Chapter 10 - The House Next Door Was Falling Apart
Police arrived before Graham did.
He had left Maddie at school with two explicit instructions:
Do not leave with anyone except him or Denise.
And if anything felt wrong, tell an adult immediately.
Maddie had rolled her eyes.
"I know."
"I need to hear it."
"I won't leave with anybody."
"Good."
Then Graham drove home.
Rachel's back window had been shattered.
Rainwater speckled the kitchen floor.
A chair had been knocked sideways.
Cabinet doors stood open.
The house looked violated.
Daniel Hall met him by the fence.
"I swear I locked it."
"Who has keys?"
"Me. Rachel."
"Maintenance?"
"Master key, but nobody was scheduled."
Police officer Morgan Ruiz approached.
"Mr. Ellis?"
"Yes."
"Are you the tenant's emergency contact?"
"Temporarily."
He explained Rachel's hospitalization.
Ruiz took notes.
"What is missing?"
"According to Rachel, a box from the hall closet."
"Contents?"
"Personal correspondence, legal paperwork."
"Valuable?"
"Possibly."
"Cash?"
"No."
"Jewelry?"
"Not that we know."
Ruiz looked around.
"Odd burglary."
"Exactly."
Graham called Rachel from outside.
Her voice shook.
"Did they take the blue file box?"
"Yes."
"Nothing else?"
"Not obviously."
"Thomas."
"We don't know."
"It's Thomas."
"Rachel—"
"He knew those emails existed."
"Can you prove that?"
"No."
"Then let police prove what they can."
"I hate when you're rational."
"I hear that often."
She exhaled.
"I was supposed to go home tomorrow."
"You still can."
"To a broken window?"
"I'll have it repaired."
"No."
"Rachel."
"I mean the landlord repairs it."
"Fine."
"Not you."
"Fine."
A pause.
"You're lying."
"I am considering financing Hall's repair invoice through aggressive eye contact."
Despite herself, Rachel laughed.
Graham smiled.
Then officer Ruiz entered the yard.
"We found something."
Graham ended the call.
"What?"
A neighbor's doorbell camera had captured a vehicle at 2:13 a.m.
Dark SUV.
License plate partially visible.
Andrew's investigators later identified it as registered to a company that had paid Thomas for consulting work.
Not Thomas's personal vehicle.
Still circumstantial.
But now there was a trail.
The more immediate problem was Rachel's home.
Hall walked Graham through deferred maintenance.
Old plumbing.
Faulty furnace.
Roof leak.
Mold beginning around a bathroom vent.
Rachel had reported most of it.
Repairs had been delayed partly because Hawthorne Residential Holdings was considering redevelopment.
Graham's anger sharpened.
"She has an autoimmune condition and you've let mold sit here?"
Hall raised both hands.
"I submitted it."
"To who?"
"Ownership."
"And?"
"They kept postponing."
"Give me their number."
Hall looked uneasy.
"Graham—"
"Number."
Within three hours, Graham knew more about Hawthorne Residential Holdings than he wanted.
The company was owned by a regional real-estate group.
The group was not violating obvious law.
It was simply doing the minimum.
Graham despised minimums when they affected vulnerable people.
He almost bought the company out of anger.
Andrew stopped him.
"You cannot acquire a real-estate company because you're mad about a bathroom vent."
"I can."
"That wasn't the point."
"Then make a better point."
"If Rachel discovers you purchased her landlord, she will murder you in your sleep."
Graham considered.
"Strong point."
Instead, Andrew sent formal notices regarding habitability requirements.
Repairs began that afternoon.
Rachel immediately suspected Graham.
"Did you threaten my landlord?"
"No."
"Did your lawyer threaten my landlord?"
"Threaten is emotionally loaded."
"Graham."
"He reminded them of existing obligations."
Rachel groaned.
"That's lawyer for yes."
"You said I couldn't pay."
"Correct."
"I didn't."
"You weaponized legal competence."
"Also correct."
"You're impossible."
Yet she was smiling.
Friday arrived.
Rachel was discharged.
