Chapter 10 - What Lily Remembered
Ruiz brought in a child forensic interviewer the next morning.
Nathan watched from behind one-way glass while Lily sat in a quiet room with crayons and a woman named Dr. Park.
Nobody told Lily what to remember.
Nobody asked leading questions.
Dr. Park simply said, "Tell me about the night your mom left the house."
Lily colored a black road across the paper.
"Mommy was mad."
"What happened?"
"Victoria came over. Then Mr. Grant came. They yelled. Mommy told me to take Noah upstairs."
"Did you?"
"I took him up. But I came back because Mommy sounded scared."
Nathan pressed his fist against his mouth.
Lily drew three stick figures.
"Victoria had Mommy's keys. Mommy said, 'Give those back.' Victoria threw them on the counter. Then Mr. Grant said Mommy had ruined everything."
"What happened next?"
"Mommy put something in her pocket. Victoria tried to grab her. Mommy pushed her away."
Lily stopped coloring.
"Then Victoria saw me."
Dr. Park waited.
"What did she do?"
"She smiled."
Lily's voice grew smaller.
"She told Mommy, 'Your daughter shouldn't be awake.'"
Nathan's nails dug into his palm.
"Then Mommy came upstairs. She hugged me really hard. She said if anybody ever asked, I should remember the red light."
Dr. Park leaned gently forward. "What red light?"
Lily frowned, searching.
"In the garage. A little red light. Mommy pointed at it."
Nathan looked at Ruiz.
"Garage camera," he whispered.
He had installed a tiny security camera two years earlier after tools were stolen. It recorded locally to a memory card and uploaded motion clips to an old security account.
After Emma's death, he canceled the service.
He had forgotten it existed.
Ruiz was already on her phone.
The security company confirmed the account archive had not been deleted.
There were three retained clips from the night Emma died.
The first showed Victoria walking into the garage alone at 10:03 p.m.
The second showed her opening the hood of Emma's car.
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The third clip began with Grant standing beside her.
In Victoria's hand was a pair of wire cutters.
