Chapter 7 - The Burning House
Claire kicked the bedroom window once.
Pain shot through her foot.
Again.
The glass cracked.
A deputy reached her and smashed it with a rescue hammer.
Smoke rolled out.
"Sophie! Get back!"
Claire climbed through before anyone could stop her.
The room was hot and dark. Sophie was crying near the bed, coughing so hard she could barely stand.
Claire wrapped her jacket around the girl's head and lifted her.
"I've got you."
"Mommy, I'm sorry."
"No. No, baby. You did nothing wrong."
A section of burning curtain dropped behind them.
Claire screamed for help.
A firefighter appeared through the doorway and carried them out.
On the lawn, Sophie clung to Claire with both arms.
"The lady said Dad was coming."
"What lady?"
Sophie pointed weakly toward the road.
Police had a woman face-down beside a black SUV.
Not Vivienne.
It was Dr. Halpern's office manager.
Under questioning, she admitted she had been paid to move Sophie but claimed she had not started the fire.
"Julian told me the child had been kidnapped by her mother's family," she insisted. "He said I was helping return her to her father."
Mara found an accelerant can near the rear door.
Then she found a second set of tire tracks leading away from the beach.
Somebody else had been there.
At the hospital, Sophie's lungs were clear. Claire sat beside her bed, watching the rise and fall of her chest.
Then she remembered Lena's recorder.
The stuffed rabbit had come out of the fire blackened but intact.
Mara cut open the seam.
Inside was a tiny digital recorder wrapped in a freezer bag.
There were dozens of files.
They listened in silence.
Julian's voice: "Tell the evaluator your mother scares you."
Sophie: "But she doesn't."
Vivienne: "Then we practice until you say it right."
Another file.
A slap.
Sophie crying.
Another.
Dr. Halpern: "The dose is safe enough. She'll look tired, confused, emotionally labile."
Then the final recording played.
Julian sounded furious.
"Arthur is getting suspicious."
A man's voice answered him.
"Then stop being sloppy. Claire only has to look incompetent long enough for the transfer."
Arthur's face changed.
Claire looked at him.
"You know that voice."
Arthur did not answer.
Mara did.
"I do."
May you like
She swallowed.
"That's Dominic Vale. Arthur's chief financial officer."
