Chapter 7 - THE FARMHOUSE
Police traced Owen's call to a tower near Albany.
By midnight, state troopers surrounded the farmhouse.
Aaron Bell was found in an upstairs bedroom.
Alive.
His phone had been taken.
The door had been locked from the outside.
Noah was asleep in another room beside a woman who called herself a "family transition specialist."
Owen was gone.
Aaron later told us he had agreed to a weekend retreat after a counselor said Noah's grief was becoming unhealthy.
"When we arrived, they took my phone," he said. "Then they told me I was reinforcing dependency."
"What did they do to Noah?" I asked.
Aaron stared at the floor.
"They kept asking him to call another woman Mommy."
Ramirez seemed to read my face.
"You want to help Emma? Stay useful."
I hated her for being right.
Emma's file was thick.
Photographs, preschool schedules, my work travel, Claire's obituary, Emma's bedtime habits, even a note about Bunny.
TRANSITION OBJECT — STRONG MATERNAL ASSOCIATION.
I read it twice.
Vanessa had taken Bunny because someone had told her the rabbit connected Emma to Claire.
At the bottom of the page was an instruction.
REMOVE OBJECT AFTER PHASE THREE.
REPLACE WITH GIFT FROM NEW MOTHER.
I felt physically ill.
Then an officer handed Ramirez a laptop recovered from the farmhouse.
The hard drive held archived camera footage.
One folder was labeled MERCER.
Another was labeled BENNETT.
Another:
MERCER — CLAIRE.
I stopped breathing.
Claire.
My dead wife.
May you like
The folder date was from two months before her death.
"They were watching us while she was alive."
