Chapter 11 - Ethan Was Already InsideMercer moved first.
“Down.”
Claire barely understood before he pulled her from the pew.
A gunshot shattered a stained-glass window.
Colored fragments exploded across the aisle.
Maya screamed.
Deputies rushed toward the exits.
“Stay here!”
Claire crouched behind a heavy wooden pew, heart hammering.
Another gunshot.
Then silence.
Thirty seconds later came shouting outside.
A vehicle engine roared.
Tires screamed across gravel.
Deputy Ruiz ran through the rear door.
“Black SUV heading north.”
“Ethan?” Mercer demanded.
“Unknown driver.”
Claire looked at Maya.
“He knew where you were.”
Maya shook her head.
“I told nobody.”
“Your phone.”
Mercer took it.
“Could be tracked.”
Maya looked horrified.
“I changed phones.”
“So did Claire.”
Claire understood.
Someone had access to more than their numbers.
Ruiz’s radio crackled.
Hotel surveillance had been checked.
Ethan had left his hotel eighty minutes earlier.
His location was unknown.
Mara’s vehicle had also disappeared.
“This is over,” Mercer said. “We bring Ethan in.”
“On what?” Claire asked.
“Attempted murder, witness statements, insurance fraud, storage evidence. Enough to hold him while we build the case.”
“Then find him.”
Police moved Claire and Maya to separate secure locations.
Claire refused to sleep.
At 2:13 a.m., Mercer called.
“We found Ethan’s car.”
“Where?”
“Near your house.”
Claire sat upright.
“He went back?”
“Car’s empty.”
Claire thought of the security system.
She opened the app.
One camera was offline.
Then another.
Someone was disabling them.
Claire called Ava.
No answer.
Fear exploded through her.
Ava had gone home earlier.
Her apartment was fifteen minutes away.
Claire called again.
Nothing.
“Where is Ava?” she demanded.
Mercer checked.
A deputy had been assigned near her building.
He called back.
No Ava.
Her car was gone.
Claire stood.
“Ethan took her.”
“We don’t know that.”
“My daughter doesn’t disappear.”
Then Claire’s temporary phone rang.
Ava.
Claire answered instantly.
“Ava?”
Silence.
Then Ethan’s voice.
“Hi, Claire.”
Every muscle in Claire’s body locked.
Behind her, Mercer signaled technicians to trace the call.
Claire forced herself to breathe.
“Where is she?”
Ethan laughed softly.
“So you really did survive.”
“Where is Ava?”
“You should have seen your face when you closed your eyes.”
Claire nearly lost control.
“You’re going to prison.”
“Maybe.”
“If you touch her—”
“I haven’t hurt Ava.”
A muffled sound came through the line.
Claire recognized her daughter crying.
“Mom!”
“Ava!”
Ethan moved the phone away.
Claire heard him tell Ava to be quiet.
Then he returned.
“I need the photograph.”
Claire looked toward Mercer.
“What photograph?”
“Don’t insult me.”
“I don’t have it.”
“Maya does.”
Claire said nothing.
“Bring me the memory card.”
“You think I’m going to meet you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Ava is very persuasive.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“Let me talk to her.”
“You heard her.”
“I want to hear her again.”
A pause.
Then Ava came on.
“Mom.”
“I’m here.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize.”
Ava’s breathing was uneven.
“He’s in your house.”
Claire froze.
“What?”
Ethan grabbed the phone back.
“Enough.”
The call ended.
Mercer immediately shouted orders.
Claire opened the security application.
Every camera showed offline.
Police vehicles raced toward her home.
Claire watched from a command vehicle two blocks away despite being ordered to remain elsewhere.
Tactical officers surrounded the house.
They entered.
Two minutes.
Five.
Ten.
Mercer emerged.
“No one.”
Claire stared.
“Ava said they were inside.”
“They were.”
“How do you know?”
He held up Ava’s shoe.
Found on Claire’s kitchen floor.
Ruiz approached from the backyard.
“There’s an open gate.”
“He moved her.”
“Looks that way.”
Claire entered the house against orders.
Her home felt contaminated.
Living room disturbed.
Office drawers open.
Then Claire saw something on the dining table.
A ring box.
Her breath caught.
The proposal.
Ethan had left it deliberately.
Claire opened it.
Inside was no ring.
Only a tiny memory card.
Mercer stopped her before she touched it.
“Forensics.”
They photographed it.
Then inserted the card into a secured laptop.
One video file.
Claire pressed play.
Ethan appeared.
Different location.
Different clothes.
Three years earlier.
Rebecca sat behind him near a lake.
Alive.
Terrified.
Then another man entered the frame.
Michael.
Claire stopped breathing.
Ethan looked directly into the hidden camera.
Rebecca pleaded.
“Michael, please.”
Michael turned toward Ethan.
“This wasn’t the deal.”
Ethan smiled.
“What did you think the deal was?”
Michael looked toward Rebecca.
“I’m leaving.”
Ethan blocked him.
Then said something that rewrote everything Claire thought she knew.
“You leave, and Claire finds out what you did.”
Michael froze.
Rebecca stared at him.
“What did you do to Claire?”
The video abruptly ended.
Claire looked at Mercer.
“What was Ethan holding over him?”
Nobody knew.
Then Claire noticed the file name.
RAVEN_TEST_01.
Not Rebecca.
Raven.
Her waterfall.
Claire’s blood turned cold.
May you like
Rebecca’s death hadn’t merely been a previous murder.
It had been a rehearsal.
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