Chapter 4 - What Was in the Bag
The police found the woman two blocks away.
She had tried to hide beneath the covered entrance of an apartment building, still carrying the canvas bag.
Rachel learned that much while sitting at her own kitchen table with Mia curled against her side and Caleb wrapped in a blanket even though the house was warm.
An officer named Daniel Mercer stood nearby, speaking quietly into a radio.
Another officer photographed the front door, the keypad, and the downstairs hallway.
Rachel kept looking at the staircase.
Everything appeared normal.
The framed school photographs.
Caleb’s backpack on the third step.
Mia’s pink rain boots crooked beside the wall.
Nothing about the house looked like a place someone had infiltrated.
That bothered her.
Danger, Rachel thought, should leave a mark.
A broken window.
A damaged lock.
Something.
Instead, the stranger had simply rung the doorbell.
Rachel had opened it.
And smiled.
Officer Mercer sat across from her.
“Ms. Morgan, I need to ask you a few more questions.”
Rachel nodded.
“Did the suspect ever physically touch either child?”
“No.”
“Did she threaten anyone?”
“No.”
“Did you see a weapon?”
“No.”
“Did she ask for money?”
“No.”
Mercer wrote something down.
Rachel hated how each answer sounded.
No.
No.
No.
As if nothing had happened.
Caleb shifted beside her.
“She tried to take Mia.”
Mercer looked at him.
Rachel instinctively reached for Caleb’s shoulder.
“It’s okay.”
Caleb ignored her.
“She said there was something in the car.”
Mercer leaned forward slightly.
“What did she say exactly?”
Caleb swallowed.
“She said she had a surprise for Mia.”
“Did she mention a car?”
“Not at first.”
Caleb looked at the table.
“Then she said it was downstairs. Then outside.”
Mercer nodded slowly.
“What made you suspicious of her?”
Rachel looked at Caleb.
This was the question.
The one she still did not fully understand.
Caleb rubbed his thumb along the edge of the blanket.
“She called Mia Little Bear.”
Mercer glanced at Rachel.
“Nickname?”
“Yes.”
“Common?”
Rachel shook her head.
“No. Caleb made it up when Mia was a baby.”
“Who knows it?”
“Family. Maybe some close friends.”
“And Julia?”
“The real babysitter?”
“Yes.”
Rachel thought.
“She may have seen it in messages.”
Caleb looked at her.
“But she never called Mia that.”
Rachel frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“She didn’t know it.”
“How do you know?”
“Because last week I called Mia Little Bear when Julia was in the kitchen.”
Rachel stared at him.
Caleb continued.
“Julia asked why.”
“What?”
“She said, ‘Why do you call her that?’”
Rachel remembered.
Barely.
She had been pouring coffee.
Julia had laughed when Caleb explained that Mia used to crawl around wrapped in a brown blanket.
Rachel had forgotten the entire conversation.
Caleb had not.
“So?” Mercer asked gently.
Caleb looked toward the staircase.
“The lady today said it like she always knew.”
Rachel felt a chill.
“You mean she didn’t ask?”
Caleb shook his head.
“She said, ‘Come on, Little Bear.’”
Mercer wrote something down.
Rachel stared at her son.
He had noticed a gap between knowing information and knowing a person.
That was what he had meant earlier.
She looked at Mia.
The little girl had fallen asleep against her.
Mercer’s radio crackled.
He listened.
Then stood.
“They found some interesting things in the suspect’s bag.”
Rachel’s stomach tightened.
“What?”
“I can’t give you everything yet.”
“Officer.”
He looked at the children.
Rachel understood.
She gently shifted Mia into the armchair and asked another officer to stay with them.
Then she followed Mercer into the hallway.
“What was in the bag?”
“Three phones.”
Rachel stared at him.
“One belonged to Julia Park.”
She closed her eyes.
“Her wallet was there too. House keys. Some other items.”
“What other items?”
Mercer hesitated.
“Printed screenshots.”
Rachel opened her eyes.
“Of what?”
“Messages.”
Her heart sank.
“Mine?”
“Some appear to be conversations between you and Ms. Park.”
Rachel leaned against the wall.
The stranger had not guessed anything.
She had read it.
The schedule.
The security code.
The children’s names.
Perhaps even Julia’s notes about the family.
Rachel suddenly remembered sending Julia a message three days earlier.
Front keypad is 2874. If Caleb forgets again, spare key behind wooden bowl by pantry.
Her stomach turned.
She had given a stranger everything needed to enter her house.
Not intentionally.
But the information had existed in one place.
A stolen phone.
Mercer continued.
“There were also screenshots of photographs.”
“What kind?”
“Your children.”
Rachel’s face went cold.
“No.”
“Likely from the message thread.”
Rachel looked toward the living room.
Mia slept peacefully.
Caleb stared at the floor.
Rachel lowered her voice.
“Why?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“You arrested her.”
“Yes.”
“Ask her.”
“We are.”
Rachel stepped closer.
“She knew exactly who Mia was.”
Mercer nodded.
“She knew Caleb too.”
“Yes.”
“She knew when I was supposed to leave.”
“Yes.”
Rachel’s mind moved faster.
“She wasn’t trying to rob the house.”
“We don’t know that.”
“If she wanted money or valuables, she would have waited until I left.”
“That’s possible.”
“She asked Mia to come outside.”
Mercer did not respond.
Rachel stared at him.
“You think she wanted to take her.”
“I think we need evidence before we say that.”
Rachel’s throat tightened.
Caleb appeared in the doorway.
“You’re wrong.”
Mercer looked at him.
“About what?”
“She didn’t want Mia.”
Rachel turned.
“What?”
Caleb’s expression was strange.
Not frightened now.
Confused.
“She wanted something from Mia.”
Rachel felt the room tilt.
“How do you know?”
Caleb swallowed.
“Because before I locked the door, she asked Mia where Daddy kept the blue key.”
Rachel stopped breathing.
There had not been a “Daddy” in this house for three years.
May you like
And there was only one blue key.
A key Rachel had not thought about in months.
