Chapter 3 - The False Note
Natalie carried Ashley into the living room and locked the front door.
She checked the windows.
All were latched from inside.
No visible sign of forced entry.
That meant the person behind the bedroom door had likely entered with a key.
Ashley’s eyes kept closing.
Natalie used her flashlight to examine the child’s pupils.
Too slow to react.
Drugged.
She wrapped Ashley in a blanket and asked, “Where is your mother?”
Ashley’s face changed.
“Daddy says she died.”
“When?”
“Before I remember.”
Natalie glanced at the family photo again.
The photograph showed Andrew and Ashley.
A third person had been cut from the right side.
Only part of a woman’s hand remained.
A wedding ring glinted on one finger.
Natalie unfolded the handwritten note.
The words seemed simple, but the letters were uneven.
She held it beside an old grocery list on the refrigerator.
Andrew’s real handwriting leaned sharply to the right.
The note did not.
Ashley had been correct.
Someone had copied his signature.
Natalie searched the kitchen drawers and found a second phone taped beneath one.
The battery was nearly dead.
It contained three unsent messages.
Natalie opened the first.
If anything happens to me, call Officer Natalie Reed.
Her blood chilled.
The second message contained her badge number.
The third showed a photograph of Natalie leaving the police station two weeks earlier.
Andrew had been watching her.
Or trying to reach her.
A floorboard creaked behind them.
Natalie turned.
The bedroom door was still closed.
But muddy footprints now marked the hallway.
They led from the bedroom toward the back of the house.
Someone had escaped through another exit.
Natalie drew her weapon.
Ashley squeezed the stuffed puppy.
“He uses the wall.”
“What wall?”
“The one behind Daddy’s closet.”
A soft click came from the kitchen pantry.
May you like
The door began to open.
👉 The locked bedroom was only part of the trap, and someone was already moving through hidden passages inside the house.
