The Hand That Rocks The Cradle

It was January 2011. Nicole and Jess were still working with Devin under A.D. Thomas Kemyss, Antonio was still the head of security at the Maryland airport, and Nathan was in his fourth year of medical school. He was doing his rotations at a local hospital. He would be graduating soon and was trying to decide what area of medicine he wanted to specialize in. The four's past year and a half had been peaceful. Nicole and Antonio were doing well and so were Nathan and Jess.

The four children they had between them were also doing well. Joe was a typical four-year-old boy. Nathan was three and quickly growing out of his nickname Toby. His father stopped calling that when he turned two and his older brother, who was in the stage of wanting to be like Daddy, did as well. Pretty much the only people who called Nathan Toby were the females in his life—his mother, Nicole, his baby sister, and Teresa. Zachary and Madison were active toddlers and would be thirty months old in mid January.

Nicole's day had been average, but when you are an agent average means hard. She was beat. As she drove down her street she let out a loud sign when she remembered that Antonio, Nathan, and Jess all had plans and she was going to be spending the evening with four children.

She dragged herself out of her car and headed to the front door. It was ajar. That's odd, she thought. Why would Teresa leave the door open? Nicole walked in.

"Teresa, you left the door open," Nicole called. "Teresa? Zachary? Is anybody here?"

With a quizzical look about her face she continued walking through the house. She got more and more nervous with every step. This was unusual. The house was always a madhouse at the end of the day, so why was it so quiet now?

When she walked into the family room her hand covered mouth as she gasped. "Oh!"

She found Teresa sprawled across the wood floor, face down in a pool of her own blood.

Nicole frantically dialed 911. She knew it would do the nanny no good. Teresa was dead, but where was her child? Where were any of the children?

"911. What is your emergency?"

"I just got home from work. I found my nanny dead and I don't where my son is?" Nicole ran through the house looking in every room and closet, all the while calling the children. "Madison, Joe, Toby, Zachary!" over and over again.

"Ma'am, calm down. Officers are on the way. Can you tell me how old the children are?"

"Four-year-old and three-year-old boys, and two two-year-olds, one boy, one girl."

Nicole swung open the door of the last room she hadn't checked…the master bedroom. She heard a sound coming from the closet. In any other circumstance she would have drawn her gun before sliding the closet door open, but with her son "missing" she couldn't think clearly. It was just as well. If she had her gun in hand she would have further scared the already terrified four children hiding there. They were all the way in the back and it looked like they had made a pile of clothes to hide behind. Joe was holding Madison and Zachary close to him.

"I found them! Thank God. They're okay." She knew she was supposed to stay on the line with the 911 operator until the police arrived, but she hung up and turned off her phone. She did not want anyone interrupting her finding out what had taken place.

"Are you guys okay?"

"Mommy!" Zachary was the only one who reacted to seeing Nicole...and even his reaction was delayed. Jess's kids remained silent. Nicole picked up her son and helped the others out as well. "Are you hurt?"

"No," Madison told her.

"What about you, Nathan?"

He shook his head.

"Where's my Mommy?" Joe questioned.

"I'm going to call her right now."

xxxx

"And there they were…right in our closet." Nicole explained to Antonio, Nathan, and Jess what had happened, while the police were upstairs talking to the kids.

"We better get this blood mopped up before the kids see it."

"What makes you think they already haven't?" Jess sighed, still trying to get a grasp on the days events.

"They haven't," the sergeant came down the stairs. "The didn't tell me much, but from what I was able to gather, as soon as Joseph heard the yelling he took the others to hide in the closet. They haven't been down since."

"So they didn't see her get stabbed?" Antonio asked hopefully.

"I don't think so."

"Well thank God for that," Nicole said.

"What did they hear?" Antonio asked.

"The doorbell and then a lot of yelling. 'Some guy screamed at Nanny Teresa', Joseph said. Then he told me that he took the other three children to the bedroom and they hid there until Nicole found them. The medical examiner said Teresa died around eleven this morning."

"They were in the closet for almost six hours," Nicole stated the obvious.

"Joseph had a hard time keeping them there...especially the toddlers, but he didn't give up. Smart kid. I know this has been hard for all of you, and I hate to make things worse, but I may need to talk to the children again tomorrow," the sergeant said.

"Why tomorrow. Can't it wait a few days?"

"With children that young we can't risk them forgetting even the smallest detail. I'll be in touch."

xxxx

The next day Nicole answered the door. It was Jess. "How is Zachary doing?"

"He seems fine. He slept well. He's just fine."

"Madison is too. I think her and Zachary were too young to really know what was going on. I think they will be okay. The odd thing about it is Joe and Toby seem okay too. Do you think maybe because they didn't see it, it won't affect them?"

"We can always hope. Do they know what happened?"

"No. Nathan and I decided we are going to tell them Teresa moved away. We figure any abandonment issues that arise from that are better than them knowing someone killed her."

"Antonio and I figured the same thing."

"Did he go to work today?"

"Yeah. When we put Zachary to bed last night…like I said he was fine. Antonio didn't see any reason to stay home. I am so tired. I didn't sleep at all last night thinking about ever leaving my kid with another nanny. I loved Teresa, but let's face it, her personal life caused this. She pissed someone off. I hate to think of how this could have ended for our children, if Joe hadn't done what he did."

"Me too. But I am not leaving my children alone with any one person again. I am going to look at child care facilities this afternoon. That's why I came over here, to ask you if you want to come."

"I thought we ruled that out because of our hours."

"Most of them close at six. Nathan and/or Antonio can pick them up before that."

xxxx

"Sit down," the detective ordered the suspect in Teresa's killing.

"I thought I was just here for some questions. Why am I in an interrogation room?"

"To be interrogated," the other smart mouth detective answered. "Where were you at eleven o'clock yesterday morning…because we know you weren't at work."

"It was my lunch hour. I always leave on my lunch break."

"You go to a restaurant?"

"Sometimes, but not yesterday."

"How convenient."

"I wasn't hungry. I went for a drive. I stopped in the park."

"Anybody see you?"

"Plenty of people did. But I didn't take their names…You guys really think I did this don't you?" Antonio could not believe it. He thought it was odd that they were questioning him for the second time in as many days, but he didn't think they really believed he was guilty.

"I'll tell you exactly what I think. You and Teresa were having an affair. That's why you left work everyday. Yesterday you and her had a fight, you lost control, grabbed a knife, and stabbed her."

"What makes you think this? You have no evidence of this. Because it isn't true."

"One of your neighbors saw a black SUV in your driveway around the time of the killing."

"Hundreds of people drive SUVs in this state."

"On top of that, the door knob was not tampered with, which means the person who killed Teresa either had a key or it was someone she knew and she opened the door. And there are no other finger prints on either side of the knob other than yours, your wife's, Teresa's, and the Masseys. Everybody has a provable alibi, except you."

"My neighbor's kid told you the doorbell rang. Teresa let him in. The door was left ajar. The killer never had to touch the knob."

"Which brings me to my next point. Yesterday you were incredibly interested in what the kids told us transpired during Teresa's murder."

"A woman was killed in my home. Of course I was interested."

"You were more interested than your wife or your neighbors. You asked a dozen questions and all of them were about what the kids said."

Then it was the next detectives turn. "And then of course there's the kicker, Teresa was killed by a knife from your kitchen."

"…I want a lawyer."

"You're going to need one. Stand up. Antonio Cortez, you are charged with the murder of Teresa Artamonov. You have the right to remain silent…