Chapter 5 - Why Nora Wanted Lily
Daniel couldn't understand it.
"Why Lily?"
Detective Mills spread the documents across Daniel's dining table.
They had returned to the house under police supervision.
The broken cup was gone.
A stain remained on the marble.
Daniel couldn't stop looking at it.
Mills pointed to a trust document.
"Emily inherited money from her father."
Daniel nodded.
"I know."
"How much?"
"Maybe half a million."
Michael shook his head.
"Try twelve."
Daniel stared.
"What?"
Emily's father had sold a manufacturing company shortly before his death.
Most of his estate had been placed into a generation-skipping trust.
Emily received income.
But the principal would eventually pass to Lily.
Current estimated value:
$11.6 million.
Daniel sat down.
"Emily never told me it was that much."
"Probably because it wasn't immediately available to either of you."
Mills showed him another page.
If both parents died before Lily turned eighteen, an appointed guardian could request reimbursement for Lily's housing, education, medical care, travel, security, and other needs.
The principal itself remained protected.
But the annual allowances could be substantial.
Michael understood first.
"Nora planned to become guardian."
Mills nodded.
"If she controlled Lily's household, she could potentially bill the trust for hundreds of thousands over the years."
Daniel looked sick.
"She killed Emily for expenses?"
"We haven't proven she killed Emily."
"She poisoned me."
"That we can prove."
Daniel stood.
"She's been asking about Lily's trust for months."
"When?"
Daniel remembered.
Nora had once asked whether Lily's preschool should be "something more appropriate for an heiress."
Another time she asked whether Daniel had updated his will.
He'd laughed.
She hadn't.
Then a new question struck him.
"How could Nora ever become guardian?"
Rosalie was named first.
Michael second.
Mills looked grim.
"That's where Plan B may come in."
Police had accessed the encrypted flash drive.
Inside was a folder.
**R.C.**
Rosalie Carter.
Photos of Rosalie's car.
Her medication list.
Her grocery schedule.
Her weekly church route.
Then another folder.
**M.C.**
Michael Carter.
Business records.
Travel dates.
An old arrest from college that had been dismissed.
The detective closed the laptop.
"Nora wasn't waiting for guardianship to fall into her lap."
Daniel's voice became quiet.
"She was clearing the list."
Mills nodded.
"And you weren't the final target."
Daniel looked toward Lily playing in the adjoining room.
She was the prize.
Then Rosalie called from the kitchen.
"Daniel?"
Something in her voice made everyone turn.
She stood holding an envelope.
No return address.
It had arrived that morning.
Inside was a single photograph.
Rosalie leaving church.
Taken from across the street.
May you like
On the back, written in black ink:
**You were next.**
