Chapter 8 - The Video Ethan Saw
Vanessa's attorney arrived within twenty minutes and told her to stop talking.
Too late.
Detective Brooks asked Ethan to speak later with a child forensic interviewer instead of questioning him in the foyer.
Alexander agreed.
Vanessa did not.
"He's six. He doesn't know what's real."
Alexander stepped between them.
"You don't get to say his name like you own him."
Vanessa stared at him. "I was going to be his mother."
"No. You were going to marry his father. Those are not the same thing."
That one landed.
Brooks asked for the house security system and every device Vanessa had used on the property.
Her lawyer objected.
Brooks produced a warrant before sunset.
The search found three encrypted drives in Vanessa's office.
One contained financial documents.
One contained photographs of Blackwood board members.
The third required a password.
Ethan knew it.
"Redhorse," he told Maria later.
She stared. "How do you know?"
"She says it when she's mad at the computer."
Owen tried it in front of the detective.
The drive opened.
Folders filled the screen.
JULIA.
ETHAN.
ALEXANDER.
MARIA.
Maria felt cold.
"Why is there a folder with my name?"
Alexander opened it.
Photos of Maria leaving work.
Maria visiting her mother's apartment.
Maria meeting Elena at a train station six months earlier.
Alexander turned sharply.
"Elena is alive?"
Maria closed her eyes.
There it was.
The secret she had protected even from him.
"Yes."
His voice dropped. "You told me she ran. You didn't tell me you still see her."
"Because she begged me not to."
"Why?"
Maria looked at the screen.
A newer photograph showed Elena standing beside a gray sedan.
Time stamp: yesterday.
Someone had typed one line beneath it.
FOUND HER.
Maria's phone rang.
Unknown number.
May you like
She answered.
A man's voice said, "If you want your sister alive, stop opening Julia's files."
