Chapter 17 - THE MIDNIGHT CALL FROM COUNTY JAIL
The flashing blue and red emergency strobes painted the brick facade of Oakridge Elementary in rhythmic pulses of violence.
Six state trooper cruisers and three unmarked detective sedans blocked the main driveway. Parents stood behind yellow crime scene tape across the street, huddled under umbrellas, their faces pale with modern suburban dread.
Claire pushed past the yellow tape, ignoring the young deputy who reached out to stop her.
"I’m the mother!" she snarled, slapping the officer’s arm away with such ferocity that the man stepped back in surprise. "Lily Vance! Where is my daughter?!"
"Claire!"
Detective Morris emerged from the double glass doors of the school, his trench coat soaked through, holding an umbrella over Lily.
Lily was bundled in her yellow raincoat, her small face streaked with tears, clutching her stuffed rabbit to her chest with white-knuckled desperation. When she saw Claire, she broke away from Morris and ran across the slick asphalt.
"Mommy!"
Claire dropped to her knees in the freezing puddle, catching Lily in her arms and burying her face into the little girl's wet hair. She held her with a savage, desperate strength, as if the physical force of her arms could bend reality into safety. Daniel arrived a second later, falling to his knees beside them, wrapping his arms around both of them, his broad shoulders heaving with ragged sobs.
"You’re safe," Claire whispered against Lily’s ear, kissing her forehead, her cheeks, her hair. "Mommy’s here. Daddy’s here. You are safe. Nobody is taking you. Nobody."
"The bad grandmother was in the parking lot," Lily whimpered into Claire’s neck. "She looked through the fence at recess, Mommy. She had scissors in her hand."
Morris stepped over to them, his jaw clenched, his eyes dark with fury.
"We caught her, Claire," Morris said quietly.
Claire looked up, her hair plastered to her face by the rain. "Where?"
"Two miles down the turnpike. She had abandoned her car in a ditch after clipping a guardrail. She was on foot, carrying an empty canvas bag and a bottle of kerosene." Morris pulled a pair of nitrile gloves from his pocket. "She’s at the county holding facility right now. But Claire... you need to come down there. The district attorney is with her, and she refuses to speak to anyone except Daniel."
"No," Daniel growled, standing up, his frame shaking with rage. "I’m never speaking to that woman again. She can rot in a cell until she dies."
"Daniel," Morris said, dropping his voice so Lily wouldn't hear. "She didn't come for Lily."
Claire froze, still holding her daughter tight against her chest. "What did you say?"
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"Margaret didn't come to take Lily," Morris repeated, his eyes fixing on Daniel with profound gravity. "She came to the school because she knew Julian was heading here. She had the kerosene because she was trying to burn the preschool down before he arrived. She told the arresting officers that if Julian takes the child, Daniel will remember what happened thirty years ago—and she’d rather see the entire town burn to ashes than let the truth walk into a courtroom."
***