Maddie stood outside the hospital beside Graham holding the welcome-home banner she'd insisted on bringing even though it was designed for the house.
When Rachel emerged in a wheelchair, Maddie ran.
The reunion attracted attention from strangers.
Rachel hugged her daughter so tightly Graham had to look away again.
Why did these moments keep happening to his eyes?
Allergies, presumably.
At home, Rachel discovered repaired windows, serviced heating, cleaned ventilation, and three maintenance workers finishing the bathroom.
She looked at Graham.
He raised both hands.
"Legal obligation."
"I hate you."
"No, you don't."
Rachel stared.
Then both realized what he'd said.
A strange silence followed.
Maddie interrupted.
"I'm hungry."
Rachel immediately shifted into mother mode.
"There's soup—"
"No."
Both adults looked at Maddie.
"No what?" Rachel asked.
"You're not cooking."
"I'm heating soup."
"You just came from the hospital."
"Maddie—"
"Graham said your body needs rest."
Rachel looked at him.
Traitor, her expression said.
Graham coughed.
"I may have mentioned medical advice."
Maddie pointed toward Graham's house.
"We have pizza."
"We?" Rachel repeated.
Maddie realized.
Again.
The little word.
Graham felt it too.
Maddie looked embarrassed.
Rachel didn't.
She smiled.
"Pizza sounds good."
For the first time, Rachel entered Graham's home socially.
Not as an emergency.
Not through hospital stories.
She sat at his kitchen table wearing comfortable clothes and a hospital bracelet she'd forgotten to remove.
Maddie narrated every development from the week.
The cinnamon cereal.
The stuffed fox.
The chair.
The school incident.
At that, Rachel grew quiet.
Then Maddie said:
"And Graham can't cook."
Rachel looked at him.
"I suspected."
"This narrative is becoming defamatory."
Rachel laughed.
The sound filled the kitchen.
Graham realized he had never heard an adult woman's laughter there.
Not like that.
Comfortable.
Unperformed.
Maddie watched both of them with dangerous interest.
Graham recognized the look.
"No."
"I didn't say anything."
"You were about to."
"What?"
"Whatever it was, no."
Rachel laughed harder.
For one evening, everything felt ordinary.
Then at 8:30, someone knocked.
Graham opened the door.
Thomas stood outside.
This time he wasn't alone.
A woman in a dark suit stood beside him.
"I'm Caroline Reed," she said. "Mr. Harper's attorney."
Graham's face hardened.
"What do you want?"
"We have a court order providing Mr. Harper supervised visitation with his daughter beginning tomorrow."
Rachel appeared behind Graham.
Thomas smiled.
"Hello, Rachel."
She went pale.
Maddie was in the kitchen.
Thank God.
Rachel stepped outside and closed the door.
"You broke into my house."
Thomas's expression shifted.
"What?"
"You heard me."
Caroline touched his arm.
"Don't respond."
Thomas stared at Rachel.
"You're sick."
"I'm recovering."
"You collapsed with our daughter in the house."
"Our daughter?"
Rachel's voice turned dangerous.
"You haven't used that phrase in two years."
Thomas leaned closer.
"I'm here now."
"Because there's money."
His jaw tightened.
There.
A reaction.
Small.
But real.
Graham saw it.
Thomas noticed him noticing.
"This doesn't concern you."
Graham's voice was calm.
"Everything affecting the child temporarily placed in my care concerns me."
"Temporarily."
Thomas emphasized the word.
"Enjoy it."
He walked away.
Rachel remained on the porch trembling.
Graham wanted to touch her.
He didn't.
Finally, Rachel said:
"He'll charm her."
"Maddie is smarter than that."
"She's eight."
"She knows who showed up."
Rachel looked at him.
"You don't understand children with absent parents."
"You're right."
"They don't stop wanting the parent."
Her eyes filled.
"They just learn to hate themselves for wanting them."
Inside the house, unseen by the adults, Maddie stood at the edge of the hallway.
She had heard every word.
And the next morning, before the supervised visit, she disappeared.
Barnaby disappeared with her.
May you like
So did Graham's keys.
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