Chapter 12 - Adrian knew about the shaving
I confronted him.
Adrian didn't lie.
He had received an anonymous email before I returned from Cincinnati.
Tomorrow they will take the child's hair.
His flight was booked immediately.
“Why didn't you warn me?”
“I tried.”
No calls.
No messages.
Then he showed me.
Emails bounced.
Calls rerouted.
Someone had interfered.
He assumed Walter controlled my communications.
But one detail bothered me.
The anonymous sender knew Lydia planned to shave Louisa.
Only a handful of people knew.
Lydia.
Walter.
Heather.
Elmer.
Perhaps the sender was one of them.
Heather denied it.
Elmer swore it wasn't him.
Then investigators recovered Lydia's deleted messages.
She hadn't invented the “thief punishment.”
Someone suggested it.
Anonymous number:
If you need enough hair for Price's test, make the haircut look like punishment. Joanna will blame your temper, not ask why you collected it.
Lydia replied:
Smart.
I felt physically sick.
Someone manipulated Lydia's cruelty because they knew exactly how she'd behave.
The bracelet plot was camouflage.
Then came another message.
Make Heather plant it.
Lydia obeyed.
Whoever orchestrated this knew the entire family intimately.
Then I remembered the camera.
How did the anonymous texter know it existed?
Only three people originally knew we'd installed it.
Me.
Elmer.
Our former nanny.
Her name was Rebecca Shaw.
She'd worked for us when Louisa was an infant.
Then abruptly quit.
We found her.
Rebecca had never been a nanny.
Her employment history was fabricated.
Her real surname:
Whitmore.
Adrian stared at the photograph.
“I don't know her.”
But his face said otherwise.
“Who is she?”
May you like
He whispered:
“My sister.”
