Chapter 6 - MARA’S FINAL VIDEO
The flash drive contained more than audio.
Detective Pierce called Ethan the following morning.
“There’s a video.”
Ethan’s hand tightened around the phone.
“Mara?”
“Yes.”
“When was it recorded?”
“Approximately ninety minutes before the crash.”
Ethan could not answer.
Pierce continued.
“You can watch it here.”
“I’m coming.”
Rachel stayed with Maisie again.
Ethan reached the station in twenty-two minutes.
Pierce led him into a small interview room.
A laptop waited on the table.
Ethan sat.
Pierce remained near the door.
“You can stop whenever you need.”
“Play it.”
The screen turned black.
Then Mara appeared.
She was sitting in the old playroom.
The painted stars were behind her.
Her hair was tied back.
She wore the gray sweater Ethan remembered seeing that morning.
For a moment, he forgot everything else.
“Mara.”
The name escaped him.
On the screen, Mara looked directly into the camera.
“Ethan, if you’re watching this, I probably failed to explain everything in person.”
Ethan pressed his lips together.
Mara continued.
“First, I am not leaving you.”
His eyes filled immediately.
“I know Corinne may tell you that.”
A sad smile crossed Mara’s face.
“She understands what frightens you.”
Ethan wiped his eyes.
“She knows you spent your childhood watching your father leave and come back whenever it suited him.”
Ethan stared at the screen.
Corinne knew that story.
He had told her months after Mara died.
Or so he thought.
Maybe Mara had told her first.
Maybe every vulnerable thing Ethan revealed had already been cataloged.
Mara continued.
“She will use your fear of abandonment against you.”
Ethan looked down.
“She will tell you I was unhappy.”
A pause.
“I was scared.”
Another pause.
“But I was not unhappy with you.”
Ethan covered his mouth.
“I love you.”
He closed his eyes.
When he opened them, Mara was holding papers.
“The missing money led me to Derek Sloan.”
She explained the transfers.
She explained the mechanic.
Then her expression changed.
“I made a mistake.”
Ethan leaned closer.
“I confronted Derek.”
Pierce moved from the wall.
Ethan stared at the video.
Mara continued.
“He told me Corinne had information that could put him in prison.”
A pause.
“I asked what information.”
Mara looked frightened now.
“He said it involved Natalie.”
Ethan’s pulse jumped.
“I think Natalie discovered what Corinne was doing in college.”
Mara swallowed.
“I don’t know whether Natalie is alive.”
Ethan stopped breathing.
“But Derek believes Corinne knows.”
The video cut briefly.
Then resumed.
Mara had moved closer to the camera.
“Corinne has been taking money for years.”
“Not just from us.”
“From Evelyn.”
“From Natalie.”
“From other people.”
“She creates companies, moves money, then changes names.”
Ethan looked at Pierce.
The detective’s expression remained unreadable.
Mara held up a printed email.
“I found this yesterday.”
She read.
Payment received.
Vehicle issue will be handled before Friday.
Ethan’s stomach twisted.
Friday was the day Mara died.
Mara continued.
“I don’t know what vehicle.”
“I don’t know who sent this.”
“But the email was forwarded to an account Corinne used.”
Ethan gripped the table.
Mara looked into the camera.
“If I’m being paranoid, I’ll laugh about this someday.”
Her smile trembled.
“But I’m taking Maisie to Leah’s tonight.”
Ethan whispered.
“You should have gone earlier.”
Mara continued.
“Ethan, please don’t confront Corinne alone.”
The irony cut through him.
“She is very good at becoming whoever you need her to be.”
Ethan lowered his head.
“She did.”
Mara’s voice softened.
“If something happens to me, take Maisie away from her.”
Ethan could barely breathe.
“Do not let guilt make decisions for you.”
“Do not let Corinne comfort you.”
The room disappeared.
Ethan saw only Mara.
“She will try.”
Tears rolled down his face.
“She has always wanted what I had.”
“Not the house.”
“Not the money.”
“You.”
Ethan stared at the screen.
Pierce looked toward him.
Mara continued.
“I never understood it until Natalie disappeared.”
A pause.
“Corinne doesn’t just want things.”
“She wants lives.”
“She copies people.”
“She learns what they love.”
“She learns what makes them necessary.”
“And then she tries to replace them.”
Ethan felt sick.
He remembered Corinne wearing Mara’s favorite perfume after the funeral.
He remembered thinking it was comforting.
He remembered Corinne cooking Mara’s recipes.
Using Mara’s phrases.
Reading the same bedtime stories to Maisie.
At the time, he interpreted it as kindness.
Now it felt like rehearsal.
