Chapter 12 - THE DELIVERY
The officer outside stopped the driver.
The man looked confused.
He had a delivery receipt, a local florist’s shirt, and no idea what he had walked into.
The flowers were real.
So was the card.
The order had been placed online before dawn.
Ruiz told me to stay inside.
I watched from behind the kitchen curtain while the driver opened the back of his van.
More bouquets.
Buckets of water.
A folded dolly.
No Mason.
No Victoria.
Just another stranger pulled into the mess they had made.
The card read:
Your mommy wants you to help Daddy be good.
I had to put it down.
Across the kitchen, Rosa was making toast.
Lily asked for strawberry jam.
Normal sounds.
A knife against a plate.
A kettle clicking off.
I held on to them.
By afternoon, investigators found the store where the photograph had been printed.
The person who ordered it had paid cash.
But the clerk remembered a woman in a baseball cap.
She had been angry because the machine took too long.
Victoria.
Ruiz wouldn’t call it certain until the clerk viewed a proper photo lineup.
I was learning how slowly certainty had to be built.
That evening, Beth called.
“They tried to draw money against one of the properties.”
“When?”
“This morning.”
“Can they?”
“The lender flagged it. The ownership documents didn’t match.”
She paused.
“Daniel, they’re running out of options.”
I looked toward the living room.
Lily was putting paper crowns on Owen’s dog.
I wanted running out of options to mean they were finished.
It meant they were getting desperate.
At nine, my phone rang.
Victoria.
Ruiz had told me what to do if she contacted me.
I answered with Owen beside me and the call recording enabled.
“Where are you?”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to the police.”
“I can tell you what happened to Caroline.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“Tell them.”
“No.”
Behind her voice, I heard traffic.
Then a man shouting.
Victoria lowered her voice.
“Mason knows I’m talking to you.”
“Get somewhere public. Call 911.”
“Listen carefully.”
She was crying now.
“I didn’t know he was going to hit her car.”
May you like
I stopped breathing.
Then the line went dead.
