Chapter 7 - The Name on the Calendar
Mara warned me not to reply to the threats. She forwarded the images to the detective, preserving the original messages. "He wanted to name our baby Grace. I thought it was because of his grandmother."
"Did he leave you anything besides the box?"
"A calendar. He wrote everything important in it. Rent. Appointments. Our anniversary."
Mrs. Park had rescued Daniel's calendar from the apartment after the break-in. I opened it on my lap.
On the date of Daniel's supposed accident, he'd written two words: RIVER RECORDS. Underneath was a drawing of a bell.
"Does that mean anything?" Mara asked.
"We used to go to a little church by the river. The bell was cracked. Daniel said you could hear it from the train platform."
Mara asked an investigator to look into it, but the calendar held another surprise. In the back pocket was a receipt from a document-storage company dated the morning Daniel died. Its customer name was not Daniel Bennett.
It was Elena Moretti.
I ran a finger over the letters. "He met her."
"It appears so," Mara said. "We need to establish what happened without putting you in the middle of a chase."
Vincent called again. Police had reviewed the estate's garage footage. Vanessa left at six that morning carrying two storage boxes. Richard Sterling's driver arrived to collect them. She returned only after checking the security schedule.
"She's been clearing Elena's belongings all week," Vincent said. "The suitcase was the last thing she couldn't carry herself."
"Why today?"
"There's a court hearing on Monday involving an alleged guardian for a child with a different last name. Mara thinks it may be Grace."
May you like
A message arrived from the same unknown number that had photographed the box.
You have until noon. The girl will be moved.
