Chapter 4 - THE DEAD WOMAN’S WARNING
Margaret read the sentence three times.
SHE KNEW WHAT MARGARET DID.
Lily tugged her sleeve.
“What does it say?”
Margaret flipped the photograph over.
“Nothing you need to worry about.”
Lily looked at her.
“My dad says grown-ups say that when it’s something really bad.”
Margaret almost smiled.
Almost.
Instead, she studied Emily’s photograph.
Margaret had met her only once.
Twenty years earlier.
Emily had been nineteen then.
Smart.
Nervous.
Pregnant, though Margaret hadn’t known that at the time.
Daniel had brought her to dinner.
Robert—Margaret’s husband—had hated her instantly.
“She’s trouble,” he’d said after they left.
Margaret had believed him.
That mistake had cost her a son.
Maybe more.
“Judge?”
The police officer brought her back.
“You recognize the woman?”
“My daughter-in-law.”
“Was.”
Margaret looked at him sharply.
The officer corrected himself.
“Your late daughter-in-law.”
Margaret’s phone rang.
Daniel.
It was a county-jail call.
She answered.
“They took it,” she said.
Silence.
Then Daniel asked, “Lily okay?”
“Yes.”
“Put me on speaker.”
Margaret did.
“Baby?”
“I’m here, Daddy.”
“Listen to me. Did anybody touch you?”
“No.”
“Did anybody ask you about the mitten?”
Lily thought.
“The man at the courthouse.”
Margaret’s blood went cold.
“What man?”
“The tall one.”
“Grant?”
Lily nodded.
“He asked if Daddy gave me two mittens.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
Daniel cursed under his breath.
“Lily,” he said, “go stand with the officer for a minute.”
“Why?”
“Because Grandma and I need to talk.”
The word Grandma hung in the air.
Margaret swallowed.
Lily moved away.
Daniel’s voice changed.
“Emily found something six years ago.”
“What?”
“Foundation records. Payments. City contractors. Fake charities.”
Margaret frowned.
“The foundation is audited every year.”
“By people Grant chose.”
“You’re accusing him of stealing?”
“I’m accusing him of a hell of a lot more.”
Daniel took a breath.
“Emily copied files onto a memory card. She called me the night she died. Said she’d hidden it somewhere nobody would think to look.”
“The mitten?”
“I don’t know.”
“You told Lily not to let Grant find the other one.”
“Because three days ago I got an anonymous message.”
“What did it say?”
Daniel was silent.
Margaret gripped the phone.
“What did it say?”
“Blue wool remembers.”
Margaret felt sick.
Only a handful of people knew about those mittens.
She had made them when Daniel was eight.
One winter, he’d refused to wear anything else.
“Who sent it?”
“I don’t know.”
Margaret looked again at the photograph.
“Daniel… there’s a message here.”
“What message?”
She read it.
Silence.
Then Daniel spoke very quietly.
“Mom.”
The word hit harder than Grandma.
“Yeah?”
“If Emily knew what you did…”
He stopped.
“What?”
“Then this didn’t start six years ago.”
Margaret heard metal clanging in the background.
A guard shouted.
Daniel rushed his next words.
“Go to Raymond Cole.”
“Who?”
“Dad’s old attorney.”
“Robert’s lawyer?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“Because eighteen years ago, when you thought I stole eighty thousand dollars from the foundation…”
Daniel’s voice cracked with something old and ugly.
May you like
“I didn’t.”
The call disconnected.
