Chapter 2 - User Number Four
Violet survived the night.
That sentence became the only thing holding the world together.
At 5:42 the following morning, Dr. Grant told us the swelling had stabilized. Violet remained unconscious, but the medical team was cautiously encouraged.
Harper cried.
I went into the hospital restroom and locked myself inside a stall because I needed thirty seconds where nobody could see my face.
Then I returned to the waiting room.
Detective Ortiz was there.
So was a man I hadn't met before.
“This is Detective Marcus Reed,” Ortiz said. “Major Crimes.”
Reed shook my hand.
“We need to talk about Rachel Vale.”
I looked at Harper.
“So do I.”
Harper sat slowly.
“She contacted me six months ago.”
I stared at her.
“You said fourteen years.”
“I know.”
“Six months?”
“She emailed me.”
“Why?”
Harper looked toward Violet's room.
“She wanted money.”
“How much?”
“Twenty thousand dollars.”
“For what?”
“She wouldn't say.”
“Did you give it to her?”
“No.”
Harper rubbed both hands together.
“She started threatening me.”
“With what?”
Her eyes filled.
“Something about Violet.”
The room became very quiet.
“What about Violet?”
“She said there were things about Violet's birth I didn't understand.”
I stood.
Ortiz immediately stepped between us—not because I had threatened Harper, but because she recognized the temperature in the room.
“Sit down, Daniel.”
I didn't.
“What things?”
“I don't know.”
“You didn't ask?”
“Of course I asked!”
Harper's voice broke.
“She wouldn't explain. She kept saying I had stolen something from her.”
My mind began arranging pieces.
Rachel.
Violet.
Money.
A secret code.
Three people.
“Did Rachel know our alarm code?”
“No.”
“Could Violet have given it to her?”
Harper shook her head.
“Violet didn't even know Rachel existed.”
Ortiz opened a folder.
“We checked the security company.”
“And?”
“User four was created three weeks ago.”
“By whom?”
“The request came through the mobile app.”
“Whose account?”
Harper whispered, “Mine?”
Ortiz nodded.
Harper looked genuinely stunned.
“I didn't do that.”
“Your password may have been compromised.”
Reed placed a printed page on the table.
“The device used to create the new code was an iPhone.”
Harper owned an iPhone.
“So does half the country,” I said.
Reed nodded.
“But the IP address came from your home Wi-Fi.”
Harper went completely still.
Someone had created the code while physically near enough to use her network.
I thought of visitors.
Friends.
Family.
Delivery workers.
Violet's classmates.
Then I remembered Ethan.
“Find Ethan Cole.”
Ortiz and Reed exchanged a glance.
“We already did,” Ortiz said.
“And?”
“He didn't attend school yesterday.”
“Where is he?”
“Nobody knows.”
My phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A text.
I opened it.
There was no message.
Only a photograph.
Violet.
Alive.
Standing outside her high school three days earlier.
Taken from across the street.
Then another message arrived.
YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED AWAY, RANGER.
I handed the phone to Ortiz.
She read it.
Reed immediately started calling someone.
Then a third message appeared.
ASK HARPER WHO VIOLET REALLY BELONGS TO.
I turned toward my ex-wife.
May you like
Harper stared at the screen.
And whatever secret she had carried for sixteen years finally reached the surface.
