Chapter 4 - The Key in Lily's Pocket
The paramedic who examined Lily introduced herself as Marisol. She spoke softly, kept her hands visible, and asked Lily before touching her.
That alone made my daughter relax.
Her temperature was low, but not dangerously low. She was alert. She could answer questions. She kept insisting she had been in the freezer "a long time," though she couldn't tell us exactly how long.
A police officer named Grant Keller asked me to step a few feet away.
"Did you see anyone put her in?"
"No."
"Did she identify someone?"
"Her grandmother. Evelyn Shaw."
He nodded toward the kitchen, where another officer was speaking to Evelyn and Taylor separately.
"Any custody conflict?"
"Divorce finalized three weeks ago. Fifty-fifty parenting time."
"Any prior reports?"
"No."
Then I remembered the flinch.
"Not that I know of."
Keller heard the difference.
"What does that mean?"
I showed him the brass key.
"My daughter says Evelyn was searching for this."
He read the tape.
OLD PHONE - DESK.
"Where's the desk?"
"Probably Taylor's office upstairs."
Keller looked toward the house.
"Don't go looking for it yourself tonight."
"Why?"
"Because right now this is a child-endangerment investigation. You don't want anyone later saying you entered the house and altered or removed evidence."
That word hit me.
Evidence.
This wasn't a family argument anymore.
At the hospital, Lily sat under heated blankets while a nurse brought her apple juice.
Taylor arrived twenty minutes later.
She didn't bring Evelyn.
"Mom went home," she said.
I stared at her. "The police let her leave?"
"They said they weren't arresting anyone tonight."
"Why did Lily have the key?"
Taylor looked at the floor.
"I don't know."
"It's your handwriting."
"I label things."
"What old phone?"
"Ben, not here."
"Yes, here."
Lily was asleep now, curled beneath three blankets.
Taylor lowered her voice.
"After you moved out, I set up an old phone as a camera in the kitchen."
"Why?"
"Because things were going missing."
"What things?"
"Money. Mail. Lily's school papers. I thought maybe I was losing track of stuff."
"And what did the camera record?"
Taylor went silent.
"What did it record?"
She looked at me with tears gathering in her eyes.
"My mother."
"Doing what?"
Taylor swallowed.
"Something I should have stopped the first time."
A voice came from the hospital-room doorway.
"Mrs. Shaw?"
We turned.
Officer Keller stood there holding a clear evidence bag.
Inside it was a phone.
The screen was cracked.
May you like
"We found this in a storm drain two houses from your property."
Taylor went white.
