Chapter 8 - Out on Bond
Claire called before Daniel reached home.
"You turned my life into a police show."
Daniel put the call on speaker while Ortiz recorded.
"Where are you?"
"Why? So you can send more people after me?"
"Your belongings were in a residential center owned by your brother?"
Claire laughed.
"You sound like Laura now."
"Good."
Her voice changed.
"Daniel, you think Sophie is safe because she's with you. She isn't."
Ortiz signaled for him to keep her talking.
"Is that a threat?"
"It's reality. You have no idea who Marcus works for."
Sophie hated leaving her room.
"Are we moving?"
"Just for a little while."
"Because of Claire?"
"Did I make her mad by not saying the words?"
His throat tightened.
"No."
"She said if I just said Daddy scares me, everything would be easier."
"You never have to say something that isn't true to make an adult happy."
Sophie nodded, then reached into her backpack.
She pulled out a stuffed rabbit Daniel had not seen in years.
Hannah had given it to her when she was three.
"Claire threw Bunny away," Sophie said.
"Then how do you have it?"
"I got it from the basement."
Daniel frowned.
Sophie unzipped a tiny seam in the rabbit's back.
Inside was an old prepaid phone.
Daniel stared.
"Where did this come from?"
"Mommy's box."
Hannah had been dead four years.
The phone should have been useless.
Laura charged it anyway.
It powered on.
No service.
But several saved voice memos remained.
Hannah's voice filled Rebecca's kitchen.
"Daniel, if you're hearing this, I was right to worry about Brightwood."
Daniel went completely still.
Sophie looked up.
"That's Mommy."
The recording continued.
"Their intake model isn't treatment. It's extraction. They target families where a child has money and the adults are in conflict. I sent what I found to someone at the state board. If anything happens to me, talk to Ava Brooks."
Laura looked at Daniel.
"Your wife knew about them?"
Daniel could barely answer.
"She was reviewing nonprofit contracts before she got sick."
The next memo was dated two weeks before Hannah died from what doctors called a sudden aneurysm.
Her voice sounded frightened.
"Someone came to the house today. A woman named Claire Bennett. She said I needed to stop asking questions."
Daniel looked at the phone.
Claire's maiden name was Reed.
At least, that was the name she had given him.
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Then Hannah said:
"I took a picture. If she ever comes near Sophie, do not believe a word she says."
