Chapter 4 - Shadows at the Window
The dial tone hummed like an insect in Clara's ear. She slammed the receiver down, her heartbeat thundering against her ribs. The caller knew about the boys. He knew the address. She whirled around, checking the blinds across the front living room window. Through the narrow slats, the suburban street appeared deceptively peaceful.
Leo peered around the corner of the den, sensing the shift in the air. ""Who was that, Mom? Was it Dad?""
""No, sweetie,"" Clara said, forcing a calm smile that stretched tight and painful across her cheeks. ""Just a telemarketer. Why don't you help Toby pack his favorite coloring books into your backpack? We're going to have an adventure tonight. We might go stay somewhere else for a sleepover.""
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She moved toward Marcus’s home office. The room had been stripped of laptops and paperwork, but the large steel safe in the corner remained closed. Clara knelt before it, spinning the dial to their wedding anniversary. It didn't open. She tried Leo's birthday, then Toby's. Nothing. Her husband had rewritten every code, every access point of their shared existence.
Kneeling on the floor, she noticed a faint scratch mark trailing along the baseboard behind the filing cabinet. Clara wedged her fingers into the gap and pulled the baseboard loose. Hidden inside the wall cavity was a small, black external hard drive wrapped in masking tape. As she slid it into her pocket, the unmistakable crunch of gravel sounded in the driveway. A black sedan with tinted windows had just pulled up behind her minivan.
