Chapter 10 - The Cabin in the Mountains
Police reached the mountain cabin shortly after sunrise.
Marcus remained at the estate under Detective Cole’s insistence.
He hated every second of waiting.
Elena stayed only because the police needed a full statement from her.
Neither of them spoke much.
At 6:18 a.m., Cole’s phone rang.
He answered.
Marcus watched his face.
“What?”
Cole listened.
Then he looked at Marcus.
“They found Rachel.”
Marcus stood.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
Relief crossed his face.
“Victoria?”
“Gone.”
Rachel had been found locked inside an upstairs bedroom.
She was frightened but physically unharmed.
Victoria had left less than an hour before officers arrived.
A neighbor reported seeing a black SUV heading east.
Inside the cabin, police found more than the missing security recorder.
They found an entire room dedicated to Marcus’s family.
Photographs covered the walls.
Natalie’s face had been cut from several pictures.
In others, Victoria had placed photographs of herself beside Marcus.
There were copies of the baby’s medical records.
Staff schedules.
Maps of the estate.
Elena’s home address.
Sofia’s university schedule.
Rosa’s family information.
The obsession was organized.
Patient.
Years old.
Then police found a folder labeled PHASE THREE.
Marcus felt sick when Cole told him.
Inside were printed documents describing an imagined future.
Elena arrested for child endangerment.
Marcus emotionally devastated.
Victoria moving permanently into the estate.
A private wedding ceremony.
Then adoption papers.
She had researched becoming the baby’s legal parent.
Marcus stared at the floor.
“She planned everything.”
Cole nodded.
“There’s more.”
Marcus looked up.
“The recorder?”
“We recovered it.”
David began extracting the files immediately.
The pool video was only the beginning.
More recordings showed Victoria rehearsing.
She practiced screaming for help.
She moved the stroller along different paths.
She tested how quickly it rolled toward the pool.
She timed Elena’s routine.
One video showed Victoria standing beside the water whispering to herself.
“Elena pushes him.”
Then she shook her head.
Again.
“Elena pushed him.”
Again.
More frightened.
“She pushed him.”
Marcus could barely watch.
But one detail disturbed Detective Cole even more.
In several recordings, Victoria spoke to someone on the phone.
The voice could not be heard.
But Victoria repeatedly said one name.
Daniel.
Marcus frowned.
“I don’t know any Daniel connected to her.”
Elena did.
Her face changed.
“Daniel Price.”
Everyone looked at her.
“Who is he?”
“A driver.”
Marcus frowned.
“We don’t have a driver named Daniel.”
“He came to the estate twice.”
“When?”
“Victoria told me he was delivering documents.”
Elena remembered his face.
Forties.
Tall.
Gray jacket.
A scar beside his left eyebrow.
David searched visitor logs.
The name did not appear.
But security footage showed the man entering through the maintenance road.
The same road Victoria used to escape.
Cole began searching databases.
Minutes later, he found him.
Daniel Price had convictions for fraud, unlawful surveillance, and blackmail.
Marcus stared at the photograph.
“That’s him?”
Elena nodded.
Cole’s expression darkened.
“Victoria didn’t plan this alone.”
At that exact moment, Marcus’s phone vibrated.
A new message appeared.
It contained a photograph of his son sleeping in the hospital crib.
Taken from inside the room.
Marcus’s blood turned cold.
May you like
The message beneath it said:
You should have stayed with him.