The final section of the video was hardest.
Mara leaned toward the camera.
“If I’m wrong, forgive me.”
“If I’m right, forgive yourself.”
Ethan began shaking.
“Love our daughter enough to believe her even when what she tells you hurts.”
Maisie.
The bruise.
The cabinet.
The discarded letters.
Mara had somehow predicted that too.
The video ended with six words.
“I’ll see you after Leah’s.”
Then blackness.
Ethan remained motionless.
Pierce gave him time.
Finally, Ethan whispered.
“She thought she was coming home.”
“Yes.”
“She didn’t say goodbye.”
“No.”
“Because she wasn’t planning to die.”
Pierce pulled out a chair.
“No.”
Ethan wiped his face.
“What happens now?”
“We found the original email Mara showed in the video.”
“How?”
“It existed in archived cloud data.”
“And?”
“It came from Derek.”
“To Corinne?”
“Yes.”
Ethan stood.
Pierce raised a hand.
“Sit.”
“What did vehicle issue mean?”
“We don’t know.”
“Stop saying that.”
“It’s the truth.”
Ethan paced.
“Where is Derek?”
“We found a possible location.”
Ethan turned.
“Where?”
“Don’t ask.”
“When are you arresting Corinne?”
“When we have probable cause for a charge that holds.”
“She abused Maisie.”
“That investigation is active.”
“She stole money.”
“Grant is building it.”
“She hid evidence.”
“We are documenting it.”
“My wife may have been killed.”
Pierce’s eyes hardened.
“And if she was, I intend to prove it.”
Ethan stopped.
Pierce continued.
“I don’t want a dramatic arrest followed by a weak case.”
“I want the person responsible to walk into court knowing every door is closed.”
Ethan slowly sat.
“What do you need from me?”
“Stay away from Corinne.”
“Fine.”
“Stay away from Evelyn.”
Ethan nodded.
“Stay away from Derek.”
Another nod.
“And stop opening every unknown message immediately.”
Ethan almost smiled.
“Now you sound like Mara.”
Pierce’s expression softened.
“Maybe listen this time.”
When Ethan returned home, Maisie was painting at the dining table.
She had drawn three people.
Ethan.
Maisie.
Mara with wings.
A fourth figure stood far away.
Black scribbles covered its face.
“Who is that?”
Ethan asked.
Maisie looked down.
“Corinne.”
“Why is she over there?”
“Because Mommy said bad people don’t get to stand close forever.”
Ethan froze.
“When did Mommy say that?”
Maisie shrugged.
“A long time ago.”
Ethan crouched beside her.
“What else do you remember Mommy saying about Corinne?”
Maisie thought carefully.
“She said if I got scared, I should count the stars.”
“The stars in the playroom?”
Maisie nodded.
“And remember the rabbit.”
Ethan looked at her stuffed toy.
“What about the rabbit?”
“Mommy said Mr. Buttons knows secrets.”
Ethan stared at the stuffed rabbit.
Maisie had carried it everywhere since Mara’s death.
It was old.
One ear had been sewn twice.
A faded blue ribbon remained around its neck.
Ethan picked it up.
“Can I see him?”
Maisie handed it over.
He felt along the seams.
Nothing.
Then he noticed the ribbon.
The knot was strangely thick.
He untied it.
A tiny plastic object dropped onto the table.
Rachel gasped.
Ethan stared.
It was a microSD card.
Mara had hidden another piece of evidence inside Maisie’s stuffed rabbit.
Ethan immediately called Pierce.
The card contained eighty-seven files.
Most were photographs.
Receipts.
Screenshots.
Bank records.
But one image changed the investigation.
It had been taken through Mara’s bedroom window.
Corinne stood beside Derek Sloan in Ethan’s driveway.
The timestamp was three days before Mara died.
Derek was holding something.
A black plastic case.
On the next image, the case was open.
Inside were tools.
In the third image, Derek was crouched beside Mara’s vehicle.
Ethan stared at the photograph until his vision blurred.
Pierce did not need to tell him why it mattered.
Mara had photographed the man connected to a suspicious payment beside the vehicle that later carried her to her death.
The final image showed Corinne watching him.
Not stopping him.
Not questioning him.
Watching.
For the first time, Detective Pierce used a word Ethan had been waiting to hear.
“We’re getting close.”
But Corinne apparently knew that too.
Because forty minutes later, police checking her hotel room found it empty.
Her suitcase was gone.
Her phone had been left beneath a pillow.
And on the bathroom mirror, written in red lipstick, were five words.
May you like
YOU SHOULD HAVE BELIEVED YOUR WIFE.
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