Chapter 8 - The Man at the Gate
Daniel pushed Grace and Iris toward the laundry room while Nadia dialed 911. He wanted to run after the intruder. The memory of the planter stopped him.
"Stay back," he told himself aloud. "Don't do it again."
A heavy boot kicked the front door. Somebody outside had blocked it with a moving cart. The man at the kitchen window was wearing a gray work jacket and a cap pulled low.
"Give me the folder," he called. "Nobody needs to get hurt."
"That's a strange way to make a request," Nadia answered through the wall.
She held the folder against her chest. Daniel moved to the side door, lifted its old security bar, and led the others into the garden. They stayed together until a patrol car turned onto Wren Street. The intruder fled through the broken fence. He left a torn patch of jacket on a nail.
Reyes arrived thirty minutes later. She took statements, called a technician to preserve the broken glass, and studied Grace's phone video of the damaged rooms.
"The man knew you had documents," she said. "Who knew you were coming here?"
"Mallory. The moving company. Possibly half the town."
"Then let's stop announcing your moves."
At the hospital, Claire had made enough progress to speak in short sentences. She cried when Daniel told her he'd gone to Helen's house.
"Please don't leave Emma alone," she said. "Mallory sees anyone who knows the truth as an enemy."
"Grace has her. The school knows not to release her to anybody else."
Claire closed her eyes. "I'm scared I won't remember every detail."
"You don't have to solve this in a hospital bed."
The next morning, Daniel walked Emma into school himself. She squeezed his hand until they reached the classroom door.
May you like
"Daddy," she whispered, "that's the man from Grandma's house."
Across the parking lot, beside a gray van, stood the stranger in the torn work jacket.
