Chapter 2 - THE DEATH THAT NEVER CLOSED
Detective Aaron Cole entered with a female uniformed officer and a warrant.
Rachel stood near the sink, arms folded, trying to look offended rather than frightened.
Evelyn sat at the table wrapped in a clean blanket. Her scalp was red where the stew had burned her. David remained beside her.
The blinking light beneath the island had stopped, but the tiny device was still there.
Cole crouched and inspected it without touching.
“Do any of you know what this is?”
Rachel answered too quickly.
“No.”
David shook his head.
Evelyn said nothing.
Cole looked at her.
“Mrs. Mercer?”
“I have never seen it before.”
That was true.
The detective placed an evidence marker beside it and photographed the location.
“We received an anonymous message thirty minutes ago,” he said. “A live audio file from this kitchen.”
Rachel’s face tightened.
“What kind of message?”
“The file included an assault on Mrs. Mercer and a reference to an older case.”
Evelyn stared at him.
“What case?”
“Your husband’s death.”
Thomas Mercer died after falling from the second-floor landing of the same house eleven years earlier. He struck the bottom step. Rachel had not yet married David. She had been working as a private caregiver hired after Evelyn’s hip surgery.
That was how she entered the family.
The death was ruled accidental.
Thomas had been drinking. The railing was loose. No criminal charges were filed.
Cole placed a sealed envelope on the table.
“This was delivered to my office last week.”
Inside was a photograph of Thomas standing beside the kitchen island. The image was dated two days before his death.
Under the island, a tiny red light blinked.
The same position.
The same size.
David’s face changed.
“That was here then?”
Cole nodded.
“Someone has been recording this kitchen for at least eleven years.”
Rachel laughed nervously.
“That is absurd.”
Cole looked at her.
“Is it?”
The warrant allowed officers to search the kitchen, office, attic, and basement.
Behind the island panel, investigators found a hidden wire running through the floor. It led to the basement.
In the basement, behind a false wall, police found a steel cabinet. Inside were hard drives labeled by year.
2009. 2010. 2011. Every year through the present.
The first drive was opened at the station.
The earliest file began eleven years ago.
Thomas and Evelyn sat in the kitchen late at night.
Thomas whispered, “Rachel is not who she says she is.”
David stopped breathing.
Evelyn looked at the screen.
Her younger self asked, “What did you find?”
Thomas held up a folder.
“She has three names.”
The video ended.
Cole opened the folder recovered from the hidden cabinet.
Inside were identity records.
Rachel Ann Price.
Rachel Elise Ward.
Rachel Mercer.
Three names.
Three birth dates.
One photograph.
David looked at his wife.
Rachel said nothing.
Then another file opened.
Thomas’s voice filled the room.
“If I die, she did not come here for David.”
May you like
A pause.
“She came here for Evelyn.”
