Chapter 3 - The Missing Housekeeper
Renata claimed she had never met Margaret Haines.
Detective Ruiz asked to see her phone.
Renata refused.
“My attorney advised me not to surrender private property without a warrant.”
“Your attorney is correct,” Ruiz said.
“But refusing will not prevent us from obtaining one.”
Renata gave her a thin smile.
“Then obtain it.”
She turned to Grant.
“I am leaving.”
“No,” Grant replied.
“You are not.”
“You cannot hold me prisoner.”
“The police can decide whether you leave.”
Ruiz stepped between them again.
“At this moment, Ms. Cole is not under arrest.”
Renata’s smile widened.
“Then I suggest everyone move.”
She walked through the front doors without looking back.
A black sedan was already waiting.
The driver was Daniel Mercer, Grant’s missing security chief.
Mercer looked directly at us through the windshield.
Then he drove away.
Ruiz immediately called for patrol units.
The sedan disappeared beyond the estate gates before they arrived.
Grant ordered the gates locked.
It was too late.
Lily remained upstairs with the pediatrician.
When I entered her bedroom, she was sitting beneath a canopy decorated with paper stars.
Her burned hair had been trimmed away from the damaged area.
The injury looked small.
The fear in her eyes did not.
I sat on the carpet several feet away.
“I’m not going to ask you any questions.”
She watched me.
“You have already been very brave.”
Her hands rested in her lap.
“You do not have to speak again until you are ready.”
Lily looked toward the door.
Then she climbed from the bed and crossed the room.
She opened a small drawer beneath her desk.
Inside were dozens of drawings.
She selected one and carried it to me.
The picture showed three figures beneath black clouds.
One was a little girl.
One had yellow hair.
The third wore a bright red dress.
A gray car stood nearby.
The red figure held something dark beside one of the wheels.
“Is this your mother?” I asked, pointing to the yellow-haired woman.
Lily nodded.
“And this is you?”
Another nod.
I pointed toward the woman in red.
Lily’s entire body stiffened.
I lowered the drawing.
“You don’t have to tell me.”
She reached out and tapped the red figure.
Then she whispered one word.
“Renata.”
My heart began pounding.
“When did you see this?”
Lily pointed toward the window.
Rain streaked across the glass.
“The night your mother died?”
She nodded.
I wanted to run downstairs and show Grant.
But Lily seized my wrist.
Her eyes widened.
She shook her head violently.
“You don’t want me to tell him?”
She pointed toward the door again.
Then she covered her ears.
I understood.
She believed Renata was still inside the house.
“She left.”
Lily did not relax.
“Renata is gone.”
She tapped the drawing.
Then she pointed downward.
“Downstairs?”
She shook her head.
“Under the house?”
Lily nodded.
The Callahan estate was more than a hundred years old.
I knew there were storage cellars beneath the west wing.
I also knew Grant kept them locked.
“Is someone under the house?”
Lily lifted the drawing again and pointed to the dark object near the wheel.
Then she drew a square beneath the car.
A room.
A hidden room.
The bedroom door opened.
Grant entered carrying a tray of soup.
Lily immediately hid the drawing behind her back.
He stopped.
“I can leave.”
She stared at him.
Pain crossed his face.
He set the tray down.
“I know I have not been here enough.”
Lily looked away.
“I told myself I was working for you.”
“I said every flight, every meeting, and every late night was for your future.”
He swallowed.
“But children do not live in the future.”
“They live in the rooms where we fail to notice they are afraid.”
Lily’s eyes lifted.
Grant sat near the door.
“I failed you.”
The simple admission seemed to reach her.
She slowly brought the drawing from behind her back.
Then she carried it to him.
Grant looked at it.
The color drained from his face.
“What is this?”
Lily pointed to Renata.
“She…”
Her voice cracked.
Grant waited.
“She touched Mommy’s car.”
He stared at her.
“When?”
“Rain night.”
“Before the accident?”
Lily nodded.
Grant’s hand began trembling.
“What did she touch?”
Lily pointed toward the front wheel.
Then she made a twisting motion.
Grant stood so quickly the soup tray fell.
The bowl shattered against the floor.
I took the drawing from his hand before he crushed it.
“We need to show Detective Ruiz.”
Grant looked at Lily.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
The question came out more sharply than he intended.
Lily recoiled.
He immediately dropped to his knees.
“No.”
“I’m sorry.”
“That was not your fault.”
“None of this was your fault.”
She stared at him with tears filling her eyes.
Grant covered his face for one second.
When he lowered his hands, he looked destroyed.
“I should have protected you.”
Lily stepped toward him.
She placed one hand against his cheek.
It was the first voluntary touch I had seen her give him.
Grant closed his eyes.
Then the lights went out.
The entire estate fell into darkness.
A second later, the security alarm sounded.
Not the alarm for the gates.
Not the alarm for the doors.
It was the fire alarm from the basement.
Smoke began rising through the vents.
May you like
Someone was beneath the house.
And whatever evidence had been hidden there for two years was being burned.
