Chapter 5 - AVA
The woman Sophie called “the beach lady” had appeared three times.
Always when Ethan traveled.
Always near the property line.
She never entered the house.
She spoke to Sophie through the side garden fence.
“She said her name was Ava?”
Quinn asked.
Sophie shook her head.
“She said Birdie.”
Ethan looked at Quinn.
“A nickname?”
“Maybe.”
Sophie picked at her blanket.
“She gave me a whistle.”
“What whistle?”
Sophie reached beneath her hospital pillow.
A tiny red emergency whistle hung on a string.
Ethan stared.
“How did that get here?”
“I put it in my sock.”
The nurse looked surprised.
Sophie shrugged.
“Vanessa checks pockets.”
Nobody spoke for a second.
Quinn asked gently.
“What did Birdie tell you?”
“If I get scared, blow it.”
“Anything else?”
Sophie nodded.
“She said don’t eat the blue candy.”
Ethan felt his stomach turn.
“What blue candy?”
“Vanessa’s sleepy candy.”
Sophie said it like everyone knew.
The hospital immediately ordered toxicology testing.
Sophie had traces of a sedating antihistamine in her system.
Not lethal.
Enough to make a small child drowsy.
Vanessa had told Ethan Sophie was a “deep sleeper.”
He sat in the hospital chapel for eleven minutes.
He did not pray.
He stared at a wooden bench.
Then Quinn found him.
“We located Ava.”
Ethan stood too quickly.
“Where?”
“She contacted us.”
Ava Cross was twenty now.
Living under the name Ava Mercer.
She had been hiding from Vanessa for years.
Caleb had not kidnapped her.
He had helped her escape.
That made no sense.
“Then why was Caleb in Sophie’s room?”
Ava answered that herself two hours later.
She walked into the interview room wearing jeans, an oversized sweatshirt, and the expression of someone who had practiced not being afraid.
She looked at Ethan.
“You married her.”
It was not a question.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Ethan almost snapped.
Instead he said.
“I didn’t know.”
Ava gave a tiny humorless laugh.
“Yeah.”
She sat.
Caleb was her mother’s cousin.
After Daniel died, Caleb believed Ava when she said Vanessa had pushed him.
He hid Ava with friends until child services could be contacted safely.
But Vanessa found them first.
She threatened Caleb’s family.
He spent years moving Ava around.
“Why come back now?”
Ethan asked.
Ava looked toward Sophie’s room through the glass.
“Because she did it again.”
“Did what?”
“Found a kid nobody would believe.”
Ethan went quiet.
Ava explained the camera.
She and Caleb planted it.
Not Vanessa.
Sophie had misunderstood.
Caleb entered the bedroom to retrieve the tablet because Vanessa discovered the hidden camera and was searching for its storage.
“So Caleb wasn’t working for Vanessa.”
“No.”
“Then why did he attack me?”
Ava winced.
“He thought you were helping her.”
Fair.
Then Ava reached into her bag.
“I have something you need to hear.”
A voice recorder.
Daniel Cross’s voice.
Recorded the night before he died.
If anything happens to me, Vanessa did not act alone.
Then another man spoke in the background.
Ethan recognized the voice immediately.
His own business partner.
May you like
Marcus Vale.
