Chapter 10 - THE PHONE IN THE FLOUR BIN
Daniel called Rosa three times.
Nothing.
He sent one message.
You’re not in trouble with me. Please tell the investigator if you have a recording.
Then he called Bennett.
The officer asked for Rosa’s address and said they would try to contact her.
Daniel wanted to drive there himself.
Kate blocked the front door.
“Lily just asked if you’d read to her.”
“I need to—”
“You need to let the police do their part.”
He looked past her.
Lily stood in the hallway holding a book upside down.
He put away his keys.
On the couch, she leaned against him while he read about a bear who couldn’t find his way home.
Halfway through, she asked, “Do people get new kids?”
Daniel stopped.
“What do you mean?”
“If the one they have is too much trouble.”
He closed the book.
“No one is replacing you.”
She picked at the corner of the cover.
“Vanessa said you wanted a normal family.”
He breathed slowly before answering.
“I wanted us to be happy. I made a bad choice about who could help us do that.”
“Because of me?”
“Because I was lonely and I wanted things to be easy.”
Lily looked puzzled.
He tried again.
“I picked someone I didn’t know well enough. That was my mistake.”
She considered it.
“Big people can make mistakes?”
“Very big ones.”
That night, Bennett called.
Rosa and her son were staying with her cousin.
They were safe.
“She said her phone broke yesterday,” he told Daniel. “But she gave us information about another device.”
Daniel stood.
“What device?”
“An old phone she used for music in the kitchen. She says she recorded the cake presentation on it.”
“Where is it?”
“She hid it after the incident.”
Daniel gripped the counter.
“Why?”
“She was afraid Mrs. Mercer would take it.”
An officer met Mrs. Brooks at the mansion.
Daniel waited at Kate’s, his phone on the table.
Forty minutes later, it rang.
Mrs. Brooks sounded breathless.
“I found it.”
“Where?”
“In the flour bin.”
He shut his eyes.
“Does it work?”
“I don’t know. The battery’s dead.”
A second voice spoke in the background.
Then Mrs. Brooks went quiet.
“What?” Daniel asked.
“The officer says the screen is cracked.”
May you like
Daniel listened to the silence.
Then, faintly, a phone chimed.
