Chapter 5 - Glass
I threw myself over Lily before I even knew what had happened.
Glass sprayed across the rug.
Nora screamed.
Something heavy hit the far wall and dropped beside the dresser.
A brick.
Wrapped around it was a piece of paper.
I checked Lily first. No cuts. No blood. Just wide eyes and shaking hands around my neck.
“Daddy…”
“I’ve got you.”
Nora called 911.
I lifted the note with two fingers.
STOP DIGGING.
That was all.
The police arrived within eight minutes. Officers searched the yard and alley, but whoever threw the brick was gone.
Detective Rachel Boone took the recorder from the bunny seriously.
She took Anna’s basement recording even more seriously.
“You’re telling me your late wife warned you about your current fiancée by name?”
“Apparently.”
“And you met Claire when?”
“Fourteen months ago.”
“How?”
I opened my mouth.
Then stopped.
A charity gala Daniel had invited me to.
Claire had “accidentally” spilled champagne on my jacket.
Rachel noticed my expression.
“That memory just changed, didn’t it?”
“Yes.”
She wrote something down.
By midnight, Lily was asleep at Nora’s house with an officer parked outside.
I stayed behind with Rachel.
We searched old photos from Anna’s cloud account.
At 1:13 a.m., we found Claire.
Five years younger. Shorter hair. Standing at the edge of a company Christmas party.
Next to Daniel.
Claire had worked for my wife’s financial advisory firm under her maiden name: Claire Nolan.
She had never told me.
Rachel zoomed in.
“Look at her badge.”
I did.
Risk Compliance.
Anna had died while investigating irregular withdrawals from a family trust.
My trust.
Rachel leaned back. “This is bigger than a bad stepmother situation.”
My phone buzzed.
A message from Claire.
I know you found the recordings.
Another message arrived before I could respond.
You still don’t understand who Anna was afraid of.
Then a photograph appeared.
It showed Lily asleep in Nora’s guest room.
May you like
Taken through the window.
Seconds ago.
