Chapter 8 - CLAIRE'S VIDEO
The first video showed Claire leaving our house with Emma in a stroller.
The camera angle came from across the street.
The second showed Claire at a grocery store.
The third was taken outside her doctor's office.
"This isn't attachment research," I said.
Ramirez agreed.
"It's surveillance."
Why had they been watching Claire?
We found the answer in an audio file.
Owen's voice.
"Subject C shows increasing concern regarding estate safeguards. Husband appears unaware."
Then Vanessa.
"Do we disengage?"
"No. If she changes the trust structure, the family becomes unusable."
Claire had changed her will six weeks before she died.
I remembered the appointment.
She told me it was routine.
It wasn't.
Her attorney, Susan Levy, confirmed it the next morning.
"Claire came to me because someone contacted her pretending to represent your financial adviser."
"What did they ask?"
"Questions about Emma's trust. Guardian authority. What happened if both parents died. She thought it was suspicious."
"Why didn't she tell me?"
Susan sighed.
"She said you were already overwhelmed with work and she didn't want to scare you."
My throat closed.
Claire had been afraid before I ever knew there was something to fear.
"Did she name anyone?"
"She mentioned a grief research group that had contacted her online."
Hearth.
"But she wasn't grieving."
"No. They claimed to be studying parental anxiety after childbirth."
"They found your family before Claire died."
Vanessa had not targeted a widower.
Hearth had targeted a married family with a child trust.
Claire's death made Daniel Mercer easier to access.
I forced myself to ask the question.
"Did they have anything to do with my wife's death?"
Ramirez would not let grief invent facts.
"We reopen what we can," she said. "But we follow evidence."
I nodded.
Then Susan pulled out a sealed envelope.
"Claire left this with me."
"For Emma?"
Susan shook her head.
"For you."
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On the front, Claire had written:
IF THE PEOPLE FROM HEARTH EVER COME BACK.
