Chapter 6 - SHE CAME FOR LILY
I drove eighty miles an hour.
Every red light felt personal.
I called my sister, Megan.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
Again.
Finally:
“Ryan?”
“Lock the doors.”
“What?”
“Lock every door right now.”
“They’re locked.”
“Where’s Lily?”
“Watching cartoons.”
“Take her upstairs. Stay away from the windows.”
“What happened?”
“Vanessa’s out.”
Silence.
Then:
“Oh my God.”
“I’m five minutes away.”
I called 911.
Police were already heading there.
When I reached Megan’s street, I saw a dark SUV parked halfway down the block.
Engine running.
No plates.
I recognized it.
Vanessa’s cousin owned one just like it.
I parked sideways in Megan’s driveway.
Ran inside.
Megan met me holding a fireplace poker.
“You look insane.”
“Good.”
Lily ran into my arms.
“Daddy!”
I checked every door.
Every window.
Nobody.
Police arrived two minutes later.
They searched the yard.
The SUV disappeared before they could reach it.
But someone had left something in Megan’s mailbox.
A photograph.
It showed Lily asleep in my house.
The picture had been taken from inside her bedroom.
On the back, written in black marker:
SHE LOVES ME MORE THAN YOU THINK.
Megan saw it.
“What kind of sick person does this?”
I couldn’t answer.
Lily looked at the picture and started crying.
“Vanessa took that when I was sleeping.”
“How do you know?”
“She told me not to wake up.”
My blood turned to ice.
“When?”
Lily shrugged.
“Lots of times.”
That night, Detective Cole arranged a temporary protection order.
I took Lily to my parents’ house, a location Vanessa hadn’t visited in over a year.
At midnight, I sat beside Lily’s bed.
She refused to sleep unless I held her hand.
“Daddy?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you mad at me?”
“No.”
“Because I didn’t tell you?”
I swallowed.
“No, baby.”
“She said if I told, you’d go away forever.”
“She lied.”
“She lies a lot.”
“I know.”
“She said Grandma Rachel was a liar too.”
I stiffened.
Grandma Rachel?
Lily sometimes got family titles confused when anxious.
“You mean Mommy Rachel?”
She nodded.
“What did Vanessa say?”
“That Mommy tried to take Daddy away from her.”
I stared at Lily.
“Did she say how she knew Mommy?”
“She showed me pictures.”
“What pictures?”
“Mommy crying.”
Every muscle in my body tightened.
“Where?”
“In the blue box.”
The blue box police had seized was empty except for the unlabeled bottle.
According to the evidence log, there had been no photographs.
Unless Vanessa had moved them.
“Lily, where is the blue box usually?”
“Kitchen.”
“Always?”
She shook her head.
“Sometimes she puts it under Mommy’s tree.”
Rachel’s tree.
After Rachel died, we planted a maple in our backyard.
I kissed Lily’s forehead.
“Stay with Grandpa.”
At 12:40 A.M., I drove home with Detective Cole.
We went straight to the backyard.
Under Rachel’s maple, the soil looked untouched.
But Cole noticed one patch of grass growing differently.
He dug.
Six inches down, the shovel hit plastic.
We pulled out a waterproof container.
Inside were photographs.
Rachel leaving work.
Rachel crying in her car.
Rachel meeting with an attorney.
And one photograph taken through our old kitchen window.
Rachel and I were arguing.
On the back, Vanessa had written:
HE DESERVES BETTER.
Below that:
SO DO I.
Cole lifted another photograph.
It showed Rachel’s car.
The hood was open.
Someone wearing black gloves was leaning over the engine.
We couldn’t see the face.
But we could see the date stamped in the corner.
The night Rachel died.
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
Silence.
“Vanessa?”
A woman breathed softly.
Then whispered:
“You should’ve left the past buried with her.”
The line went dead.
Cole stared at me.
I looked toward the dark house.
A light upstairs suddenly turned on.
May you like
Someone was inside.
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