Chapter 7 - I couldn't sleep.The image of Rachel staring into the hidden camera kept replaying in my head.
It's not her.
It's me.
By sunrise, Detective Hayes had uncovered more.
The camera in our kitchen had been installed three weeks before Emma’s birthday.
It wasn't a hidden nanny camera.
It was professional surveillance equipment.
Someone had access to the home's electrical system.
Someone had planned this.
The question was why.
At 9:13 a.m., Mark called.
“Come alone.”
“Where?”
“The old church on Fleet Street.”
“Why?”
“Because I know what Rachel was hiding.”
I hung up.
Detective Hayes insisted on following at a distance.
Mark was waiting inside the empty church.
He looked terrified.
“What happened?” I asked.
“I found something.”
He held up a phone.
It belonged to Rachel.
“Where did you get that?”
“She left it in my car.”
“Why?”
“She wanted me to keep it.”
“What’s on it?”
“Everything.”
Mark unlocked the phone.
Messages.
Bank transfers.
Photographs.
A conversation with Malcolm.
A conversation with Daniel Price.
And one conversation with someone saved under a single letter.
E.
The messages were disturbing.
E: The child cannot be involved.
R: Then stop using my house.
E: Mark is becoming a problem.
R: He won't talk.
E: Then make him talk.
I stared at the screen.
“Who is E?”
Mark shook his head.
“I don't know.”
“Then why did Rachel have these?”
“Because she was working with them.”
I looked up.
“You said she was afraid.”
“She was both.”
Mark scrolled.
There was a message dated the morning of Emma's birthday.
E: Tonight.
R: What if something goes wrong?
E: It won't.
R: What about Emma?
E: The girl will drink and sleep. Nothing more.
I stopped breathing.
“She knew.”
Mark nodded.
“Rachel knew Emma would be drugged.”
“Then why did she let it happen?”
“I don't know.”
I shoved the phone toward him.
“Find out.”
Mark lowered his eyes.
Then he said something that changed everything.
“Rachel wasn't supposed to be the one who made the lemonade.”
“Who was?”
“My wife.”
I stared at him.
“You mean me?”
He nodded.
“The original plan was for you to prepare the drinks.”
My body went numb.
“Why?”
“To make it look like an accident.”
My stomach turned.
Mark continued.
“Rachel changed the plan.”
“Why?”
“She volunteered.”
“Because she wanted to protect me?”
He looked at me.
“No.”
The church seemed to grow colder.
“She volunteered because she wanted the police to find the sedative on me.”
I whispered.
“She was framing you.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Mark's face tightened.
“Because she believed I killed someone.”
I stared.
“Who?”
He handed me another photograph.
It showed a man lying inside a warehouse.
Blood on the floor.
Medical supply crates behind him.
The victim was forty-two.
Daniel Price.
Except Daniel wasn't dead.
The photograph had been staged.
Mark pointed at the timestamp.
“That's why he disappeared.”
I felt dizzy.
“So Daniel is alive?”
“Yes.”
“And Rachel thought you killed him?”
“No.”
Mark looked at me.
“She knew I didn't.”
“Then what did she know?”
He didn't answer.
Outside, tires stopped.
Detective Hayes entered.
She was holding a new evidence bag.
Inside was a keycard.
“We found this on Rachel's phone records.”
She turned it over.
“Someone used this card at the Baltimore Harbor Hotel.”
I read the name printed on it.
Eleanor Price.
Daniel's wife.
Detective Hayes looked directly at Mark.
“She checked into Room 917 the night before Emma's birthday.”
Mark's face collapsed.
“I knew it.”
“What?”
He whispered:
“Eleanor is the one who started all of this.”
Then Detective Hayes received a call.
Her expression changed.
“Emma woke up.”
We rushed to the hospital.
Emma was sitting upright.
She had one thing in her hand.
A small piece of paper.
She held it toward me.
“I found this in my cup.”
I unfolded it.
May you like
Four words were written in shaky black ink.
TELL DAD I SAW HER.
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