Chapter 6 - The Man Outside Rosalie's Church
Police pulled surveillance footage from businesses near Rosalie's church.
A dark SUV appeared three Sundays in a row.
The plates were stolen.
But one camera captured the driver stepping out.
Daniel didn't recognize him.
Michael did.
"That's Brent Walsh."
"Who?"
"Nora's ex-husband."
Daniel stared.
Nora had told him she'd never been married.
Brent Walsh had a criminal record.
Fraud.
Identity theft.
Forgery.
No violent convictions.
But he had spent eighteen months in federal prison.
Detective Mills found the divorce records.
Nora and Brent had married fourteen years earlier.
They divorced five years ago.
Then investigators discovered something stranger.
They still shared a storage unit.
Inside were boxes of financial files.
Not just Daniel's.
Three other families.
Each involved a widowed or divorced parent with a young child.
Each had significant assets.
Each had employed Nora, briefly, as a caregiver, assistant, or household manager.
Daniel felt physically ill.
"This is what she does."
Mills didn't answer immediately.
"Maybe."
One family had fired Nora after discovering unauthorized bank transfers.
Another had reported missing jewelry but never connected it to her.
The third case was different.
A widower named Thomas Gray had died from an apparent accidental medication overdose.
His five-year-old son went temporarily into foster care before relatives intervened.
Nora had filed to become emergency guardian.
The petition failed.
Daniel looked at Mills.
"And nobody connected this?"
"Different counties. Different names. Different circumstances."
"Different victims."
Mills nodded.
Then the toxicology report from Emily's preserved medical samples came in.
Everyone went silent.
The same heart medication found in Daniel's blood had also been present in Emily's final hospital sample.
A drug she had never been prescribed.
Daniel closed his eyes.
Fourteen months of grief rearranged itself in one second.
Emily had not simply died.
Someone had been killing her.
Slowly.
Carefully.
And Daniel had thanked Nora for helping.
He remembered Nora sitting beside Emily's bed.
Holding a glass of water.
Saying:
"You need to drink."
Daniel ran to the bathroom and vomited.
Michael followed.
"Daniel."
"I let her in."
"You didn't know."
"I left Emily alone with her."
"You didn't know."
Daniel gripped the sink.
"But Lily knew enough to be afraid."
Michael said nothing.
Later that evening, Daniel sat beside Lily.
She stacked blocks on the floor.
He touched one gently.
"You saved Daddy."
Lily looked at him.
Then held out a red block.
Daniel took it.
She smiled.
That was when Detective Mills called.
"We found Nora."
Daniel stood.
"Where?"
"Bus station outside Philadelphia."
"Alone?"
Mills hesitated.
"No."
"Brent?"
"No."
"Then who?"
The answer shocked him.
"Nora was with a woman carrying documents from Emily's estate."
Daniel stared.
"What woman?"
May you like
Mills replied:
"Emily's younger sister, Vanessa."
