Chapter 9 - Behind the Stars
The old house smelled like dust and closed rooms.
Daniel had not entered it in almost three years.
He unlocked the front door with a key that stuck twice. Maria brought Lily only because the child refused to stay behind, and Sergeant Cole assigned an officer to wait outside.
Lily’s old bedroom still had faded glow-in-the-dark stars scattered across the ceiling and one wall.
“There,” she said, pointing at a crooked moon near the baseboard.
Daniel pulled the plastic moon away.
Behind it was a small hole cut into the drywall.
Inside sat a metal cash box.
His hands trembled as he lifted it out.
The lock had already been broken.
Maria looked at him. “Someone got here first.”
Daniel opened the lid.
Empty.
Lily began to cry. “No. Mom put papers in there.”
Maria crouched beside her. “Did she put anything else somewhere?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel examined the box. “There’s dust on the top but not on the lock. Whoever opened it did it recently.”
A floorboard creaked downstairs.
The officer outside had not come in.
Daniel put a finger to his lips.
Another creak.
Maria grabbed Lily and moved behind the bedroom door.
Daniel picked up a wooden baseball bat from the closet.
A man appeared at the top of the stairs.
He wore a delivery jacket and gloves.
“Police!” the officer shouted from outside.
The intruder ran.
Daniel chased him down the stairs, through the kitchen, and into the backyard. The man vaulted a fence. Daniel followed.
Maria stayed with Lily until the officer rushed past, then noticed something on the floor near the empty metal box.
A white business card.
It had no name.
Only a phone number and three embossed letters:
JLM.
Daniel returned ten minutes later empty-handed, bleeding from one elbow.
Maria showed him the card.
His face changed instantly.
“You know it,” she said.
Daniel nodded.
“JLM is my father.”
“Your father’s initials?”
“Jonathan Lee Mercer.”
Maria stared at the empty box.
May you like
Daniel’s father had died six months before Anna.
Or at least that was what Daniel had always believed.
