Chapter 2 - THE MAN SHE HAD SPENT THREE YEARS ESCAPING
“That's Poppy's father.”
Claire's voice was barely audible beneath the Crane mansion's front portico.
Nathaniel looked from her pale face to the frozen security footage on Tobias Reyes's phone.
A dark-haired man stood beside Walter Shaw inside the pool house.
He was wearing a brown work jacket.
His hair was shorter than in the photograph Claire kept buried at the bottom of an old shoebox.
But she knew his face.
She knew those shoulders.
And she knew the habit of keeping his left hand tucked inside his jacket whenever he was uncomfortable.
“Owen Mercer,” she whispered.
Nathaniel turned toward her.
“Is that his name?”
Claire nodded.
Poppy stirred against Nathaniel's shoulder.
“Mommy?”
“I'm here, sweetheart.”
The little girl settled again, completely unaware that the man her mother had spent three years avoiding had somehow entered the house where they were supposed to be safe.
Tobias lowered the phone.
“I need to ask you something, Claire. Does Mercer work in security?”
“He used to repair commercial alarm systems. Before that, he worked on warehouse equipment.”
Nathaniel exchanged a look with Tobias.
“Who employed him?”
Claire hesitated.
“Different companies. The last one I knew about was a trucking contractor near the river.”
“Kessler?”
She closed her eyes.
“I don't know.”
Nathaniel looked at Tobias.
“Find out. Quietly.”
Then he turned back to Claire.
“You don't have to explain your past tonight.”
“Yes, I do.”
She looked at Poppy.
“Because if he's here, my past isn't staying in the past.”
Nathaniel carried the sleeping child into the house.
Mrs. Babcock appeared from the hallway, still wearing her cardigan over her nightdress.
One look at Claire's face was enough.
“Oh, honey.”
Claire swallowed.
“Could you take Poppy somewhere warm?”
“Of course.”
Poppy opened one sleepy eye when Nathaniel handed her over.
“Gus?”
“Right here,” Mrs. Babcock whispered, tucking the rabbit beneath her arm.
The child relaxed.
Nathaniel watched until they disappeared down the hallway.
Then he turned to Claire.
“Tell me what you want me to know.”
They went into the study.
Claire remained standing.
“Owen wasn't cruel when I met him,” she began. “He was funny. He fixed things without being asked. When my car broke down, he worked all night so I could get to my job.”
She looked at her hands.
“Then he lost steady work. Bills piled up. He started deciding who I could talk to. He checked my phone. Took money from our savings because he said I couldn't be trusted to manage it.”
Nathaniel listened without interrupting.
“When I became pregnant, he wanted me to quit working. I refused.”
“What happened?”
“He told me I'd never keep our baby away from him.”
Her voice tightened.
“I didn't wait to see what he meant.”
Nathaniel glanced toward the hallway where Poppy had disappeared.
“Has he ever met her?”
“No.”
“Does he know where you've been living?”
“He didn't. Not when I came to Chicago.”
“Then somebody told him.”
Claire looked at the frozen footage again.
Walter Shaw.
The man Nathaniel had trusted since he was a teenager.
The man who had warned Claire to leave.
Suddenly, that warning felt very different.
“He wasn't trying to protect Poppy,” she said.
“Maybe not,” Nathaniel answered. “But we don't know everything yet.”
Tobias entered carrying his tablet.
“I found Mercer.”
He placed it on the desk.
Owen had been employed for eighteen months by a company called Lakeshore Systems Maintenance.
Its largest customer was Kessler Freight.
Nathaniel studied the screen.
“Who approved his visit to my property?”
“Walter.”
“Under his real name?”
“No. The visitors' list identifies him as a technical consultant named Daniel Pike.”
Claire pressed a hand against her mouth.
“He used to use that name when he wanted someone to stop asking questions.”
Nathaniel's expression hardened.
Tobias continued.
“I restored another section of the pool-house footage.”
On the screen, Walter handed Owen a folder.
Owen opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
Tobias enlarged the image.
Claire suddenly gripped the desk.
It showed Poppy outside her daycare.
Yellow raincoat.
Pink backpack.
Gus dangling from one hand.
The photograph had been taken recently.
Very recently.
Claire recognized the little scrape on Poppy's knee from the previous month.
“He's been watching her.”
Nathaniel looked at Tobias.
“Preserve that footage. Nobody touches the original.”
Tobias nodded.
Then he hesitated.
“There's something else.”
He opened the mansion's access-control records.
Walter had created a temporary security exception for Saturday night.
Ten until two.
The same hours mentioned through Poppy's stuffed rabbit.
Nathaniel read the authorization.
Then read it again.
A cold silence settled over the study.
Claire leaned closer.
“What does that mean?”
Tobias pointed to a line beneath the scheduled access window.
“The system is set to recognize one household employee as the person requesting the alarm shutdown.”
“Who?” Claire asked.
Tobias looked at her.
Then turned the tablet around.
The name displayed on the screen was:
CLAIRE HOLLIS — AUTHORIZED ACCESS.
Beneath it were the words:
SATURDAY, 10:00 P.M. — SECURITY OVERRIDE.
Claire backed away from the desk.
“I never authorized anything.”
Nathaniel's face changed.
Walter hadn't merely planned to use Claire's daughter against him.
May you like
He had arranged for the evidence of Saturday night's intrusion to point directly at Poppy's mother.
And Owen Mercer had been inside the room where that plan was prepared.
