Chapter 4 - The Empty Crib
Caleb drove home so fast June spent most of the ride gripping the door.
The front doors were unlocked.
That alone was wrong.
Mrs. Hale never left them unsecured.
Caleb rushed upstairs.
“Elara!”
The nursery was empty.
The crib bedding had been pulled aside.
A half-empty bottle lay on the floor.
“Mrs. Hale!”
Nothing.
June moved toward the hall.
“Check the camera.”
Caleb pulled out his phone.
The security app showed every camera offline.
“Damn it.”
He called Meredith.
No answer.
Then June saw something beneath the crib.
A small white envelope.
She picked it up.
CALEB written across the front.
Inside was one sentence.
SHE’S SAFE AS LONG AS YOU STOP DIGGING.
Caleb crushed the paper.
“I’ll kill her.”
June grabbed his arm.
“That’s what whoever wrote this wants.”
“Meredith took my daughter.”
“You don’t know that.”
“She called me.”
“That proves she knew.”
“It proves enough.”
June shook her head.
“No. This is bigger than Meredith.”
Caleb stared at her.
“Why do you keep saying that?”
“Because yesterday Meredith panicked when she saw the USB.”
“So?”
“If she controlled everything, she would’ve tried to take it from me immediately.”
“She did try.”
“No.”
June’s gaze sharpened.
“She looked toward the camera.”
Caleb remembered.
“So?”
“She wasn’t afraid of what I recorded.”
June held up the envelope.
“She was afraid of what someone else recorded.”
They searched the house.
Mrs. Hale was found unconscious inside a pantry.
Alive.
No serious injuries.
When paramedics arrived, she could remember only one detail.
“A man.”
Caleb crouched beside her.
“What man?”
“I didn’t see his face.”
“Did Meredith let him in?”
Mrs. Hale closed her eyes.
“I heard her arguing.”
“With him?”
“I think so.”
“What did she say?”
Mrs. Hale swallowed.
“She said, ‘You promised we would never touch the baby.’”
Caleb went still.
June looked at him.
The threat had changed.
Meredith was involved.
But perhaps not in control.
That night Caleb took June to a secure office belonging to Whitcomb Holdings.
They inserted the USB into an isolated computer.
Eleven folders appeared.
The first contained household recordings.
Meredith bribing staff.
Meredith deleting messages.
Meredith planting prescription medication inside June’s room.
Caleb felt sick.
The second folder contained financial transfers.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars moving from a Whitcomb family trust into shell companies.
The third contained audio.
Meredith’s voice.
A man’s voice.
Unknown.
“Caleb believes everything you tell him,” the man said.
Meredith answered:
“Until he doesn’t.”
Then came another sentence.
One that made Caleb’s blood turn cold.
“If he ever finds out what happened to his mother, Elara becomes leverage.”
The recording ended.
Caleb slowly turned toward June.
“My mother died when I was fourteen.”
June nodded.
“I know.”
“She drowned.”
June said nothing.
Caleb’s voice dropped.
“Why is my mother on your USB?”
May you like
June looked toward Folder Four.
“Because I don’t think she drowned.”
