## CHAPTER 6 — CLAIRE’S VOICE
The audio was damaged, but Claire’s voice was unmistakable.
“Please… Noah stays with Logan.”
A man answered.
“You no longer have authority over the child.”
“I’m his mother.”
“You’re unstable.”
“You made me look unstable.”
There was a struggle.
Then Claire screamed.
The recording ended.
Logan listened three times.
On the fourth, he noticed something in the background.
A grandfather clock chiming nine times.
There was only one clock in the Mercer estate with that exact tone.
It stood in Edmund Mercer’s private library.
Claire had recorded the conversation inside the mansion.
Not near the road where her car had supposedly crashed.
Detective Hale reopened the original accident file.
The report stated that Claire had left the estate at 8:40 p.m.
Her car went over a mountain barrier at 9:12.
The vehicle burned before emergency crews arrived.
Dental records were used to identify her remains.
But the dentist who verified those records had retired immediately afterward.
He had died in Argentina three years later.
Elena sat across from Logan in the temporary guesthouse.
“Claire believed your father was trying to have Noah declared medically incompetent.”
“Why?”
“She never told me.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No. I expect you to question everything.”
Logan looked at her.
“Including you.”
“Yes.”
Elena removed a small silver key from beneath her collar.
“Claire mailed this to me the day she disappeared.”
Logan took it.
“What does it open?”
“I don’t know.”
“You carried it for six years without finding out?”
“I tried every lock connected to Claire’s life.”
Noah appeared in the doorway.
He had been listening.
“That’s the music-box key,” he said.
Logan turned.
“What music box?”
“The one Mommy Claire gave me.”
“You were a baby when she died.”
Noah shook his head.
“She gave it to me last year.”
Silence filled the room.
Logan approached him slowly.
“Claire gave you a music box last year?”
Noah nodded.
“Where?”
“The red room.”
Elena covered her mouth.
Logan’s heartbeat thundered in his ears.
“Was she there, Noah?”
“No.”
“Then who gave it to you?”
The boy looked toward the window.
“The lady behind the glass.”
Outside, beyond the line of police vehicles, a dark sedan started its engine.
It had been parked there all night.
May you like
By the time Detective Hale’s officers reached the road, it was gone.
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