Chapter 3 - THE DRAWING UNDER THE FLOORBOARD
Rachael refused to talk in the hallway.
Detective Hale moved us into a small consultation room.
The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead.
I sat across from my wife.
She kept staring at the bracelet on the table.
“What did Evan want?”
Rachael rubbed both hands over her face.
“I don't know.”
“That's not good enough.”
“I know.”
“You recognized that bracelet.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She looked at me.
“Because I gave it to Felicity.”
“When?”
“When she was seven.”
“Why would Evan’s initials be on it?”
“They weren't.”
She pointed at the evidence bag.
“Not originally.”
I frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Rachael swallowed.
“When Felicity was seven, Evan gave her a charm.”
“What charm?”
“A little silver heart.”
“He gave it to her?”
“He was different then.”
That sentence bothered me.
“Different how?”
“Less angry.”
“About what?”
“About our father.”
There it was.
The first piece of something larger.
Rachael explained that Evan had been the youngest of three siblings.
Their father, Robert Mercer, had owned several construction companies before dying unexpectedly.
After his death, the family fractured.
Evan believed their father had left something behind that had been deliberately hidden.
Something involving money.
Something involving the company.
Rachael had refused to get involved.
Evan never forgave her.
“He thought I stole from him,” she said.
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Did your father leave you anything?”
Rachael looked down.
“A watch.”
My eyes went to the table.
The same watch now sitting in an evidence bag.
“Where did you get it?”
“My father gave it to me before he died.”
“You told me you didn't know where it went.”
“I lied.”
“Why?”
“Because Evan wanted it.”
I leaned back.
“For what?”
“I don't know.”
“You're telling me your brother attacked our daughter over a watch?”
“No.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I think the watch was only a key.”
A detective knocked and entered.
Hale carried a thin evidence folder.
“We searched the house.”
He placed photographs on the table.
“Nothing significant was stolen.”
He slid another photograph toward me.
“Except this.”
It showed the floor beneath Felicity’s bed.
One wooden board had been lifted.
Underneath was an empty space.
Hale placed another photograph beside it.
A child's drawing.
Folded twice.
The paper was old and yellowed.
“What is that?”
Rachael reached for it.
Her hands started shaking.
“I've never seen this.”
I unfolded it.
A little girl had drawn a house.
Three people stood outside.
A woman.
A man.
A child.
Above them was a crooked yellow sun.
At the bottom, in childish handwriting, were the words:
DADDY SAID KEEP THIS SAFE.
I looked at Rachael.
She stared at the drawing as though it had come from a grave.
“Felicity drew this?”
“She would have been seven.”
Hale nodded.
“We found it underneath the floorboard.”
“Why would she hide it?”
“I don't know.”
I turned the paper over.
There was something written on the back.
Not in a child's handwriting.
A single sentence.
WHEN THE WATCH STOPS, LOOK WHERE THE CHILD DREW THE SUN.
My pulse slowed.
“Who wrote this?”
Hale shook his head.
“We don't know.”
Rachael stood suddenly.
“No.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“I remember.”
“What do you remember?”
“The day Felicity got that bracelet.”
Rachael’s voice trembled.
“Evan came to the house.”
I waited.
“He was fighting with my father.”
“What about?”
“I never heard the whole argument.”
“What did he say?”
Rachael closed her eyes.
“He said Dad had hidden something in the house.”
Hale asked,
“What did your father say?”
“I don't know.”
“You were there?”
“I was upstairs.”
She looked at me.
“But Felicity was downstairs.”
My stomach tightened.
“She heard them?”
“I think so.”
Hale picked up the watch.
“It stopped at 4:17.”
I looked at the face.
The second hand was frozen.
4:17.
The exact time I had entered the house.
“No,” I said.
Hale shook his head.
“It was already stopped.”
“Where?”
“In Felicity’s room.”
He showed me another photograph.
The watch had been lying beneath her pillow.
But Felicity had been holding it when the ambulance arrived.
She must have grabbed it after the attack.
Or someone had placed it in her hand.
Either possibility was disturbing.
Then my phone vibrated.
A message from an unknown number.
Not a call.
A photograph.
I opened it.
It was a picture of Felicity at age seven.
Standing beside her grandfather.
Robert Mercer.
He was wearing the same watch.
Behind them was a wall with a large framed landscape.
The sun in the painting pointed toward a wooden cabinet.
I stared at it.
Rachael whispered,
“That picture was in Dad's office.”
“Where is it now?”
“I don't know.”
Hale looked at me.
“Don't respond.”
I wasn't going to.
The message disappeared.
Not deleted by me.
It simply vanished from the screen.
I looked at the detective.
“Can your people recover that?”
“We'll try.”
Then Rachael said something quietly.
“Daniel.”
“What?”
“Evan wasn't the only person who knew about the watch.”
I turned.
“Who else?”
“My father.”
“Obviously.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“I mean someone else.”
She reached into her purse and pulled out an old photograph.
It showed three young adults standing outside a construction site.
Robert Mercer.
Rachael.
And another woman.
A woman I had never seen.
Rachael pointed to her.
“My father's assistant.”
“Name?”
“Marianne Cole.”
Hale frowned.
“Is she alive?”
“I don't know.”
“Why does she matter?”
Rachael's eyes moved to the child's drawing.
“Because Marianne was the person my father trusted with everything.”
Hale looked at the photograph.
Then at the watch.
Then at me.
“We need to find her.”
I nodded.
But before anyone could move, a nurse rushed into the room.
“Mr. Bennett?”
I stood.
“Your daughter is awake.”
I nearly ran.
But the nurse caught my arm.
“She can only speak for a minute.”
I entered Felicity’s room alone.
Her eyes opened slowly.
“Dad?”
“I’m here.”
She looked frightened.
“Where's Mom?”
“She’s right outside.”
Felicity swallowed.
Then she reached weakly toward me.
I took her hand.
“Who hurt you?”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I don't know.”
“Did you see him?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
“Was it Evan?”
She shook her head.
“No.”
My blood went cold.
“Then who?”
Felicity stared toward the door.
“He said Uncle Evan sent him.”
I leaned closer.
“Did he say why?”
She nodded.
“He wanted Grandpa's watch.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
Then she squeezed my hand.
“But Dad…”
“What?”
“He wasn't alone.”
Her eyes widened.
“There were two men.”
She began trembling.
“One of them kept saying they were running out of time.”
“Time for what?”
Felicity looked at me.
“To find the child.”
My heart stopped.
“What child?”
She whispered,
May you like
“The one in Grandpa's picture.”
And then she closed her eyes.
