Chapter 5 - The Rabbit's Secret
Mara traced the voicemail to a public library terminal in Wisconsin. The librarian remembered a little girl with dark curls and a worn stuffed rabbit, accompanied by a woman who seemed frightened but kind. They had asked to use a computer, then left on foot.
Vincent wanted to drive there immediately. Mara insisted that her team approach the location discreetly. I watched him wrestle with his fear and finally hand over his car keys to Daniel, his security chief.
The stuffed rabbit troubled me. I had seen one like it in Daniel's belongings, though I hadn't thought about it in months. At my apartment, the intruders had emptied drawers and cut open the mattress. But they hadn't touched the box of Christmas decorations in the storage closet.
With police escort, I returned there. Inside a tin of broken ornaments was a tiny blue ribbon. Sewn into the ribbon were the words LITTLE STAR. Daniel used to call me that when I couldn't sleep. I held it to the light and saw a series of numbers stitched beneath the hem.
Mara photographed them. They matched a storage locker at a train station in Milwaukee.
"Daniel planned for someone to follow this trail," she said. "Maybe you. Maybe Nora."
Inside the locker, officers found a sealed drive and a handwritten letter addressed to me. Mara let me read the letter while a technician preserved the device.
May you like
My darling Clara, it began. If this reaches you, I have failed to come home. I never wanted our marriage to become a hiding place for danger. I loved you before I knew you were pregnant, and I loved our little girl from the moment you told me she existed. There is something I did before we met. I helped save a child, and then I became afraid to tell the truth.
I pressed the page to my chest. At the bottom was a final sentence: Please forgive me for the day I lied about the orchard.
