Chapter 9 - THE HOUSE OLIVIA LEFT BEHIND
That afternoon, Ethan took Lucy to her apartment.
Police had not been officially involved yet, but Mason hired two licensed security officers to accompany them.
Olivia wanted Lucy to retrieve clothes.
Ethan wanted the copies of everything she had saved.
The apartment was small.
Clean.
Warm.
Family photographs covered one wall.
Lucy at one.
Lucy at three.
Lucy holding a violin at eight.
Lucy beside Olivia in front of a Christmas tree.
Ethan stood in the center of the living room and realized he was looking at his missing life.
Eleven years compressed into photographs.
Lucy watched him.
“Mom kept a picture of you too.”
She walked to a bookshelf.
Behind several novels sat a framed photograph.
Ethan and Olivia at twenty-six.
They were standing beside a lake.
His arm was around her shoulders.
He remembered the day.
He had proposed two weeks later.
“She used to look at it when she thought I was asleep.”
Ethan swallowed.
“Did she talk about me?”
“Sometimes.”
“What did she say?”
“That you loved pancakes but were terrible at making them.”
Ethan smiled despite himself.
“That is accurate.”
“She said you hated olives.”
“Also accurate.”
“She said you wanted three kids.”
Ethan looked at her.
“I did.”
Lucy picked at the sleeve of her sweatshirt.
“Do you still?”
The question surprised him.
“I don't know.”
She nodded.
Then she opened a closet.
“Mom's boxes are in here.”
They found six storage containers.
Letters.
Receipts.
Photographs.
Bank statements.
Old phones.
One small digital recorder.
Mason had instructed Ethan not to examine electronic devices without creating forensic copies.
So they placed everything into evidence bags.
Then Lucy pulled down a shoebox.
“This one is mine.”
Inside were birthday cards.
Each had the same words written on the envelope.
FOR DAD.
Ethan sat on the floor.
Lucy sat beside him.
“You made these?”
“One every year after I was five.”
“Why?”
“Mom said maybe someday you'd get them.”
Ethan opened the first.
A stick figure family stood beneath a yellow sun.
MOM.
LUCY.
DAD.
The father figure had been drawn with dark hair and an enormous smile.
Ethan looked away.
Lucy noticed.
“You can cry.”
“I know.”
“Mom says men sometimes think they can't.”
“Your mom says a lot of smart things.”
“She does.”
Ethan wiped his eyes.
Then one of the security officers called from the hallway.
“Mr. Pierce.”
Ethan stood.
“What is it?”
The officer pointed toward the front door.
The lock showed fresh scratches.
“Someone tried to force entry.”
“When?”
“Hard to say.”
Ethan's entire body tightened.
He told Lucy to stay behind him.
They checked the apartment.
Nothing obvious was missing.
Until Lucy entered her mother's bedroom.
She stopped.
“The box.”
“What box?”
“A red box under Mom's bed.”
They looked.
Nothing.
“What was inside?”
“I don't know.”
“Did you ever see it?”
“Once.”
“What did it look like?”
“Metal.”
“How big?”
Lucy held her hands apart.
“About this big.”
Ethan called Mason.
Within an hour, a forensic team arrived.
They found partial fingerprints.
A damaged window latch.
And a tiny camera hidden inside a smoke detector facing Olivia's desk.
Ethan stared at it.
Someone had been watching Olivia inside her own home.
Lucy clung to his arm.
“Was that there the whole time?”
“I don't know.”
He hated the answer.
A technician removed the device.
Then he frowned.
“This isn't a simple wireless camera.”
“What does that mean?”
“It has internal storage.”
Mason arrived just as the technician removed a memory card.
“If whoever installed this didn't wipe it remotely, we may have recordings.”
Ethan looked toward Olivia's desk.
A calendar still showed the wedding date circled in red.
August 29.
Mason placed the card into a protective sleeve.
“We'll know soon.”
As they prepared to leave, Lucy stopped beside the doorway.
She looked down at the floor.
Something silver was wedged beneath the radiator.
She picked it up.
A cufflink.
Ethan recognized it immediately.
Black enamel.
Silver border.
Initials engraved on the back.
R.P.
May you like
Robert Pierce.
His father's cufflink.
