Chapter 6: THE FIRE THAT NEVER HAPPENED
Police immediately requested assistance from authorities responsible for the cruise ship’s next port of call.
Meanwhile, investigators returned to my house.
What they discovered beneath the kitchen sink turned a suspected financial fraud case into a possible murder conspiracy.
A small electronic device had been attached behind the plumbing.
It was connected to wiring that had no legitimate purpose in the kitchen.
Fire investigators were called to examine the property.
By evening, the house had been declared unsafe until the device could be removed and analyzed.
My daughter had spent three days alone in a building that someone might have intended to burn.
I couldn’t stop thinking about that.
Not while the doctors checked her vital signs.
Not while a nurse brought her a stuffed rabbit.
Not while she slept with one small hand wrapped around my finger.
At eleven that night, Detective Whitmore returned.
“We’ve found something else.”
I followed her into the corridor.
“The notebook contained a list of dates, payments, and initials. One set of initials belongs to someone we’ve identified.”
“Who?”
“Patricia Nolan.”
My mother-in-law.
The woman who had held Lily when she was born.
The woman who sent me care packages during deployment.
The woman who had promised to help Derek while I was away.
“What did she do?” I asked.
“We’re still establishing her role. But we found transfers totaling eighty-six thousand dollars to an account under her control.”
I shook my head.
“That doesn’t make sense. She always complained about being broke.”
Whitmore turned another page.
“She also purchased two airline tickets under different names.”
“For where?”
“Panama.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
I stared at her.
“She’s planning to disappear.”
“It appears that way.”
Then Whitmore revealed the final detail.
“We’ve recovered a deleted message from one of the phones in the briefcase.”
She handed me a printed copy.
It was from Patricia to Derek.
“Once Hannah is gone, Lily stays with me. You take the money and leave. Don’t change the arrangement.”
I read it three times.
My daughter wasn’t an afterthought.
She was part of their plan.
And the people who were supposed to protect her had treated her future like something to be divided along with the money.
I handed the paper back.
“Find them.”
Whitmore nodded.
“We’re working on it.”
But before she could leave, my phone vibrated.
An unknown number had sent me a photograph.
It showed Lily asleep in her hospital bed.
The photograph had been taken less than ten minutes earlier.
Underneath was a message.
“YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT THE CLOSET LOCKED.”
