Chapter 12 - BLOOD IS NOT INNOCENCE
Ryan wanted to believe the bracelet had been planted.
Maya did too.
Margaret had been under surveillance.
But surveillance failed for forty-two minutes.
A camera outage.
During exactly the period Ava disappeared.
Margaret denied leaving.
Then police found her vehicle recorded near Long Beach.
Ryan stared at his mother.
“Tell me the truth.”
Margaret looked suddenly old.
“Natalie called me.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“What did she want?”
“She said Ava had something.”
“What?”
“Emily’s final evidence.”
Ryan looked at the lighthouse music box.
“We found the recording.”
Margaret shook her head.
“Not that.”
Emily had kept an original ledger containing names of politicians, judges and corporate executives tied to Collins Development’s illegal payments.
Natalie believed Emily hid it before her death.
She also believed Emily used Ava somehow.
A photograph.
A toy.
A bank box.
Something.
Margaret met Mark secretly because she wanted to move Ava before Natalie could reach her.
“I never took Ava.”
“Then who did?”
“I don’t know.”
Ryan turned away.
Margaret grabbed his arm.
“There is one place Natalie might take her.”
“Where?”
“The Mercer house.”
Natalie’s childhood home had supposedly been demolished.
It wasn’t.
The land was purchased through a trust.
The house still stood in a canyon east of Malibu.
Police found it empty.
A child’s cup sat on the table.
Warm.
They had missed Ava by minutes.
Ava had drawn on a piece of paper.
A house.
A man.
A red sun.
And a tall blue structure beside water.
Ryan recognized it.
A lighthouse.
Not the toy.
A real one.
Emily used to take Ava to Point Dume.
There was an old private lighthouse structure attached to a historic property owned by Collins Development.
Ryan had forgotten about it.
Natalie had not.
Inside the house they found a note.
MIDNIGHT TOMORROW.
BRING THE LEDGER.
COME ALONE.
Ryan stared.
“We don’t have the ledger.”
May you like
Maya looked at the child’s drawing.
“Maybe Ava knows where it is.”
