Chapter 6 - The Cop in the Living Room
Rachel read the message twice.
Dunn stood ten feet away.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
Rachel locked her phone.
“My office.”
“What?”
“The client who canceled. They’re asking about tomorrow.”
Daniel knew she was lying.
His eyes narrowed.
Dunn continued questioning Sophie.
“Did you see the man’s face?”
“No.”
“Was he tall?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he come inside?”
“No.”
Dunn smiled.
“Then maybe he was just walking by.”
Sophie frowned.
“He took my picture while I was sleeping.”
Dunn’s smile disappeared.
Rachel wanted him gone.
Instead he walked toward Bunny.
“May I?”
“No,” Rachel said.
He looked at her.
“It’s evidence.”
“The rabbit wasn’t outside.”
“You said someone left a photograph connected to it.”
“I said someone left a photograph.”
Daniel stepped between them.
“Mark, go file the report.”
Dunn stared at him.
“You sure you want to do this again?”
Rachel felt the words land.
Again.
Daniel’s face turned hard.
“Get out.”
Dunn closed his notebook.
“Fine.”
He walked to the door.
Then looked back at Rachel.
“Be careful who you believe.”
After the police left, Rachel locked every door.
Then she showed Daniel the messages.
He read them.
“Who sent this?”
“I was hoping you’d tell me.”
He called the number.
Disconnected.
Rachel took Bunny upstairs.
She was about to put it in a locked drawer when Sophie said, “Mom, Grandma put something else in there.”
Rachel turned.
“What?”
“She didn’t just sew the ear.”
Sophie pointed to Bunny’s stomach.
“She opened that too.”
Rachel examined the rabbit.
At first she saw nothing.
Then she found a second seam hidden beneath the worn fur.
She cut it.
More stuffing.
Then paper.
Folded tightly.
Rachel pulled it free.
Not a note.
A photograph.
Sophie was three years old in it.
Walking out of daycare holding Rachel’s hand.
Rachel knew the date because Sophie had been wearing a yellow raincoat she loved that spring.
On the back was a timestamp.
Eleven months before Rachel first met Daniel.
Daniel walked into the room.
Rachel held up the picture.
“Tell me why someone connected to your missing wife was photographing my daughter before you and I ever met.”
Daniel looked at the date.
He sat down slowly.
Then he said the sentence Rachel had been dreading.
“Because meeting you wasn’t an accident.”
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