Chapter 5 - What Lily Heard Through the Wall
Daniel reached Claire’s house twenty minutes later.
Lily was sitting beneath a blanket on the living room sofa. She had showered, eaten and changed into warm pajamas, but she still watched every doorway.
When Daniel entered, she ran into his arms.
“Did you find her?”
“Not yet.”
Lily’s face fell.
Daniel carried her back to the sofa.
“Sweetheart, I need you to tell Detective Mara everything you remember about the lady downstairs.”
Claire began to object.
“She just came home from the hospital.”
“We’ll stop if she becomes uncomfortable,” Mara said. “But the woman may be in danger.”
Lily looked at Mara.
“Rachel said police always make things worse.”
“Rachel lied about many things.”
“She said you would send the lady away.”
“My job is to keep people safe.”
Lily considered this.
Then she nodded.
Her first conversation with the basement woman had occurred nearly two months earlier.
Lily was playing in the blue bedroom while Rachel spoke on the telephone downstairs. One of Lily’s wooden beads rolled beneath the wardrobe.
When Lily reached for it, she heard someone humming behind the wall.
It was the same lullaby Anna used to sing.
Lily pressed her ear against the panel.
“Mommy?”
The humming stopped.
A woman answered, “Who are you?”
Lily told her.
The woman began to cry quietly.
She said her name could not be spoken because the wrong person might hear it.
During the following weeks, Lily returned whenever Rachel went shopping or left the house.
There was a narrow ventilation opening beside the wardrobe. Lily passed crackers, bread and folded notes through it.
The woman never took food immediately. She always waited until Lily stepped away.
“She said she didn’t want me to see her hand,” Lily explained.
“Why?” Mara asked.
“She had a silver bracelet that made noise.”
Daniel looked at Mara.
A restraint, perhaps.
Or a medical identification bracelet.
“Did she tell you anything about Anna?” Daniel asked.
“She said Mommy saved her when she was little.”
“Saved her from whom?”
“The lady with red gloves.”
Mara showed Lily a photograph of the bird symbol.
“Have you seen this?”
Lily nodded.
“The downstairs lady drew it on her notes.”
“Do you still have any of those notes?”
Lily looked toward her pink backpack near the stairs.
Rachel had packed it before leaving the house.
Claire brought it to the sofa.
Inside were coloring pencils, a stuffed rabbit, two books and several folded pieces of paper hidden beneath the lining.
The first note contained only four words.
DO NOT TRUST REBECCA.
The second contained a list of dates.
The third was a rough map of the Cross property.
The final note had been written the night before Daniel came home.
Lily, your father is coming. Find the small brass key inside the wooden rabbit. Do not let Rebecca see it.
Daniel picked up Lily’s stuffed rabbit.
It had belonged to Anna.
Anna purchased it before Lily was born and insisted it remain in the blue bedroom whenever they traveled.
A seam ran along the rabbit’s back.
Daniel carefully opened it.
Inside the stuffing was a brass key no longer than his smallest finger.
The head of the key carried the bird symbol.
Mara photographed it.
“Grace’s message said Daniel knows where to find the second key.”
“This must be the first.”
Lily touched the rabbit.
“Mommy said it would keep secrets until I was old enough.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Anna had hidden a key inside their daughter’s toy and never told him.
Or perhaps she had tried.
The week before her death, Anna left Daniel a voicemail asking him to meet her at a storage facility outside Ashford.
Daniel had been preparing for a conference call.
He told her they could talk after dinner.
Anna never came home.
Daniel still had the voicemail.
He searched his cloud archive until he found it.
Anna’s voice filled the room.
“Daniel, I know this sounds strange, but I need you to remember where we left our first promise. There are two keys. Mine is with the rabbit. Yours is where you asked me to stay forever. Please don’t tell anyone. Not even Rebecca.”
Daniel listened twice.
“Where did you ask her to marry you?” Mara asked.
“At the Ashford railway station.”
“Is it still operating?”
“The passenger station closed years ago, but the building is used for storage.”
The unknown message warned that Grace would be moved before sunset.
It was already three twenty.
Mara called for a search team.
Daniel wanted to accompany them, but Lily caught his sleeve.
“Daddy, there’s something else.”
He crouched.
“What is it?”
“The downstairs lady didn’t call Rachel Rebecca at first.”
“What did she call her?”
“Keeper.”
Mara and Daniel exchanged a look.
“Did she say why?”
Lily nodded.
“She said Rebecca wasn’t the person who put her there.”
“Who did?”
“The woman with red gloves.”
“Did she tell you the woman’s name?”
“She tried.”
Lily looked toward the windows, as though expecting someone to appear beyond the glass.
“But the lights went off, and Rachel came into the room.”
“What did you hear before that?”
May you like
Lily whispered the answer.
“She said the red-glove woman is part of our family.”
