Chapter 8 - THE MAN IN THE RAIN
The police arrived twenty minutes later.
The man across the street was gone.
No footprints.
No vehicle.
Nothing.
The officers took the recorder.
They photographed the envelope.
They asked Lily questions.
She answered only one.
“Did you see the man?”
She nodded.
“Can you describe him?”
She looked at me.
Then she whispered:
“He had Mommy's watch.”
The officer frowned.
“What kind of watch?”
I explained.
The officer wrote it down.
But I could tell he didn't believe us.
After they left, Rachel made coffee.
No one drank it.
At 2:14 in the morning, I heard the front door open.
I woke instantly.
I had been sleeping on the couch.
I reached for the knife beside me.
Then I heard Lily scream.
I ran upstairs.
A man stood in the hallway.
Tall.
Dark jacket.
Wet hair.
He turned toward me.
For a moment, we stared at each other.
Then he ran.
I chased him downstairs.
He burst through the back door.
I followed into the rain.
He was fast.
But I caught up near the fence.
I grabbed his jacket.
He turned.
And I saw his face.
I had seen him before.
Not in person.
In the photograph.
The face that had been scratched out.
Daniel Carter.
He punched me.
I fell backward.
By the time I stood, he was gone.
I returned inside.
Lily was crying.
Rachel looked at me.
“You saw him.”
I nodded.
“Daniel is alive.”
Rachel covered her mouth.
I looked at Lily.
She was staring at me.
“Daddy?”
I knelt.
“I'm here.”
She rushed into my arms.
And for the first time, she hugged me.
I held her tightly.
Behind her, Rachel whispered:
“Then Claire has been lying to everyone for three years.”
I looked toward the dark window.
“No.”
May you like
I said.
“She has been lying for much longer.”
