Chapter 6
The police returned within twenty minutes.
This time, detectives came with them.
They photographed the email, the loan documents, and the life insurance policy.
Ryan was questioned at the station.
Diane was questioned separately.
Both blamed each other.
By noon, a detective named Maria Alvarez sat across from me at my kitchen table.
“We need to know about any recent accidents,” she said.
I thought about the past month.
My car had lost control on a wet road two weeks earlier.
The mechanic said a brake line was damaged.
At the time, Ryan blamed an old part.
Then there was the gas leak in the basement.
Ryan claimed I had left the stove on.
But the stove was electric.
I had laughed at his mistake.
Now it did not feel funny.
“Someone cut my brake line,” I whispered.
Detective Alvarez wrote it down.
“Do you still have the mechanic’s report?”
Dad drove to the repair shop and returned with a copy.
The mechanic had written that the damage appeared unusual but could not prove it was intentional.
The detective asked about the gas leak.
Daniel took her downstairs.
Behind the furnace, they found scratches around the pipe connection.
Someone had loosened it with a wrench.
My mother began crying.
“He slept beside her every night,” she said. “How could he do this?”
I had no answer.
At three that afternoon, Vanessa called me.
Her voice was barely audible.
“Ryan knows where I live.”
“Are you afraid of him?”
“I wasn’t before. I am now.”
She explained that Ryan had been released while the financial investigation continued.
Victor remained in custody on an outstanding warrant.
Diane had also been released because the transfer could be reversed and prosecutors had not completed the charges.
“They’re together,” Vanessa said. “Ryan called me from Diane’s car.”
“What did he want?”
“He told me to destroy the messages.”
“Don’t do it.”
“He said he’ll take Noah away if I help you.”
I heard a sound behind her.
A door closing.
Then Vanessa gasped.
“He’s here.”
“Call the police.”
The line went dead.
I gave Detective Alvarez Vanessa’s address.
Officers arrived there seven minutes later.
Vanessa and Noah were gone.
Her front door was open.
The folder containing Ryan’s messages had disappeared.
A neighbor’s camera showed Diane’s car leaving the street.
Vanessa sat in the passenger seat.
Ryan drove.
They had taken the baby too.
Police issued an alert.
I kept calling Vanessa.
Her phone went straight to voicemail.
At sunset, I received a video.
Vanessa was sitting in an unfamiliar room with Noah in her arms.
Her lip was bleeding.
Ryan stood behind her.
“Withdraw the fraud claim,” he said to the camera. “Tell the bank you authorized everything.”
I stared at the screen in horror.
Diane’s voice came from somewhere behind the phone.
“And tell the police the slap was an accident.”
Ryan glanced toward his mother.
“Stop talking.”
“Don’t become weak now,” she snapped.
Vanessa looked directly into the camera.
Her eyes moved toward something outside the frame.
Once.
Twice.
Then she said, “I’m sorry we ruined Christmas at your grandmother’s lake house.”
I did not own a lake house.
But my grandmother had once owned a small cabin near Lake Mercer.
It had been sold to Charles years ago.
Vanessa was giving me their location.
I sent the video to Detective Alvarez and called Charles.
He closed his eyes when I mentioned the cabin.
“Diane knows the place,” he said. “She used to hide there when we were children.”
The police prepared to leave.
I grabbed my coat.
Detective Alvarez blocked the door.
“You’re staying here.”
“That woman and her baby are in danger because they tried to help me.”
“And you are the person Ryan needs to control. If you go there, you give him exactly what he wants.”
She was right.
But ten minutes later, another video arrived.
This one showed Ryan alone.
May you like
He held a kitchen knife.
“Come to the cabin, Emma,” he said. “No police, or Noah loses his mother.”
