Chapter 7 - The Break-In
We returned to Megan’s house before sunset.
I did not tell the children everything.
They knew enough already.
I told them their mother had discovered something dangerous.
I told them the adults around her had lied.
And I promised I would never again hide the truth simply because I thought they were too young to handle it.
That night, Owen could not sleep.
He found me sitting downstairs.
“Daddy?”
“Yeah?”
“Did Mommy know she was going to die?”
The question nearly broke me.
“I think she knew someone might try to scare her.”
He sat beside me.
“She left other things.”
I turned.
“What things?”
“Clues.”
Apparently, Laura had turned hiding things into a game when Owen was little.
She called it the Bluebird Game.
Whenever she hid birthday presents, notes, or little surprises, she drew a tiny blue bird somewhere nearby.
Owen remembered seeing one inside my office years ago.
Before I could ask more, glass shattered at the back of the house.
I pushed Owen behind the kitchen island.
Megan came running downstairs.
I called 911.
Someone had broken through the rear door.
I heard footsteps.
Then drawers opening.
Not a burglar looking for jewelry.
Someone searching.
Police arrived within minutes.
The intruder escaped through the yard.
Nothing valuable was missing.
But my backpack had been opened.
Laura’s notebook had been inside.
Luckily, I had left the original with Ruiz.
The copy was gone.
Near the broken door, police found a leather glove.
Inside the glove was a tiny smear of red paint.
Owen stared at it.
“Peter has a red car now.”
I looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“He came to our house last week.”
My stomach dropped.
“When?”
“When you were in Boston.”
“Why?”
Owen looked toward the stairs.
“He talked to Natalie in your office.”
“What did they say?”
“I couldn’t hear everything.”
May you like
He hesitated.
“But Peter said if we found what Mom hid, they’d have to move faster.”
