Chapter 8 - The Lake House
The police car hit eighty before we cleared the hospital district.
I sat in the back with Victoria because the detective refused to let either of us drive.
Charles followed in another vehicle.
Dr. Patel had fought me for ten minutes before releasing me.
I promised to return if I felt one contraction, one dizzy spell, one change in the baby’s movement.
Victoria stared out the window.
“You shouldn’t have come.”
“I stopped taking advice from this family tonight.”
She nodded as if she deserved that.
The lake house appeared through bare trees forty minutes later.
Dark windows.
Frozen dock.
No visible cars.
Two officers cleared the house first.
Then Detective Ramos waved us in.
“Show me the cabinet.”
Victoria led us upstairs.
Every floorboard creaked under my shoes.
At the end of the hall, she opened the bedroom Rebecca had used.
A narrow built-in cabinet sat behind a curtain.
The brass key fit.
Victoria turned it.
The lock clicked.
Inside were three boxes.
Rebecca’s name appeared on the first.
My pulse kicked.
Detective Ramos photographed everything before touching it.
The first box held bank statements.
The second held printed emails between Rebecca and Nathan.
The third held a journal.
I opened it with gloved hands.
Nathan says I imagined the dizziness.
Nathan says the medication is for anxiety.
Nathan says nobody will believe me if I tell them he controls the money.
I shut the journal.
My stomach clenched.
Victoria whispered, “I didn’t know she documented this much.”
Charles came in behind us.
He read one page.
His face folded.
A detective downstairs called out.
“Ramos!”
We all turned.
“Come see this.”
On the kitchen counter lay a pharmacy receipt.
Two months old.
The lake house had supposedly been unused for years.
The prescription name was hidden beneath a code, but the purchaser account belonged to Nathan.
Charles gripped the edge of the counter.
“He’s been coming here.”
Detective Ramos pointed upward.
A security camera sat above the doorway.
Dust coated the housing.
I stared at it.
A tiny red light flashed.
Once.
Then again.
“Is that active?”
Ramos’s head snapped up.
An officer pulled the power cable.
The light died.
Victoria backed away.
“He knows we’re here.”
Outside, a branch cracked.
Every officer moved at once.
I was pushed behind the kitchen island.
Someone shouted, “Vehicle beyond the tree line!”
Charles crouched beside me.
My phone vibrated.
Nathan.
I stared at the screen.
Charles answered from his own phone instead.
“What do you want?”
Nathan’s voice came through faintly.
“Dad, you need to leave that house.”
“You’re done.”
“Maybe.”
“Police have Rebecca’s records.”
Nathan chuckled.
“No, they have what Mom wanted them to find.”
Victoria covered her mouth.
Charles said, “Where are you?”
“Ask Emily.”
My stomach tightened.
Nathan continued.
“She always was good at finding things that didn’t belong to her.”
I shouted, “What are you talking about?”
He heard me.
“Emily, leave before you find what Rebecca hid under the floor.”
The line disconnected.
Detective Ramos looked down.
Then at the old pine boards beneath our feet.
He pointed to two officers.
“Start in the bedroom.”
Victoria grabbed my sleeve.
“Emily.”
“What?”
Her fingers trembled.
“There was nothing under that floor when I left Rebecca here.”
A pry bar screamed against wood upstairs.
May you like
Then an officer shouted.
“We found something.”
