Chapter 9 - THE CABIN AT WARAMAUG
Police obtained permission to search the cabin after linking it to Richard's financial companies.
Ethan was not allowed inside initially.
He waited beside the lake while Detective Briggs and her team searched.
Memories surrounded him.
Claire laughing on the dock.
Claire wearing his oversized sweater.
Claire telling him she was pregnant.
Claire choosing Sophie’s name before they even knew they were having a girl.
Ethan had spent two years believing those memories belonged to a closed chapter.
Now every one of them seemed connected to a warning.
Detective Briggs emerged after forty minutes.
“We found records.”
“What kind?”
“Enough to keep us busy.”
Inside the cabin, investigators recovered paper ledgers documenting years of transfers.
They also found copies of Ethan's signature.
Medical records.
Sophie's passport application.
Draft custody petitions.
And photographs of the Cole estate taken from outside the gates.
But the most disturbing discovery was a folder labeled C.
Claire.
Inside were pharmacy receipts.
Medical research printouts.
Her daily schedule.
Descriptions of what she ate.
What she drank.
When Ethan traveled.
Who prepared her meals.
Ethan felt the room tilt.
Detective Briggs watched him carefully.
“This still doesn't tell us what caused her illness.”
“But somebody was tracking it.”
“Yes.”
A receipt inside the folder showed a purchase from an obscure laboratory supply company.
The item name was abbreviated.
Briggs photographed it and sent the information to a forensic toxicologist.
Then Marcus found a hidden drawer beneath the desk.
Inside was a second ledger.
Not financial.
Personal.
Richard had written dates and short notes.
C upset after tea.
C stayed home.
C hospital again.
E traveling Boston.
C suspicious.
C contacted lawyer.
Then one entry three days before Claire entered the hospital.
C FOUND BOX.
Ethan's hands went cold.
The final entry was dated the night Claire died.
C problem resolved.
He could not look at it again.
Briggs closed the ledger.
“We're reopening the circumstances surrounding Claire's death.”
Ethan stepped outside.
He stood beside the lake until his phone rang.
It was Rosa.
Her voice was shaking.
“Mr. Cole, Sophie found something.”
“What?”
“In Miss Claire's old dollhouse.”
Ethan frowned.
Claire had built Sophie a miniature copy of the mansion.
“What did she find?”
“A phone.”
Ethan stopped breathing.
Rosa continued.
“It still turns on.”
“And there's a video saved on it.”
May you like
Ethan immediately headed for the car.
He did not yet know that the recording would capture the last private confrontation Claire ever had with Celeste.
