Chapter 3
I called the officer into the study.
“The folder was here yesterday,” I told her. “It contains financial records for my daughter.”
She asked when I had last seen it and who could open the drawer. It had no lock. Celeste had used my desk before.
I hated how quickly my mind went to her.
An hour earlier, I would have said she would never touch Lily’s papers without asking.
By evening, I no longer knew what I could say about her.
Marcus took Lily home. I stayed long enough to give the officers a list of what was in the folder. Celeste stood by the front door while one of them spoke with her.
She caught my arm as I passed.
“Please don’t let Nora turn you against me.”
I looked at her hand until she released it.
“Where’s Lily’s folder?”
“What folder?”
“The blue one from my desk.”
“I haven’t touched it.”
“Nora was under our floor for three days.”
“I didn’t put her there.”
“She named you.”
“Nora wanted me gone from the beginning.”
I remembered their disagreements. Nora had questioned the new schedule Celeste made for Lily. Celeste said Nora ignored boundaries and acted as though she were Lily’s mother.
I had asked them both to work it out.
Had Nora been trying to tell me something then?
“I’m going to the hospital,” I said.
Celeste’s face hardened.
“You believe her already.”
“I believe someone locked her in a room under my house.”
At the hospital, Nora was receiving fluids while doctors examined her ankle. She looked stronger than she had in the cellar, but her hands still shook around the cup of water she held.
“I’m sorry I didn’t come to you sooner,” she said.
“Tell me what happened.”
“On Wednesday, I found Celeste in your study with Amelia’s estate papers. She was taking pictures.”
“Did you ask her why?”
“She said she was helping you prepare for the wedding. I told her I’d speak with you.”
Nora lowered the cup.
“That night, she asked me to help carry boxes from the hall closet. The hatch was open. She said an old heater had started leaking and she wanted to check whether anything stored below had got wet.”
“You went down with her?”
“I knew the stairs were there. The contractors showed me while you were traveling last month. They said the space had been sealed for years.”
I gripped the chair arms.
Nora had known, and I had not. I was away often, but the house was mine. How many decisions had I let other people make inside it?
“She followed me down,” Nora continued. “When I reached the room, she pushed me inside and slid the bolt.”
“Why didn’t you shout?”
“I did. She said nobody would hear through the floor with the rug down. When I threatened to tell you, she said she’d make you think I was unstable.”
“Did she come back?”
“Twice. She gave me water and food. I kept asking her to let me out.”
Nora watched me carefully.
“She told me Lily would be better off with her.”
My throat tightened.
“Why was she looking at the estate papers?”
“I don’t know. But she was especially interested in the trust Amelia made for Lily. I heard her on the phone last week saying your wedding would change who could make decisions for Lily if anything happened to you.”
I had appointed Marcus as Lily’s guardian in my will. Amelia’s trust had its own manager. Marriage to Celeste would not change those documents by itself.
But Celeste did not need to understand them fully to try to change them.
“Did you see whom she was speaking to?” I asked.
“No.”
I told Nora about the missing folder. Her face fell.
“She may have taken it when she came back after locking me in.”
A nurse came in to check her. I promised Nora that Lily was with Marcus and that I would not let Celeste near her while we sorted this out.
When I reached Marcus’s house, Lily was asleep in his daughter’s room. His wife, Lena, put a cup of tea in my hand.
“You need to sit,” she said.
I sat at their kitchen table.
Marcus listened while I told him what Nora had said. He had never liked Celeste much, though he had been polite for my sake.
“Did you know about the trust papers?” I asked him.
“I know the broad terms. Amelia wanted them handled separately from your money.”
“She wanted Lily protected.”
“She trusted you,” Marcus said. “She also knew grief could leave a person needing help.”
I stared at my tea.
After Amelia died, I had buried myself in work. Celeste arrived a year later with lists and plans. She remembered when Lily needed new shoes. She brought food when I forgot dinner.
I had wanted to believe someone was holding us together.
“I let her make Lily think Nora abandoned her,” I said.
“You corrected it today. Keep listening to Lily.”
My phone rang. The caller was a man named Peter Voss, Celeste’s brother. I had met him twice.
“Daniel,” he said, “Celeste’s been trying to reach you. She’s frightened.”
“She can speak to the police.”
“She says Nora had a breakdown. You know how much Celeste loves Lily.”
I looked toward the room where my daughter slept.
“Why are you calling me, Peter?”
A pause.
“Because the police asked about a storage unit Celeste rented. She wants you to tell them it’s yours.”
“I’ve never rented a storage unit with her.”
“I figured you might say that.”
Something in his voice made me sit straighter.
May you like
“What’s in it?”
“I saw a blue folder when I helped her move things,” he said. “I need to tell you what else was there.”
