Chapter 1 - The Splash
"Daddy! Help me!"
Adrian Cole heard his daughter scream before he even saw the pool.
He shoved open the glass doors and froze.
Seven-year-old Sophie was in the water, flailing near the deep end. Her pink dress had ballooned around her legs. A soaked brown teddy bear floated a few feet away.
Vanessa stood at the edge.
Watching.
Not helping.
Adrian's suitcase hit the stone.
"SOPHIE!"
He ran, shoulder-checking Vanessa out of his path, and dove in fully dressed. The cold water punched the air from his lungs, but he reached Sophie in three strokes.
She wrapped herself around his neck.
"Daddy!"
"I've got you. I've got you."
He carried her to the steps and lifted her onto the patio.
Sophie coughed, sobbing so hard her whole body shook.
Adrian knelt in front of her.
"Look at me. Are you hurt?"
She shook her head, then pointed past him.
"She threw Mommy's bear in."
Adrian turned.
Vanessa's face was already changing into the expression she used when guests were watching: wounded, elegant, offended.
"Adrian, this is being blown completely out of proportion."
Sophie clung harder to his shirt.
"She kicked me."
Vanessa laughed once. "She slipped."
"I didn't!"
"Sophie," Vanessa said sharply, "stop lying."
Adrian stood.
"Don't speak to her like that."
Vanessa blinked. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me."
Adrian waded back into the shallow end and grabbed the teddy bear.
Claire had given it to Sophie in the hospital the week before she died.
Its fur was faded. One ear had been repaired twice.
Vanessa folded her arms.
"That filthy thing should have been thrown away years ago."
Sophie burst into fresh tears.
Adrian's jaw tightened.
Then the teddy bear split along its soaked belly seam.
Something metallic dropped onto the wet stone.
Clink.
All three of them looked down.
A small brass key lay beside Adrian's shoe.
Vanessa stopped breathing.
Adrian noticed.
He picked up the key.
Stamped into the metal were three numbers:
317.
"What is this?" he asked.
Vanessa took one step back.
Sophie wiped her face.
"Mommy put it there."
Adrian slowly looked at his daughter.
"When?"
"The night she told me not to let anyone take Teddy."
May you like
Vanessa went pale.
And Adrian realized this was the first time in two years he had ever heard Sophie talk about her mother's final night.
