Chapter 9 - The Man at the Playground
Lily's school had security cameras.
Federal agents obtained the footage within hours.
Helen was right.
Adrian Vale had been there.
He appeared across the street from the elementary school on three separate afternoons.
Never entering the property.
Never speaking with Lily.
Watching.
On the fourth recording, he was not alone.
Daniel stood beside him.
Emily watched the footage repeatedly.
Daniel and Adrian talked for eleven minutes.
At one point, Daniel became visibly angry.
Adrian remained calm.
Daniel pointed toward the school.
Adrian handed him an envelope.
Daniel took it.
Then they separated.
"This happened three weeks ago," Grant said.
Emily stared at Daniel's image.
"What was in the envelope?"
"We don't know."
"You searched the house."
"Nothing matching it."
"Bank accounts?"
"We found money."
"How much?"
"Two hundred and eighty thousand dollars in an offshore-linked account."
Emily's stomach tightened.
"Daniel makes good money, but not that."
"We know."
"Was Adrian paying him?"
"Possibly."
Emily gave him a look.
Grant corrected himself.
"We are working to prove it."
That afternoon, the federal team searched Daniel and Emily's home again.
They found hidden cash inside insulation in the garage.
Fake passports.
A storage-unit receipt.
And a photograph.
Emily and Lily asleep on the sofa.
Taken through the living room window.
Printed on the back was a date from four months earlier.
No note.
No signature.
Emily felt violated in a way she could not explain.
Someone had been outside her home.
Watching her daughter.
The storage unit produced more.
Medical freezers.
Empty.
Portable infusion pumps.
Stacks of counterfeit charity forms.
And seventeen sealed envelopes labeled with initials and numbers.
E-9.
L-8.
P-12.
M-4.
S-6.
Emily touched the photograph attached to E-9.
Herself.
Age nine.
Then L-8.
Lily.
A school photo.
Taken this year.
Grant stopped her from opening the envelope herself.
"It's evidence."
"Open it."
He put on gloves.
Inside were blood-test results.
Lily's.
Tests Emily had never authorized.
"How did they get her blood?"
Grant looked at the dates.
"These appear to align with routine pediatric visits."
Emily's face changed.
"Daniel took her to appointments."
"Which clinic?"
"Westbridge Pediatrics."
Grant made a call.
Within an hour, they discovered Daniel had requested additional blood draws during Lily's annual checkups, supposedly for monitoring a family history of anemia.
There was no family history of anemia.
Emily sat on the floor of the storage unit.
She could no longer tell which part hurt most.
The affair.
The theft.
The lies.
The surveillance.
Or the realization that Daniel had used ordinary moments of fatherhood to collect medical samples from his child.
Grant crouched beside her.
"We're going to find Adrian Vale."
Emily looked at him.
"You better find him before he finds Lily."
At that moment, Grant's phone rang.
He listened.
Then stood abruptly.
"What?"
Emily demanded.
He looked toward the exit.
"Adrian may already know we're looking."
May you like
"Why?"
"The address at 417 Briar Hollow is burning."
