Chapter 3 - Eleanor’s Blue Dress
Ethan wanted to believe Eleanor was manipulating him.
It would have been easier.
He understood manipulation.
He understood divorce lawyers, threats, custody schedules and carefully chosen words.
What he did not understand was why a hidden speaker had just discussed his daughter as though the family were pieces on a board.
“Explain.”
Eleanor looked at Lily.
“Not in front of her.”
“She was thrown from a balcony. We’re past protecting her from words.”
Eleanor’s expression twisted.
“You think I don’t know that?”
Ethan stepped closer.
“You let go of her.”
“Yes.”
The answer was unbearable in its simplicity.
Lily moved behind Ethan.
Eleanor saw it.
Whatever she had been about to say disappeared.
She turned away.
Ethan noticed something then.
The royal-blue dress.
Not the color.
The shoulder seam.
A tiny black thread protruded where the fabric had been crudely restitched.
He grabbed Eleanor’s arm.
“What is that?”
She jerked away.
“Don’t.”
He tore the seam open.
A small electronic capsule dropped onto the marble.
Lily gasped.
Eleanor stared at it.
“I knew there was something.”
“You were wearing a microphone?”
“I suspected.”
“You suspected?”
“They chose the dress.”
“Who?”
“The people who told me exactly what would happen when you came through that door.”
Ethan felt anger give way to something colder.
“What exactly did they tell you?”
Eleanor looked at the broken camera.
Then at Lily.
“A package arrived yesterday.”
Inside had been the blue dress.
A photograph of Lily walking out of school.
Another photograph of Ethan at an airport overseas.
And instructions.
Bring Lily to the mansion.
Wear the dress.
Wait upstairs.
When Ethan entered the foyer, Eleanor was to create a confrontation on the balcony.
“Create?”
Ethan’s voice sharpened.
Eleanor swallowed.
“The instructions said Lily would be secured.”
Ethan stared at her.
“What does that mean?”
“A harness.”
Lily whispered:
“There was one.”
Ethan turned.
“What?”
Lily touched the back of her green dress.
“Mommy put something around me before you came.”
Ethan checked.
Two faint pressure marks crossed the fabric beneath Lily’s arms.
No harness remained.
Eleanor rushed to the balcony railing.
“There.”
A thin retractable cable hung beneath the decorative molding.
Cut cleanly.
Ethan understood.
Eleanor had expected Lily to drop perhaps a few feet and be caught by a concealed safety line.
A staged horror.
Terrible.
Cruel.
But controlled.
Except someone had cut the line.
Ethan looked at Eleanor.
“You still agreed to drop her.”
Tears appeared in Eleanor’s eyes.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“They sent me a video.”
“Of what?”
Eleanor looked toward the steel door.
“Someone inside there.”
Ethan’s anger paused.
“Who?”
“I couldn’t see their face.”
The video showed a person seated behind that door.
Hands restrained.
A voice off camera told Eleanor that if she did not follow instructions, the person would die.
Ethan asked the obvious question.
“Why would you care about someone you couldn’t identify?”
Eleanor looked at him.
“Because they showed me the person’s left hand.”
She raised her own hand and touched the ring finger.
“There was a wedding band.”
Ethan felt something tighten inside him.
“What wedding band?”
“Yours.”
Silence.
Ethan looked down.
His wedding ring was gone.
He had stopped wearing it after the divorce.
It had been kept in a locked box in his apartment.
Or so he thought.
Eleanor continued.
“The video was dated yesterday.”
“So someone stole my old ring.”
“Yes.”
“And you assumed the person behind the door mattered to me.”
“I assumed that was what they wanted me to assume.”
For the first time, Ethan saw the distinction.
Eleanor had been following instructions.
But not blindly.
She had been trying to understand the person giving them.
“Why not call police?”
“I did.”
“When?”
“Last night.”
“What happened?”
“A detective came.”
“What detective?”
Eleanor stared at him.
“That’s the problem.”
She walked to a drawer and removed a business card.
DETECTIVE DANIEL VOSS.
Ethan read it.
“Never heard of him.”
“Neither had I.”
“He told me not to interfere. Said they were already monitoring the house.”
“And you believed him?”
“Until this morning.”
“What happened this morning?”
“I called the department.”
Her voice became quieter.
“They have no Detective Daniel Voss.”
Ethan looked at the card again.
The steel door suddenly emitted a soft electronic beep.
The keypad illuminated.
Four numbers appeared automatically.
Lily stared.
Ethan did too.
Eleanor whispered:
“No.”
“What?”
“That’s not the code they gave me.”
Ethan looked at her.
“Then what is it?”
May you like
Lily answered before Eleanor could.
“My birthday.”
