Chapter 11 - THE HOUSE WITH THE OPEN WINDOW
Police escorted Daniel to the house to collect clothes and keepsakes the children had asked for. He dreaded the empty rooms. The living room furniture was gone from its usual places because technicians had documented the scene.
He found Lily's stuffed rabbit beneath the couch. Emma's school jacket hung from the banister. He tucked both into a duffel, trying not to think about how normal their home had looked a week earlier.
In Emma's room a window was open, though Daniel remembered locking it before leaving for the hospital.
“Don't touch anything,” an officer said.
There were fresh marks on the sill and a muddy footprint on the rug. Someone had entered after the police search, despite the house alarm.
The intruder hadn't taken the television or jewelry. Emma's desk drawer stood open. The empty space where she kept her old family scrapbook had been carefully wiped clean.
“Why take photographs?” Daniel asked.
The officer called Chen. Within an hour they learned the alarm's administrator password had been used from a remote device associated with Cody's company.
Emma was furious when she heard. “That book has pictures of us at the lake. They're not his.”
“It's not your fault,” Daniel said, then caught himself. She didn't need another speech. “I'm sorry he took it.”
She looked down at her hands. “There's something in the scrapbook I never told you.”
“What?”
“A letter Mom made me write last summer. She said I had to describe every time you got angry. She wanted it in my handwriting.”
Daniel remembered the summer: a broken dishwasher, a canceled vacation, a worried daughter who wouldn't meet his eyes.
“Did you write it?” he asked.
May you like
Emma nodded. “Yes. But I kept a photograph of the page before she made me sign.”
