CHAPTER 7 — THE TEDDY BEAR
CHAPTER 7 — THE TEDDY BEAR
By the time we reached Maya's house, flashing lights painted the quiet neighborhood blue and red.
Crime scene tape fluttered in the evening wind.
Detective Hale met us at the front door.
"We've already cleared the house."
"No sign of forced entry."
"But..."
He pointed toward the nursery.
The room looked exactly as Maya had left it.
A pale yellow rocking chair.
Tiny books lined neatly on the shelf.
The crib stood untouched beneath a mobile of white stars.
Only one thing was missing.
"The teddy bear," I whispered.
The shelf where it had always sat was empty.
Daniel had smiled because he believed we were too late.
For a long moment, no one spoke.
Then I remembered something Maya had once told me while laughing over coffee.
"If I ever hide something important, I won't hide it where people expect."
I slowly walked to the rocking chair.
Everyone watched.
I knelt.
Ran my fingers beneath the seat.
Nothing.
Then I looked at the baby blanket folded across the chair.
It felt unusually heavy.
I opened the stitching along one corner.
A tiny waterproof memory card slid into my palm.
Detective Hale stared.
"The teddy bear was never the hiding place."
I smiled through tears.
"It was the decoy."
"Maya wanted them to waste time."
The memory card was rushed to the digital forensics lab.
Within an hour, the files were open.
Thousands of documents.
Bank transfers.
Hidden accounts.
Contracts.
Audio recordings.
Photographs.
Everything Richard Voss had spent years burying.
Then came the final folder.
Its name was simple.
READ THIS FIRST
Inside was a video Maya had recorded two weeks before her death.
She smiled weakly at the camera, one hand resting on her pregnant belly.
"If you're watching this," she began, "it means I wasn't able to protect my baby."
I had prepared myself for evidence.
I wasn't prepared to hear my sister's voice again.
She explained everything.
Daniel had discovered that she copied financial records from his laptop.
He begged her to delete them.
When she refused, Richard became involved.
Then Dr. Mercer.
"They keep telling me this is about money," Maya said.
"But I think they're afraid I'll testify."
She looked directly into the camera.
"So if anything happens to me..."
"It wasn't an accident."
The room was silent except for quiet sobbing.
Detective Hale closed the laptop.
"We have enough."
I shook my head.
May you like
"No."
"We have the truth."
