SPOILERS!!!
During the celebration of the charity party, Larry Digger approaches Melanie and as there is no privacy in the house, he virtually frogmarches her to the park. There he tells her that he knows that he is Russell Lee's daughter, the man who killed Meagan Stokes, and when Melanie shows disbelief, he says that there are signs for her to see it is true: she was left in the hospital the day Lee was killed, it was the hospital where Harper Lee worked and was on duty. Also he says that he has discovered this as he received a call, and he claims the call came from her own house. What Digger implies is that the Stokes have not been straight with her, and he tells her that it is very strange that she does not remember anything of the nine years before she came to live with the Stokes.
Digger is becoming more and more aggressive, and a man appears, telling him to stop bothering Melanie and get lost. The man is a waiter at her party and walks her back to the house. His name is David Riggs, and he actually is an undercover agent, investigating some fraud claims against Harper Stokes.
That night Melanie can hardly sleep and feels drawn to the living room where a portrait of Meagan hangs. David, who has returned to pick up some left objects for the catering company, finds her sleeping on the sofa, and when Melanie wakes up, she is startled to find him. David needs a tool kit, and in the conversation she is abhorred to discover that David heard all the conversation with Larry. David says that he used to be a policeman and has contacts, and he can help her to see who Larry Digger is, but Melanie refuses.
Melanie goes to her bedroom and discovers something that shocks her to the core, and in that instant an image of Meagan holding her toy horse and begging to go home comes to her mind. David appears, and Melanie asks him to phone Brian, her brother. Brian has recently come out as gay, and his father has forbidden to come to the house, and he has cut all ties with the family. However, when David calls him about Melanie, he rushes home. What Melanie found in the room was Meagan's red toy horse, some blue fabric, and all surrounded by 44 candles.
Brian tells Melanie and David that the horse seems to be the one Meagan had when she went missing. It has a chipped ear, and he tells them that the ear broke when he dropped it. What he is not sure if the blue fabric belongs to Meagan's dress as it was a long time ago. What he tells them is that Meagan appeared just wrapped in a blanket. David tells them that someone must have slipped into the room during the night and left all this. In the house apart from Melanie, there was her parents, Maria, the live-in maid, her boss, Ann Margaret, and her godfather Jamie. David says that the night before there were lots of people in the house and anyone could have hidden without anyone noticing. Melanie tells them about the memory, which she is certain is not a dream, and she says that this means that she was present when Meagan was kept captive in the cottage she has seen in that memory.
I am totally hooked on the story. Could it be true that the Stokes are hiding something? But why would they call Larry Digger now? Who is doing this to Melanie?
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