Chapter 8 - The Locked Door
Anna shut the laptop.
The knob turned again.
“Anna?” Richard whispered. “Open the door.”
“Why?”
“Because Leo isn’t in his room.”
Anna opened the door. Richard saw his son asleep in the bed and exhaled.
“How did he get here?”
“He walked in.”
Vanessa appeared at the end of the hallway in a silk robe.
“There he is.”
“What is going on?”
“Come inside. Alone.”
Vanessa’s voice sharpened. “Excuse me?”
“Richard. Now.”
Anna locked the door again.
“Anna, what—”
She opened the laptop and played Emily’s first recording.
Richard stopped breathing.
By the second video, he sat down.
By the third, tears stood in his eyes.
By the fifth, he looked like someone had emptied him from the inside.
“That’s Emily.”
“Yes.”
“She made this?”
“Yes.”
Richard touched the screen when Emily’s face appeared again.
“I never knew.”
A fist hit the door.
“Richard!”
Vanessa.
He didn’t answer.
“Richard, open this door!”
He looked at Anna. “Where did you get the card?”
“Leo brought it to me. He said ‘Mama hide.’”
Richard turned toward his sleeping son.
“Emily must have hidden it inside the dinosaur before she died.”
Another pounding hit the door.
“Richard!”
He stood.
Anna grabbed his arm. “Don’t confront her yet.”
“She threatened my son.”
“We need the police.”
“I’m calling them.”
“No. Listen to me. The footage proves she searched your office and talked about the will. It doesn’t prove she pushed Leo.”
Richard’s jaw tightened.
Anna continued. “If she knows we have this, she may destroy whatever else exists.”
Outside, Vanessa went quiet.
Too quiet.
Richard and Anna looked at each other.
Then they heard the front door slam downstairs.
Richard ran into the hall.
Vanessa was gone.
So were the keys to Richard’s car.
May you like
And on the kitchen counter, beside an empty glass, lay Leo’s bottle of children’s medicine.
The cap was off.
