Chapter 8 - THE LAST PERSON LILY TRUSTED
The hospital identification card belonged to Lily's nanny.
Margaret Ellis.
Hannah stared at the photograph.
Margaret looked younger.
Different hair.
Different glasses.
But unmistakably the same woman.
Lily's nanny for almost five years.
Agnes sat down hard.
“No.”
Claire looked at her.
“You know her?”
Agnes nodded slowly.
“Her name wasn't Margaret Ellis.”
Caroline stepped closer.
“What was it?”
“Margaret Shaw.”
Detective Chen watched Agnes carefully.
“Occupation?”
“Registered nurse.”
Agnes looked sick.
“She worked nights at the medical residence.”
Hannah glanced toward the sleeping child.
“Margaret has been caring for Lily since she was two.”
Agnes shook her head.
“No. Not caring.”
Caroline covered her mouth.
“Watching.”
Detective Chen immediately called the officers stationed around the property.
Margaret was supposed to be in the guest wing.
She wasn't.
Her room was empty.
Her car remained outside.
Hannah's heart started pounding.
“She didn't leave.”
Chen looked toward Lily.
“Wake her.”
Hannah gently touched Lily's shoulder.
“Sweetheart.”
Lily opened her eyes.
“Daddy?”
“Not yet.”
The disappointment in her face hurt.
Hannah kept her voice calm.
“Where's Miss Margaret?”
Lily rubbed one eye.
“She said she was packing.”
“When?”
“Before the fire.”
Hannah and Chen exchanged looks.
“What was she packing?”
Lily thought.
“My blue suitcase.”
“Your suitcase?”
Lily nodded.
“She said Daddy wanted me to sleep somewhere else.”
Hannah's skin went cold.
“Did she tell you where?”
“No.”
Lily looked worried.
“Is she bad too?”
Nobody answered immediately.
Hannah crouched.
“We don't know everything yet.”
Lily nodded.
It was becoming the sentence of her childhood.
Dominic returned just after sunrise.
Not free.
Not cleared.
But Detective Chen had arranged for him to return temporarily because the investigation now involved an immediate threat to Lily.
He walked into the library looking ten years older.
Lily ran into him.
“You came back.”
“I told you.”
She touched his coat.
“Do you have my bell?”
Dominic opened his hand.
Silver flashed.
She smiled for the first time all night.
Then Hannah showed him Margaret's hospital identification.
His face went still.
“She was recommended by Frank.”
Of course.
“After Eleanor died?”
“Yes.”
Agnes shook her head.
“No.”
Everyone turned.
“She was around before Eleanor died.”
Dominic stared.
“I never met her.”
“You did.”
Agnes looked at him.
“She called herself Dr. Shaw.”
Dominic frowned.
Then memory came.
“A palliative-care consultant.”
“Yes.”
His face changed.
“She told me Eleanor's condition was irreversible.”
Agnes whispered, “Eleanor wasn't terminal.”
Silence swallowed the room.
Dominic looked almost physically struck.
“What?”
“She was ill.”
Agnes stood.
“But she was improving.”
Dominic's mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Caroline's eyes closed.
Claire looked away.
Agnes continued carefully.
“Eleanor developed cardiac symptoms after Lily's kidnapping. Weakness. Fainting. Confusion.”
“Because of the medication,” Dominic said.
Agnes nodded.
“Small doses over months.”
“The white pills?”
“No.”
Agnes looked toward the red bottle.
“Something was being added to her nightly tea.”
Hannah remembered the warning.
DON'T DRINK THE RED ONE.
Not wine.
Not pills.
A drink.
The entire mystery shifted.
Dominic whispered, “Tea.”
Agnes nodded.
“Eleanor drank from a red porcelain cup every evening.”
Lily suddenly spoke.
“Grandpa gave it to her.”
Everybody turned.
“What?” Dominic asked.
Lily looked nervous.
“I saw a picture.”
“What picture?”
“In Miss Margaret's room.”
Dominic's eyes hardened.
“What else did you see?”
