Chapter 12 - The Blood in the GarageMargaret’s house looked exactly as it always had.
White columns.
Trimmed hedges.
A wreath on the door no matter the season.
From the outside, no one would suspect monsters lived there. That was the thing about evil in neighborhoods like ours. It knew how to mow its lawn.
Detective Hale did not let me inside at first.
I stood behind the police tape with Claire beside me while officers moved through the garage, the kitchen, the upstairs rooms.
A neighbor in yoga pants whispered into her phone from the sidewalk.
Another asked if Margaret was okay.
I wanted to tell them Margaret was not okay.
Margaret was what happened when greed wore pearls for forty years and everyone called it class.
Hale came out after an hour.
“There are signs of a struggle in the garage. Blood belongs to Eric, preliminarily. We found his phone smashed under the workbench.”
“Margaret killed him?”
“We don’t know.”
“She’s capable.”
“Yes,” Hale said. “But we don’t know.”
Claire folded her arms.
“Could Eric have staged it?”
“Possible. But difficult. There’s enough blood to concern us.”
I thought of Eric in Lily’s room.
Eric warning me.
Eric saying Margaret was not the only villain.
Maybe he had tried to run.
Maybe he had tried to confess.
Maybe Margaret had decided loose ends needed cutting.
The thought did not bring satisfaction.
That bothered me.
I hated Eric.
But Rachel had once loved him.
Lily had once trusted him.
Grief is not clean.
Around noon, Hale allowed Claire and me to identify several documents found in Margaret’s office.
Her desk drawers had been emptied.
Her computer gone.
But she had missed one thing.
A locked cabinet behind a framed watercolor.
Inside were old family files.
Matthew Collins’ death certificate.
Rachel’s childhood medical records.
And a folder labeled D.H.
My initials.
Daniel Harper.
Inside were printouts of my employment history, tax records, social media posts, photographs of me and Lily at parks, school pickups, grocery stores.
At the back was a draft petition.
In the Matter of Minor Child Lily Harper.
Margaret had planned to claim I was emotionally unstable, financially negligent, and potentially dangerous.
Attached were witness statements.
Unsigned.
Prepared in advance.
One from Margaret.
One from Eric.
One from a woman named Pauline Greer.
I looked at Claire.
“Who is Pauline Greer?”
Claire’s face tightened.
“Rachel and Eric’s cousin. She works in juvenile services.”
Of course.
Margaret had not only been planning to steal Lily’s money.
She had been preparing to steal Lily herself.
I read one sentence from the draft petition and felt my vision blur red.
The child Lily Harper has exhibited fearfulness in her father’s presence and has expressed a desire to reside with her maternal grandmother.
I nearly tore the paper in half.
Claire stopped me.
“Evidence,” she said softly.
I let it go.
Detective Hale photographed everything.
Then an officer came downstairs holding a small metal box.
“Found this in the linen closet.”
Hale opened it with gloves.
Inside were passports.
Cash.
A burner phone.
And three IDs with Margaret’s photograph under different names.
“She planned an exit,” Hale said.
Claire looked grim.
“She’s done this before.”
At 3:16 p.m., Officer Ramirez called me from the house.
Her voice was urgent.
“Mr. Harper, Lily remembered something.”
I left immediately.
When I got home, Lily sat at the kitchen table with Anna, drawing the same picture over and over.
A black car.
A woman in red.
A little girl in a window.
I knelt beside her.
“Sweetheart?”
She pointed to the woman in red.
“Grandma came here last night.”
I froze.
“We know Eric came.”
“No.” Lily shook her head. “Before Uncle Eric. I saw Grandma outside.”
Anna touched Lily’s shoulder.
“Tell your dad what she was carrying.”
Lily looked at me.
“A gas can.”
The kitchen seemed to tilt.
Anna’s eyes met mine.
“She may not have been trying to steal evidence,” Anna said quietly.
I looked at the broken window.
The gas line behind the stove.
The old wooden walls Rachel loved.
“She was going to burn the house.”
May you like
Anna nodded.
“With you and Lily inside.”
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