Chapter 2 - The Blue KeyNatalie did not touch the key.
That instinct would matter later.
Two police officers entered first, followed minutes later by paramedics. The beautiful kitchen became a controlled chaos of medical bags, questions, radios, and footsteps.
Benjamin stayed with Sophie.
Eleanor stood near the staircase crying quietly.
Gloria tried to move toward the hallway.
Natalie blocked her path.
“There’s something under the island.”
Gloria looked at her.
“What?”
Natalie pointed.
One officer followed her finger.
The small blue key lay on the marble floor.
Gloria’s expression hardened for half a second.
Then vanished.
The officer put on gloves.
“Does this belong to anyone?”
Sophie immediately looked up.
“That’s mine.”
Benjamin stared at Gloria.
Natalie said, “It fell when Gloria stepped backward.”
Gloria’s head snapped toward her.
“No, it didn’t.”
“I watched it fall.”
“You’re mistaken.”
“I’m not.”
Benjamin stood slowly.
“Gloria.”
She lifted both hands.
“I have never seen that key.”
The officer photographed it before collecting it.
Gloria’s voice remained calm.
“Anyone could have dropped it.”
Benjamin’s eyes stayed on her.
“You’ve worked in my house twelve years.”
“And loved this family for twelve years.”
“Then why was my daughter’s key in your pocket?”
“It wasn’t.”
Sophie began trembling again.
Benjamin immediately turned away from Gloria.
“That’s enough.”
Paramedics examined Sophie. She was frightened and dehydrated but had no obvious serious physical injuries.
The police separated the adults.
Natalie gave her statement in the dining room.
She explained arriving downstairs shortly before eleven, hearing the cabinet, calling the family and seeing the key fall.
“How long had you been out of the kitchen?” an officer asked.
“Since breakfast. Sophie was supposed to be upstairs doing an art lesson with her grandmother.”
That changed the officer’s expression.
“With Eleanor?”
Natalie nodded.
“But Eleanor said Sophie wanted to play alone afterward.”
“When?”
“A little before ten.”
The officer wrote something down.
“So there’s roughly an hour we need to account for.”
When Natalie returned to the kitchen, Benjamin was sitting on the floor beside Sophie.
The child had a blanket around her shoulders.
Eleanor stood several feet away.
Gloria was outside speaking with another officer.
Benjamin looked exhausted already.
“Natalie.”
She crouched.
“How is she?”
“Scared.”
Sophie reached for Natalie.
Natalie sat beside her.
After a moment, Sophie whispered, “She took it from the bird.”
Benjamin leaned closer.
“What bird?”
“My bird box.”
Natalie knew it.
A painted wooden music box Claire had given Sophie before her death. A tiny bluebird turned when the lid opened.
It sat on Sophie’s bookshelf.
Benjamin stood.
“Stay with her.”
He disappeared upstairs with an officer.
Five minutes later he returned holding the music box in a clear evidence bag.
The tiny bluebird had been broken from its base.
The compartment beneath it was open.
Benjamin’s jaw tightened.
“Someone searched her room.”
Eleanor whispered, “Benjamin, I had no idea.”
He turned toward her.
“You were with Sophie this morning.”
“For twenty minutes.”
“And then?”
“She asked to draw.”
“You left a six-year-old alone?”
“In her bedroom. In this house.”
Benjamin laughed once.
There was nothing humorous in it.
“This house where someone put her in a cabinet?”
Eleanor flinched.
Sophie started crying again.
“Stop,” Natalie said quietly.
Benjamin immediately controlled himself.
Police asked for the home security footage.
Gloria usually managed the security system.
She gave them the access information.
An officer opened the recordings on the kitchen computer.
The cameras showed Natalie leaving for groceries at 9:17.
Benjamin upstairs in his study.
Eleanor entering Sophie’s bedroom at 9:34.
Eleanor leaving at 9:56.
Sophie remained inside.
At 10:08, Gloria walked down the upstairs corridor.
Then the screen jumped.
10:08 became 10:36.
Twenty-eight minutes were missing.
Benjamin stared at the monitor.
“Why?”
Gloria looked genuinely confused.
“The system has been unreliable.”
Natalie shook her head.
“It worked yesterday.”
“Systems fail.”
“Only during the exact twenty-eight minutes Sophie disappears?”
Gloria looked at her coldly.
Benjamin asked, “Can footage be manually deleted?”
The officer answered.
“Yes.”
Gloria folded her arms.
“But not without administrator access.”
Every person in the room looked at her.
She was the administrator.
Then Sophie spoke.
“I heard Mommy.”
The room went silent.
Benjamin turned.
“What?”
Sophie looked down at the blanket.
“In my room.”
Eleanor began to cry harder.
“Sophie, sweetheart, Mommy is gone.”
“I know.”
“Then what do you mean?”
Sophie looked at Benjamin.
“Her voice.”
Benjamin’s face lost color.
“Where did you hear her voice?”
Sophie pointed upstairs.
“From the little black thing.”
“The little black thing?”
She nodded.
“It was inside the bird.”
Benjamin looked toward the evidence bag.
The music box had contained more than a key.
May you like
Someone had removed whatever had played Claire’s voice.
And whoever had taken it had been inside Sophie’s room during the missing twenty-eight minutes.
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