“A red cup.”
Hannah felt sick.
Margaret had kept it.
Why?
Detective Chen ordered officers upstairs.
They searched the nanny's room.
No Margaret.
But inside her wardrobe they found a small locked case.
Dominic used Daniel's master key.
Inside was Eleanor's red porcelain teacup.
A bottle of clear liquid.
Several old prescription labels.
And photographs of Lily.
Hundreds.
School.
Playground.
Bedroom.
Garden.
Some taken from a distance.
Some while she slept.
Dominic couldn't look after the fourth one.
Hannah closed the lid.
“This wasn't protection.”
“No,” Chen said.
“This was surveillance.”
Caroline whispered, “Frank had her watching Lily.”
Agnes shook her head.
“Not Frank.”
Everyone looked at her.
Agnes pointed toward the liquid.
“I saw Margaret with that bottle four years ago.”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
“She worked for Frank.”
“No.”
Agnes's eyes filled.
“Frank was afraid of her.”
That changed the room.
Detective Chen stepped closer.
“Explain.”
“The night Eleanor woke up at the medical residence, Frank and Margaret argued.”
“About what?”
“I only heard part of it.”
Agnes searched her memory.
“Frank said, ‘This was never supposed to kill her.’”
Caroline stared.
Agnes continued.
“Margaret said Eleanor had become a liability.”
Dominic whispered, “Frank didn't order Eleanor's death.”
“No.”
A reversal no one wanted.
Frank had kidnapped Lily.
Manipulated Eleanor.
Falsified the timing of her death.
Controlled Caroline and Daniel.
But someone else had made the final choice.
Dominic looked toward the nanny's empty room.
“Why?”
Claire picked up one old label.
Then stopped.
“Dominic.”
“What?”
She showed him.
The prescription was for a patient named Thomas Shaw.
Agnes gasped.
“Margaret's husband.”
Dominic frowned.
“Who was Thomas Shaw?”
Claire looked at him.
“You knew him.”
Dominic's expression changed.
He did.
“Thomas worked at Pier Nine.”
Hannah watched his face.
“What happened?”
Dominic spoke quietly.
“There was a warehouse fire twelve years ago.”
Caroline understood.
“Your warehouse?”
“Yes.”
“Did he die?”
“Yes.”
Dominic sat down.
The truth came slowly.
“My father owned the building before I did. Frank told me the fire was electrical.”
Detective Chen said, “Was it?”
Dominic shook his head.
“Later I learned chemicals were being stored illegally.”
“By Frank?”
“I believed so.”
“Did you report it?”
Silence.
There was the answer.
Dominic looked at Lily.
Then at the floor.
“No.”
Hannah understood Margaret's motive.
Not madness.
Not money.
Grief.
A grief Dominic had helped bury.
Dominic whispered, “I paid the families.”
Agnes's expression hardened.
“Money isn't truth.”
He nodded.
“I know.”
For once, he offered no defense.
Then the silver bell rang.
Everyone turned.
Lily wasn't holding it.
Dominic was.
He looked down.
His hand hadn't moved.
The sound came again.
From inside the wall.
Ding.
Ding.
Lily whispered:
“That's the hidden hallway.”
Dominic rose.
The service passage.
The same one behind Eleanor's wardrobe.
They followed the sound.
At the far end, a door stood open.
Snow blew in from outside.
Footprints led toward the woods.
On the floor lay Lily's blue suitcase.
Inside were clothes.
Her stuffed horse.
A train ticket.
And a note in Margaret's handwriting.
Dominic picked it up.
There were only two lines:
YOU TOOK MY FAMILY AND CALLED IT BUSINESS.
I'M TAKING YOURS SOMEWHERE YOUR NAME CAN'T FOLLOW.
Hannah looked toward Lily.
Then froze.
The child was no longer behind her.
“Lily?”
Dominic spun around.
“Lily!”
No answer.
The silver bell slipped from his hand.
And from somewhere beyond the open door, deep in the snowy trees—
May you like
a little girl screamed.
“DADDY!”
