Chapter 2 - The Woman in the Rain
Grant ordered everyone out of the bathroom except Lily, me, and the two police officers.
Renata refused.
“This is ridiculous.”
“She is confused.”
Grant did not raise his voice.
“Leave.”
“I am your fiancée.”
“You were my fiancée when I entered this room.”
Renata stared at him.
The words landed harder than a slap.
One officer stepped between them.
“Ms. Cole, we need to speak with everyone separately.”
Renata’s mouth tightened.
As she passed Lily, she looked down at her.
The threat in her eyes was unmistakable.
Lily recoiled.
Grant saw it.
He moved instantly, blocking Renata’s view of the child.
“Do not look at her like that.”
“I looked at her like what?”
“Like you own her silence.”
Renata gave him a cold smile.
“You are making a terrible mistake.”
Then she walked out.
The police questioned me in a downstairs study.
I told them everything.
I described the smell.
The iron.
The smoke.
The way Renata had pulled Lily by the hair.
I also admitted that I had shoved her.
“I was trying to stop her,” I said.
“I would do it again.”
The younger officer wrote that sentence down.
The older officer, Detective Mara Ruiz, studied me carefully.
“You understand that admitting intent could complicate things.”
“I understand.”
“You could have taken the iron from her without using your body.”
“Maybe.”
“But I had less than a second before she pressed it against Lily’s ear.”
Detective Ruiz closed her notebook.
“What do you believe Lily meant when she said Ms. Cole told her that her mother screamed too?”
“I don’t know.”
That was the truth.
“But Lily looked terrified when she said it.”
“Did Ms. Cole know Lily’s mother?”
“Renata entered Grant’s life about eight months after Claire died.”
“So far as you know.”
I looked at her.
“What does that mean?”
“It means wealthy families often hide complicated timelines.”
Before I could answer, Grant entered the study.
His face looked older than it had twenty minutes earlier.
“A pediatrician is examining Lily.”
“Is she all right?” I asked.
“There is a minor burn near the scalp.”
My stomach twisted.
“The doctor believes it may heal without scarring.”
Grant stared at the floor.
“She also found two older burns.”
Detective Ruiz sat straighter.
“Where?”
“One behind Lily’s left shoulder.”
“One on her upper arm.”
“I bathe her,” I said.
“I never saw them.”
“They were small.”
“Hidden beneath areas normally covered by clothing.”
Grant looked toward the study door.
“The doctor said one could be several weeks old.”
Renata had been hurting Lily long before that night.
I remembered every time Lily had refused to change clothes near me.
Every time she had flinched when someone reached behind her.
Every time Renata had insisted on handling baths herself.
Shame poured through me.
“I should have known.”
Grant looked at me.
“So should I.”
Detective Ruiz asked him to sit.
“Mr. Callahan, your daughter’s statement creates a serious issue.”
“I am aware.”
“Her reference to her mother may be unrelated.”
“Or it may not be.”
Grant’s hands tightened.
“Claire died two years ago.”
“I know.”
“The police ruled it an accident.”
“Road conditions were poor.”
“Her car went through a barrier.”
Ruiz nodded.
“Was Lily present?”
“No.”
“She was at home.”
“With whom?”
Grant hesitated.
“Our former house manager.”
“What was her name?”
“Margaret Haines.”
“Where is she now?”
“I don’t know.”
The answer surprised me.
Grant seemed surprised by it too.
“She resigned three days after Claire’s funeral.”
“Did she give a reason?”
“She said she could not bear being in the house.”
“Did you remain in contact?”
“No.”
Ruiz wrote down the name.
Grant looked toward the hallway.
“Why would Renata say something about Claire screaming?”
“That is what we need to determine.”
A uniformed officer entered.
“Detective, there is a problem.”
Ruiz stood.
“What happened?”
“The bathroom camera was disabled.”
Grant frowned.
“There is no bathroom camera.”
“Not inside the room.”
“Hallway security.”
“It stopped recording seventeen minutes before the incident.”
“When did it resume?” Ruiz asked.
“It hasn’t.”
Grant’s expression darkened.
“Our security system has redundant storage.”
“Someone deleted the backup.”
“Who has access?”
Grant looked toward the doorway.
“Four people.”
“Name them.”
“Myself.”
“My head of security, Daniel Mercer.”
“Our systems administrator.”
“And Renata.”
Ruiz closed her notebook.
“Where is Mr. Mercer?”
The officer glanced down at his phone.
“No one can find him.”
A loud crash sounded from the hallway.
We rushed from the study.
Renata stood near the grand staircase.
An antique vase lay shattered beside her.
She held her phone in one hand.
Her expression was almost triumphant.
“I just spoke to my attorney.”
Grant stopped several feet away.
“You should be speaking to the police.”
“Oh, I will.”
She looked at Detective Ruiz.
“But first, everyone should understand that Emma has a documented history of violence.”
I stared at her.
“What are you talking about?”
Renata tapped her screen.
“Three years ago, she was arrested after striking a hospital administrator.”
Grant turned toward me.
“Is that true?”
My throat tightened.
“Yes.”
Renata smiled.
The room seemed to tilt.
“My mother had been removed from a dialysis schedule because of an insurance error,” I explained.
“She missed two treatments.”
“The administrator refused to review the records.”
“He laughed when I begged him.”
“So you hit him,” Renata said.
“I pushed him away when he tried to have security drag my mother outside.”
“Charges were dismissed.”
“After you completed an anger-management program.”
Grant said nothing.
Renata walked closer.
“I told you she was unstable.”
Detective Ruiz remained calm.
“How did you obtain sealed employment information?”
“It was not sealed.”
“It was absent from Ms. Hayes’s background check.”
Renata’s confidence flickered.
Grant noticed.
“So did I,” he said.
Renata’s eyes shifted between them.
Then her phone rang.
She looked at the screen.
For one second, genuine panic flashed across her face.
She rejected the call.
Ruiz saw the name before the screen went dark.
“Who is Margaret Haines?”
Renata’s fingers tightened around the phone.
Grant went completely still.
May you like
The former house manager had disappeared two years earlier.
And now she was calling the woman Lily said had heard her mother scream.
