Chapter 4 - What Daniel Found Behind the Wall
The police traced the call to a disposable phone.
Useless.
Daniel returned home before dawn.
He couldn't sleep.
Instead, he entered the hidden room.
He searched every inch.
If Rebecca had trusted Vivian, maybe she had left something.
Daniel removed the mattress.
Nothing.
He checked the walls.
Nothing.
Then he noticed one floorboard was slightly darker.
He pried it loose.
Beneath it was a small metal box.
Inside were three flash drives and an envelope.
On the envelope:
DANIEL
His hands shook.
Inside was a letter.
Rebecca had written it.
She apologized for disappearing.
She explained that their father, Charles, had been moving company money through fraudulent development contracts.
But Charles hadn't acted alone.
Rebecca had gathered proof.
Before she could give it to authorities, someone sabotaged her car.
She escaped only because she'd switched vehicles with a colleague minutes before the crash.
Then came the line that changed everything.
Dad wasn't the one who ordered it.
Daniel read it twice.
Below:
The person who wanted me dead was someone Dad trusted completely. Someone who still has access to the Carter family.
Daniel inserted the first flash drive into his laptop.
Financial records.
The second contained recordings.
The third was encrypted.
One recording featured Charles.
Another voice spoke with him.
Daniel recognized it.
He listened again.
"No."
The voice belonged to Martin Hale.
Carter Development's chief financial officer.
Daniel's godfather.
The man who had attended every birthday.
The man who had comforted Daniel at Rebecca's funeral.
The man who currently controlled access to hundreds of millions in company accounts.
Daniel called Detective Lena Brooks.
Within an hour, investigators were reviewing everything.
Then Vivian noticed something.
"There's a file missing."
"What?"
"Rebecca had a ledger."
"What ledger?"
"The original transaction record. Names, dates, account numbers. Everything."
"Where?"
"Rebecca hid it with Nora."
Daniel stared.
"You're telling me a six-year-old has evidence?"
"Not knowingly."
Vivian explained that Rebecca had sewn a micro-storage device into Nora's stuffed rabbit.
Daniel immediately thought of the backpack in the apartment.
No rabbit.
"Who knows?"
"Me."
"Anyone else?"
Vivian hesitated.
"Rebecca."
"She's dead."
"And Nora."
Daniel's blood ran cold.
"Does Nora know where it is?"
"Rebecca taught her one rule. If someone ever asked about the rabbit, she was supposed to run."
Daniel remembered the call.
Someone had Nora.
But maybe they didn't yet have what they wanted.
Detective Brooks entered.
"We found traffic footage."
A camera near the apartment had captured a dark SUV leaving minutes after Nora disappeared.
Registered to a Carter Development subsidiary.
Daniel knew exactly who had access.
Martin.
Police went to Martin's house.
Empty.
His office.
Empty.
Then Daniel's phone buzzed.
A photograph.
Nora sitting in a chair.
Alive.
Beside her was a handwritten message.
Bring Rebecca's drives. Come alone.
An address followed.
Daniel showed Brooks.
"No," she said immediately.
"I'm going."
"We'll handle it."
"If Martin sees police—"
"We don't know it's Martin."
"I do."
Vivian stepped forward.
"I'm coming."
Daniel looked at her.
"No."
"Rebecca entrusted Nora to me."
"And you hid her behind a wall."
Vivian's face tightened.
"I know what I did."
"Do you?"
"Every second."
Daniel saw something in her eyes he hadn't allowed himself to see.
Shame.
Real shame.
Vivian had made terrible choices.
But she loved Nora.
That didn't erase what happened.
It did mean Daniel needed the full truth.
"Why the wall?"
Vivian finally explained.
Someone had followed Nora from school two weeks earlier.
Vivian panicked.
She brought Nora into the Carter house because its security system was stronger than anywhere else she knew.
She intended the hidden room to be temporary.
But she was terrified Daniel would discover Rebecca had survived and realize Vivian had lied throughout their marriage.
"So you chose protecting your lie over asking me for help."
Vivian lowered her head.
"Yes."
Daniel didn't answer.
Because there was nothing to say.
At sunset, he drove toward the address.
Police followed at a distance despite Martin's instructions.
The location was an abandoned Carter Development property.
Daniel entered alone.
"Nora?"
Silence.
Then—
"Uncle Daniel?"
He followed the voice.
Nora sat behind a locked office door.
Daniel broke it open.
She ran into him.
He had never met her properly.
Yet when she wrapped her arms around him, Daniel felt something inside him break.
Rebecca's daughter.
His family.
"I'm taking you home."
Nora pulled away.
"We can't."
"Why?"
"He wants Bunny."
"Who?"
Nora pointed behind Daniel.
Daniel turned.
Martin Hale stood in the doorway.
May you like
And he was holding a gun.
"She's right," Martin said quietly. "Nobody leaves until I get that rabbit."
