Chapter 2 - She Knew Too Much
Rachel did not react.
Years in operating rooms had taught her that panic was useful only after a crisis had passed.
During the crisis, you watched.
You listened.
You gathered information.
So she smiled.
“Yeah,” she said. “Caleb calls her that sometimes.”
The woman nodded.
“Cute.”
Rachel walked toward the counter and picked up her phone.
Three unread hospital messages glowed on the screen.
She ignored them.
“Julia, remind me,” Rachel said casually, “how did you get here?”
The woman blinked.
“Bus.”
“From Queen Anne?”
A pause.
Tiny.
Maybe half a second.
Then she smiled.
“Right.”
Rachel’s skin prickled.
The real Julia lived in Ballard.
Rachel knew because she had joked about the awful traffic during their first meeting.
Maybe this woman was tired.
Maybe Rachel had said the wrong neighborhood.
She needed something stronger than a pause.
“I thought you drove last time.”
“My car’s in the shop.”
“Right.”
Rachel did not remember hearing that.
The woman leaned against the counter.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to talk to Caleb? Sometimes kids settle down faster when the parent steps away.”
“No.”
Too fast.
Rachel softened it.
“I mean, no, I should handle it.”
“Of course.”
Rachel looked at the phone in her hand.
The message thread labeled JULIA PARK was still open from earlier.
4:12 P.M.
Running about five minutes behind. Sorry! See you soon.
4:47 P.M.
Here.
Rachel had received that second message almost exactly when the doorbell rang.
The number matched.
Same contact.
Same profile photo.
Julia standing at Pike Place Market holding a bouquet of flowers.
Rachel’s mind pushed back against suspicion.
Phones could not simply become other people.
The woman standing in her kitchen knew Julia’s schedule.
She knew the children’s names.
She knew details from the house.
She had known the security code.
Rachel herself had watched her type it.
2874.
Correct the first time.
No hesitation.
Caleb was frightened, yes.
But children could be sincerely frightened and still be wrong.
Rachel glanced upstairs.
No sound.
She lowered her voice.
“Can I ask you something weird?”
The woman laughed.
“After tonight? Sure.”
“What’s my emergency number at the hospital?”
The woman frowned.
“I don’t know.”
Rachel watched her.
“You don’t?”
“I have your cell.”
That was a good answer.
Rachel had not given Julia the emergency line.
She tried another.
“What did Mia show you when you came by last week?”
The woman smiled immediately.
“Every stuffed animal she owns.”
Rachel felt her heart sink.
Correct.
“Especially the rabbit.”
Also correct.
Mia’s white rabbit, Daisy, had taken up at least ten minutes of that visit.
Rachel almost laughed from relief.
This was ridiculous.
She was interrogating a babysitter because a nine-year-old did not want his mother to leave.
Then the woman added, “And the little yellow bear.”
Rachel’s relief vanished.
Mia did not own a yellow bear.
“Right,” Rachel said.
She watched the woman’s face.
Nothing.
No realization.
No correction.
Rachel’s pulse accelerated.
The stranger smiled and picked up her bag.
“I can go, if tonight isn’t going to work.”
Rachel looked at her.
The offer sounded reasonable.
Maybe even kind.
It also solved nothing.
If Rachel let her walk out now and Caleb was somehow right, she would lose the only chance to understand what was happening.
“No,” Rachel said. “Stay for a minute.”
The woman’s fingers tightened around the bag strap.
Then relaxed.
“Sure.”
Rachel walked toward the stairs again.
“I’m going to get Caleb.”
Upstairs, she returned to the bathroom.
“Caleb.”
“I’m here.”
Rachel knelt.
“Listen very carefully. Is the bathroom window locked?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
“Good. Keep it locked.”
Caleb’s breathing changed.
“You believe me?”
“I believe something is wrong.”
“That means you believe me.”
Rachel almost smiled despite herself.
“Do not open the door yet.”
“Okay.”
“Mia?”
“Yes?”
“Stay with Caleb.”
“Okay.”
Rachel sat on the hallway floor.
“Now tell me everything.”
There was movement behind the door.
Caleb spoke quietly.
“When she came in, I thought she looked different.”
“Different how?”
“I don’t know.”
“Hair?”
“No.”
“Face?”
“Kind of.”
Rachel frowned.
“Caleb, people can look different depending on clothes or makeup.”
“I know.”
“What else?”
“She didn’t look at Mia right.”
Rachel waited.
“What does that mean?”
“She looked at her like she was checking.”
“Checking what?”
“That it was her.”
Rachel stared at the door.
Children described things strangely.
Sometimes badly.
But sometimes they saw exactly what adults had trained themselves not to notice.
“What happened after that?”
“She said hi to me.”
“And?”
“She called me Caleb.”
“She knows your name.”
“I know.”
“Then?”
“She looked at Mia and said, ‘You must be Mia.’”
Rachel sat straighter.
The real Julia had met Mia.
Not briefly.
For almost forty minutes.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“Those exact words?”
“Yes.”
Rachel rubbed her thumb against the edge of her phone.
“What else?”
“She asked if Mia wanted to come downstairs.”
“For what?”
“She said she had a surprise.”
Rachel’s stomach tightened.
“What kind?”
“She didn’t say.”
“Then why did you lock the bathroom?”
Caleb did not answer.
“Caleb?”
His voice dropped.
“Because she called Mia Little Bear.”
Rachel stopped moving.
There it was again.
The nickname.
“What exactly did she say?”
“She said, ‘Come on, Little Bear, I have something downstairs for you.’”
Rachel’s heart began to pound.
“How would she know that nickname?”
“I don’t know.”
Rachel did.
Or at least she knew where it existed.
Her text messages.
Julia’s text messages.
Family group chats.
Photographs.
Rachel stood.
“Stay inside.”
“Mom?”
“I’m right here.”
She walked to the bedroom, closed the door halfway, and opened Julia’s contact.
Instead of calling the number she had been texting all afternoon, Rachel opened the email Julia had sent when they first arranged childcare.
At the bottom was an emergency contact.
A sister.
EMILY PARK.
Rachel tapped the number.
It rang twice.
“Hello?”
“Is this Emily?”
“Yes?”
“My name is Rachel Morgan. Your sister Julia is supposed to be babysitting my children tonight.”
A pause.
“What?”
Rachel gripped the phone tighter.
“She’s at my house.”
“No, she isn’t.”
Rachel stopped breathing.
Emily continued, voice suddenly tense.
“Julia’s with me.”
Rachel looked toward the bedroom door.
“What?”
“She got mugged this afternoon.”
Rachel’s fingers went cold.
“What happened?”
“Someone stole her bag near Green Lake. Her phone, wallet, keys, everything. She came here because she couldn’t get into her apartment.”
Rachel could hear movement downstairs.
A cabinet.
Then footsteps.
Emily kept talking.
“She’s been trying to contact people from my phone, but she doesn’t remember all her client numbers. Why?”
Rachel moved silently toward the doorway.
“Emily, I need you to put Julia on.”
A woman’s voice came faintly through the phone.
“Rachel?”
Rachel knew that voice.
Immediately.
It was brighter.
Higher.
The voice of the woman she had met last week.
Not the woman downstairs.
Rachel’s knees nearly gave way.
“Julia?”
“Oh my God. Rachel, I’m so sorry. I was trying to find your number. I lost—”
Rachel pressed a finger to her lips even though Julia could not see her.
“Listen to me. Someone is inside my house pretending to be you.”
Silence.
Then Julia whispered, “What?”
Rachel heard a floorboard creak in the hallway.
She turned.
The woman stood at the top of the stairs.
May you like
Watching her.
Not smiling now.
