Chapter 2 - Nineteen Days Missing
The telephone ringing beneath the greenhouse changed the entire police response.
By the time two Litchfield County deputies forced open the exterior door, Mason Redd’s SUV had disappeared into the storm.
Celeste had not.
She stood against the greenhouse wall with her hands visible while Laura knelt beside Daniel and Sophie clung to her father’s arm.
“Ma’am,” Deputy Carson said to Celeste, “do not move.”
“I’m not resisting.”
“Keep your hands where I can see them.”
Daniel was taken by ambulance to St. Vincent Medical Center.
Laura rode with him.
Sophie sat between them wrapped in a gray emergency blanket.
Daniel’s blood pressure was dangerously low. He was dehydrated, undernourished, and suffering from a badly infected wound near his left ankle.
The doctor estimated he had lost nearly twenty pounds.
Nineteen days.
Laura kept staring at that number.
Nineteen days while she had slept less than two hundred feet from the greenhouse.
Nineteen days while Sophie had asked if her father was dead.
Nineteen days while Celeste made coffee every morning and said, “We have to prepare ourselves for the possibility that Daniel doesn’t want to be found.”
At 2:13 a.m., Detective Maria Torres entered Daniel’s hospital room.
She was in her mid-forties, with tired eyes and snow melting on the shoulders of her coat.
“Mr. Hayes, I know you’re exhausted.”
Daniel nodded.
“But I need to know whether someone confined you against your will.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Daniel looked at Laura.
Then Sophie.
“Can Sophie leave the room?”
“I’m not leaving,” Sophie said immediately.
Laura touched her hair.
“Soph.”
“He’ll disappear again.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Laura felt something crack inside her.
“He isn’t disappearing.”
“You said that last time.”
Laura had no answer.
A nurse eventually persuaded Sophie to eat in the family lounge.
When the door closed, Torres repeated the question.
Daniel said, “Mason Redd grabbed me.”
“Alone?”
“No.”
“Who was with him?”
“Owen Kessler.”
Laura’s head snapped up.
Owen Kessler was Avery Heritage Properties’ outside counsel.
He had handled contracts for Laura’s late father.
He had administered parts of Victor Avery’s estate.
He had attended Sophie’s baptism.
Torres wrote the name down.
“And Celeste Avery?”
Daniel stared at the ceiling.
“She didn’t put me down there the first night.”
Laura noticed the wording.
“The first night?”
Daniel looked at her.
“She came later.”
“How much later?”
“The second day.”
Laura stood.
“What did she do?”
“She told me if I gave Owen the encryption password, I could go home.”
Laura gripped the back of the chair.
“What password?”
“To the audit files.”
Torres leaned forward.
“Start earlier.”
Daniel took a slow breath.
Six months earlier, Avery Heritage Properties had hired Daniel’s accounting firm to review irregular construction expenses before a proposed sale of the company.
The company, founded by Laura and Celeste’s father, Victor Avery, owned fourteen residential and commercial properties throughout Connecticut and western Massachusetts.
Laura was chief executive.
Celeste was chief financial officer.
The proposed buyer had valued the company at approximately fifty-one million dollars.
During Daniel’s review, he discovered millions in payments to a restoration contractor called Wintermere Restoration LLC.
“There were invoices,” Daniel said, “but no crews. No permits. No completed work matching the amounts.”
“How much?” Torres asked.
“Four point six million over thirty-two months.”
Laura felt sick.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was trying to verify it.”
“You were auditing my company.”
“I was auditing transactions your sister controlled.”
“That is not an answer.”
Daniel looked away.
Torres let the silence sit.
Daniel continued.
The money flowed through Wintermere, then through two additional companies, eventually reaching Ashcroft Nominee LLC.
Ashcroft had recently appeared on Avery Heritage Properties’ shareholder ledger as owner of eight percent of the voting shares.
Shares that supposedly had been sold by Laura.
“I never sold eight percent.”
“I know.”
Laura’s voice sharpened.
“How do you know?”
“Because I found the transfer agreement.”
“And?”
“The signature isn’t yours.”
Torres looked at Laura.
“Was it notarized?”
“Yes,” Daniel said.
“By?”
“Owen Kessler.”
Laura sat down again.
The room suddenly felt too small.
Daniel told them that on the day he disappeared, Owen had contacted him.
Owen claimed he wanted to cooperate.
He asked Daniel to meet privately at the old greenhouse on the Avery family estate because Celeste supposedly monitored the company offices.
Daniel had agreed.
“You went alone?” Laura asked.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because we had just fought.”
Laura flinched.
Their argument returned instantly.
The photographs Celeste had shown her.
Daniel entering Naomi Chen’s apartment building.
The bank statement showing a six-hundred-thousand-dollar transfer.
The messages suggesting Daniel wanted to leave Laura.
She had accused him of having an affair.
He denied it.
She told him she didn’t believe him.
That was the last conversation they had before he vanished.
Torres noticed Laura’s expression.
“What happened at the greenhouse?”
“Owen was waiting. Mason came from behind me.”
Daniel touched the bruise near his temple.
“When I woke up, I was downstairs.”
“And Celeste?”
“She came the next afternoon.”
“What did she say?”
Daniel looked directly at Laura.
“She said you already believed I stole money.”
Laura’s stomach dropped.
Daniel continued.
“She said all I had to do was sign a confession saying I transferred company funds and disappeared voluntarily. She said Owen would arrange a car, cash, and a flight.”
“And if you refused?”
Daniel’s voice hardened.
“She told me you would lose the company, the house, and eventually Sophie would learn her father was a thief.”
Laura covered her mouth.
Torres asked, “Did Ms. Avery bring you food?”
“Sometimes.”
“Did she know you were unable to leave?”
“Yes.”
“Did she ever help you escape?”
“No.”
Torres closed her notebook.
“Celeste claims Owen was threatening her.”
Daniel laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“She’s already saying that?”
“She says Owen orchestrated everything and told her he would hurt Sophie if she spoke.”
Laura stared.
For a moment, the sister she had known all her life tried to reappear in her mind.
The sister who had braided Laura’s hair before school.
The sister who had held her at their father’s funeral.
The sister who brought Sophie birthday presents too expensive for a child.
“What evidence does she have?” Laura asked.
Torres hesitated.
“Text messages.”
“From Owen?”
“Yes.”
“What do they say?”
Torres looked at Daniel.
Then Laura.
“One says, ‘Keep the girl away from the hatch until I finish this.’”
Laura felt cold.
Torres continued.
“Another says, ‘If Laura calls police, Sophie pays first.’”
Daniel stared at her.
“They’re fake.”
“Maybe.”
“They’re fake.”
“We’ll determine that.”
Laura looked toward the hallway where Sophie was waiting.
Torres lowered her voice.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“We searched the cellar.”
Laura waited.
“We found a typed confession bearing Daniel’s signature.”
Daniel’s face changed.
“I never signed it.”
Torres set a clear evidence sleeve on the table.
Inside was a photocopy.
Laura recognized her husband’s signature.
Below it were the words:
I, Daniel Hayes, acknowledge diverting $600,000 from Avery Heritage Properties and leaving my family voluntarily to avoid prosecution.
Laura looked at Daniel.
He whispered, “That isn’t mine.”
But the signature looked exactly like his.
May you like
And at the bottom of the page, beside a notary stamp, was a second signature.
Laura’s.
