Chapter 19 - THE RING IN THE DARK
Daniel rushed home with Detective Harris.
Emma was hiding in a closet, crying but unharmed. The intruder had vanished, leaving the front door unlocked and Claire’s wedding ring on her pillow.
Daniel held it in his palm.
“That ring was buried with your mother,” he told Emma.
“Then how did it get here?”
He had no answer.
Harris sent officers to search the neighborhood. Daniel reviewed the footage repeatedly until he noticed something strange: the intruder favored the left leg and wore a distinctive silver watch.
Thomas recognized it immediately.
“Robert wore that watch for years.”
Daniel turned on him. “My father is in prison.”
“Then someone has access to his belongings.”
Daniel visited Robert the next morning. Behind the glass of the visitation room, his father looked exhausted and older than ever.
“Someone broke into my house,” Daniel said. “They had Claire’s ring.”
Robert went pale.
“Did they hurt Emma?”
“No. But I want to know what you’re hiding.”
Robert pressed his hands against the glass.
“Before Claire died, she told me she had found Evelyn. She said the person raising the girl had no idea who her real parents were.”
“Who was raising her?”
“I never learned the name.”
“You expect me to believe you hid an entire child and never learned where she went?”
Robert lowered his head.
“I was afraid Victor would use the girl to control you.”
“You were protecting yourself!”
Daniel slammed his palm against the glass. The guard warned him to step back.
Robert began to cry.
“I made a terrible mistake. But I did not kill Claire.”
“Then who did?”
Robert looked toward the security camera in the corner.
“I can’t say it here.”
Daniel leaned closer.
“Then tell me somewhere else.”
Robert shook his head. “Someone inside the prison is working for Victor. If I speak, Emma will be next.”
That afternoon, Daniel received a package containing a memory card.
The footage showed Claire entering a hospital corridor on the night she died. She was arguing with a woman whose face was hidden by a surgical mask.
Claire handed the woman a folder.
The woman slapped Claire, seized the folder, and disappeared into a stairwell.
Seconds later, a second figure entered the corridor.
Daniel froze the image.
The figure wore a silver watch.
The same watch Robert had supposedly worn.
But when Daniel zoomed in, he noticed something else: the person was much shorter than his father.
Harris called with an update.
“The footage was sent from a private clinic,” he said. “We traced the account.”
“Who owns it?”
Harris paused.
“Dr. Whitmore.”
Daniel stared at the screen.
The doctor who had delivered his daughters had just sent him evidence that could expose the killer.
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Then another message appeared on his phone.
Stop searching, or Evelyn will disappear forever.
