Chapter 5 - WHAT LUCY SAW
Daniel wanted to drive back to Lake Forest immediately.
Rachel stopped him.
“Don't question her like a witness.”
“She saw someone try to kill you.”
“She was five.”
Daniel looked toward the photograph.
“She remembers enough to draw Martin's watch.”
“Then let her remember safely.”
That word stopped him.
Safely.
Daniel had spent most of his life believing safety meant guards, gates and guns.
Lucy had all three.
She had still spent months terrified to speak at her own family table.
Rachel sat across from him.
“You can't force a frightened child into becoming evidence.”
Daniel looked at her.
“When did you become reasonable?”
“When everybody thought I was dead.”
For the first time that night, he almost smiled.
They returned to Lake Forest before dawn.
Lucy was asleep in Daniel's guest room with Mrs. Alvarez beside her.
Daniel did not wake her.
He waited until nine.
When Lucy came downstairs, she wore pink pajamas beneath one of Daniel's oversized sweaters.
She carried the stuffed fox.
Eric had been moved to another wing.
Claudia sat at the breakfast table but did not approach her daughter.
That restraint cost her something.
Daniel saw it.
Lucy climbed onto a chair beside Rachel.
For several seconds, she stared.
Children did not perform disbelief the way adults did.
Her mouth simply opened.
“Aunt Rachel?”
Rachel smiled.
“Hi, bug.”
Lucy touched her sleeve.
“You're not dead.”
“No.”
“Okay.”
Rachel laughed through tears.
“Okay?”
Lucy nodded.
Then hugged her.
Adults could spend eleven months drowning in impossible explanations.
A six-year-old only needed to know the person she loved was warm.
After breakfast, Rachel placed Lucy's crayon drawing on the table.
“You made this?”
Lucy nodded.
“Daddy got mad.”
“Why?”
“Because I drew the red car.”
Daniel stayed across the room.
He let Rachel lead.
“Do you remember that night?”
Lucy hugged the fox.
“A little.”
“What do you remember?”
“Daddy said we were going home.”
“And then?”
“He followed Aunt Rachel.”
Claudia closed her eyes.
Lucy continued.
“Daddy was yelling.”
“At you?”
“No. At his phone.”
“What did he say?”
Lucy thought hard.
Six-year-old concentration pulled her eyebrows together.
“He said, ‘I'm doing it.’”
Daniel and Rachel exchanged a look.
“Anything else?”
Lucy nodded.
“He said, ‘Tell Mr. Sloan to stop calling.’”
There it was.
Eric had been working with Martin.
Rachel kept her voice gentle.
“What happened to my car?”
“Daddy went fast.”
“Did he hit me?”
Lucy shook her head.
“No.”
That surprised everyone.
“Then what happened?”
“You turned.”
Rachel frowned.
“Turned?”
Lucy moved her hand like a steering wheel.
“You went this way.”
She suddenly jerked her hand left.
“And Daddy went this way.”
Right.
Two different directions.
Rachel stared.
“I remember headlights behind me.”
Lucy nodded.
“Another car.”
Daniel moved closer.
“What color?”
Lucy looked at him.
“Black.”
A third vehicle.
That had never appeared in the photographs.
Rachel whispered, “Gabriel?”
“No,” Gabriel said from the doorway.
“My SUV was white.”
Lucy pointed at him.
“You came after.”
Gabriel stopped.
The child's timeline was precise in the simple way children's memories sometimes were.
Red car.
Black car.
Then Gabriel.
Daniel asked, “Who was in the black car?”
Lucy looked down.
“I don't know.”
“That's okay.”
“The man had Grandpa's thing.”
The watch.
Martin.
But Rachel shook her head.
“Martin was at the blue house when I left.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You saw him?”
“Yes.”
“How long before the crash?”
“Twenty minutes.”
“He could've followed you.”
“Not in twenty minutes. I left him with Claudia.”
Everyone turned.
Claudia stared at Rachel.
“What?”
“You came to the house that night.”
“No.”
Rachel went still.
“Yes, you did.”
“I was home.”
Rachel's expression changed.
“Then who was wearing your bracelet?”
Claudia touched her wrist automatically.
Rachel opened the silver box and searched.
From beneath the papers, she withdrew a photograph.
A woman's arm visible through the blue house doorway.
Around the wrist was a gold bracelet.
Claudia's bracelet.
Their mother's bracelet.
The one Claudia still owned.
Claudia stared.
“That isn't possible.”
She pulled up her sleeve.
The bracelet remained on her wrist.
Daniel looked closer.
Rachel's photograph showed one difference.
The original Caruso bracelet had six oval links.
The photograph showed seven.
A copy.
Someone had impersonated Claudia.
Not well enough for Daniel.
But perhaps well enough in darkness.
Rachel sat down slowly.
“That's why I believed Claudia betrayed me.”
Claudia's anger finally broke through her fear.
“You let me carry that for eleven months?”
“You let my brother bury me.”
Both sisters stood.
Daniel stepped between them.
“Later.”
Neither liked it.
Both listened.
Noah entered carrying a tablet.
“We searched Martin's movements from the night of the crash.”
“And?”
“His toll transponder crossed into Illinois at 10:58.”
Rachel looked at him.
“So he left Wisconsin before me.”
Noah nodded.
“He could've reached Sheridan Road.”
Daniel's jaw hardened.
Martin could have driven the black car.
Eric could have followed.
Two men.
One target.
One child in the back seat.
Daniel went to Eric's room.
This time Claudia followed.
Eric sat near the window.
He looked at Rachel and seemed to lose the ability to speak.
Rachel did not greet him.
Daniel put Lucy's drawing on the table.
“She remembers.”
Eric closed his eyes.
“God.”
“She remembers your car.”
“I know.”
“She remembers the black car.”
Eric's eyes opened.
That was fear.
Real fear.
Daniel noticed.
“Who was driving it?”
Eric shook his head.
“Martin told me not to look.”
“That's not an answer.”
Eric stood.
“I never hit Rachel.”
“You chased her with your daughter in the car.”
“I was supposed to make her stop!”
Rachel's voice cut through the room.
“You nearly killed three people.”
Eric looked at her.
His face broke.
“I know.”
Claudia whispered, “Why was Lucy with you?”
“The sitter canceled. Claudia was asleep. Martin said it would take ten minutes.”
Claudia slapped him.
Eric did not raise a hand.
He barely moved.
Then he said something none of them expected.
“Martin wasn't driving the black car.”
Daniel stared.
“How do you know?”
“Because Martin was talking to me through my earpiece.”
Rachel's face changed.
“Then who was driving?”
Eric looked at Daniel.
“I never saw the driver's face.”
“But?”
Eric swallowed.
“When the car passed me, I saw the hand on the wheel.”
He looked toward Angelo's pocket watch lying on the desk.
“The driver was wearing your father's ring.”
Daniel felt the room tilt.
His father's heavy black onyx ring had vanished the same week as the watch.
May you like
And only one living person Daniel knew had ever been authorized to wear Angelo Caruso's personal jewelry after his death.
Noah Grant.
