Page 79 of From the Embers
“A stranger wouldn’t know which one was my daughter,” Eason snapped. “I’m not famous. I played the Grammys once and had my photo snapped a few times with Levee Williams, but my daughter’s picture isn’t slapped all over the internet. Nothing more than what the few people had dug up from when she was a baby.” He walked over to a table against the wall and snatched up a framed picture of Madison and Luna posing in front of the Christmas tree. “Look at them. Tell me in a dark room, two beds side by side, that you could pick out who is who.”
He definitely had a point there. There was a reason we’d spent so long questioning Luna’s paternity. Roughly the same age, same size, same hair color, different shades of brown eyes, but not enough for an outsider to be able to tell them apart.
“Okay,” the detective conceded. “That theory also doesn’t explain how this person got into your home. There is no sign of forced entry, and according to your security company, your alarm was disengaged with a preset code. Which has me thinking we’re dealing with someone who knows you.”
“Nobody has our code though,” I argued.
He quirked a furry, gray eyebrow. “Take a minute and really think about this. Babysitters, maids, house sitter? Nobody else has a code to your home?”
“No,” Eason stated firmly. “You guys have already cleared our babysitter, Evelyn. She’s the only person allowed in our house and even she has her own unique code. That wasn’t what they used to disarm the alarm.”
I didn’t want to say it. I would sound ridiculous, and it felt even worse than that, but I’d take the humiliation any day of the week if it got Luna back. “What about Rob?”
Eason’s gaze swung down to meet mine, his mouth an angry slash, but he didn’t utter the first objection, which made it all too clear he’d been thinking about it too.
The detective let out a throaty rumble and cut his gaze over my shoulder. “Listen, speaking from almost forty years of experience, kids aren’t the best eyewitnesses. When traumatic things happen, their minds struggle to look past the fear, so their brains fill in details in an attempt to make sense of a situation. It is not uncommon for children to—”
I took a step toward him. “But this would make sense.”
He slanted his head. “A dead man coming back to life to kidnap a child that is not his own? That makes sense to you?”
“Hey,” Eason growled, all patience with the entire day gone. “Watch your fucking tone.”
He lifted his hands in surrender. “No disrespect intended. Just trying to be real with you.”
“None of this is fucking real!” Eason boomed.
“Look.” I stepped in between the two men, resting my hand on Eason’s chest, which was rising and falling at a marathon pace. “It sounds insane. And impossible. But just for the sake of covering all bases, let’s think about it. Rob knew where every single camera on this house is. He had the security company install them himself. The code on the alarm hasn’t changed since he’s been gone. And Eason swears he locked the doors, but the back door was unlocked, and the pool house was standing wide open. Someone must have had a key.” I swallowed hard and shook my head. “Rob’s keys were in his pocket the night he died, and as far as I know, they were never recovered.”
Detective Hoffman inhaled deeply, a calm that had been evading Eason and me all day washing over him. “Again, Mrs. Winters. I mean this with the utmost respect. We are not in the business of chasing a dead man.”
“And neither am I,” I sniped. “But my kid isn’t a liar. He’s been shaking and crying all day, thinking a ghost took his sister. I think we can all agree this was not Rob, but what if it was somebody close to him? My ex-husband was not a faithful man. We have proof he was sleeping with Eason’s wife…in my bed. What if he had someone else too? What if, before he died, he’d given someone a key to the house, a code to the security system, a pattern to avoid the security cameras—and not because they were planning to kidnap our child, but because they were trying to avoid being caught having an affair in my home?” Tears I should have long since run out of filled my eyes. “I don’t know who Asher saw, okay? But I am begging you not to rule out the idea that he could still be responsible for this.” A sob tore from my throat as I finished.
“Come here,” Eason whispered, draping his arm around my shoulders and curling me into his chest.
I always felt safe in Eason’s arms. But this wasn’t something that could be soothed or quelled.
