
"She said you needed the old home server wiped because somebody hacked your email."
That explained the deleted sent folder.
Peter had brought a laptop, two flash drives, and a device used to clone hard drives.
One deputy asked, "Did you access Mr. Mercer's email before today?"
Peter hesitated.
Then nodded.
"Once. Mrs. Mercer gave me his password and said he was locked out while traveling."
"Last Tuesday?" Ryan asked.
Peter nodded again.
My stomach tightened.
Linda hadn't just guessed Ryan's password.
She had recruited someone to create the evidence against me.
Peter opened his laptop for police.
A folder labeled RYAN HOME contained screenshots of our email, my postpartum appointment schedule, and photographs of me taken through our kitchen window.
"Who took these?"
Peter shook his head. "Not me. She sent them."
One photo showed me crying at the sink.
Another showed me asleep on the couch.
Then we reached the final image.
It was Noah's nursery.
Taken at night.
From inside the room.
Ryan whispered, "That was before Mom moved in."
I zoomed in.
In the dark reflection of the nursery mirror, a woman stood beside the crib.
Linda.
May you like
The timestamp was six weeks old.
The night Ryan and I had taken Noah to the emergency room because he suddenly wouldn't stop vomiting.
