Chapter 8 - The Third Child
Grace went white when Walter repeated Caroline's words.
“What baby?” he asked.
She sat at Mrs. Bell's kitchen table, fingers gripping the edge.
“Dad, I was pregnant.”
Walter stared.
“At the time of the fire?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“I was going to.”
Grace looked toward the window.
Her husband, Ben, had left months earlier after a bitter separation. She had learned about the pregnancy only days before the fire.
“I was scared,” she said. “You were already worried about me.”
Walter sat down.
“What happened?”
Grace closed her eyes.
The night of the fire, she had smelled smoke while putting Eli to bed. Rosie was still a baby. Grace carried both children out through the kitchen.
Then she remembered the envelope containing her prenatal records and Evelyn's trust documents in a desk drawer.
She went back inside.
“Why?” Walter whispered.
“Because Caroline had been asking me to sign over control of the trust. I thought those papers were the only proof I had.”
Smoke overcame her.
A firefighter pulled her out.
At the hospital she suffered a pregnancy loss.
Walter reached for her hand.
“Oh, Grace.”
She began crying.
“Caroline told everyone I went back for money instead of my children.”
“You got them out.”
“I know.”
“Did you tell anyone?”
“Everyone.”
But the story had been twisted into evidence that she was unfit.
Nina reviewed the hospital records and confirmed Grace's account of the pregnancy and loss.
Walter sat with his daughter for a long time.
No one tried to make the grief smaller.
That evening Eli asked why his mother was sad.
Grace chose words he could understand.
“There was a baby I hoped to have. The baby died a long time ago.”
Eli sat beside her.
“Would it have been our brother or sister?”
“We never knew.”
Rosie climbed onto Grace's lap.
“Can we make a star for the baby?”
Grace began crying again.
“Yes.”
They cut a star from yellow paper.
Eli wrote one word on it.
REMEMBERED.
They hung it near the top of Mrs. Bell's tree.
Walter watched from the doorway.
For years Caroline had controlled the family's story by deciding which losses could be spoken aloud.
Not anymore.
Nina's investigators then discovered the fire had started in a locked storage room, not beside a space heater as the original report claimed.
The maintenance worker, Daniel Price, had died trying to reach the shutoff panel.
The foundation had recently increased its insurance coverage.
Walter remembered the Albany building he had signed away after the funeral. Caroline later sold it to a developer for far more than she claimed.
Money had followed every tragedy.
Detectives questioned Richard again.
He admitted the foundation had been drowning in debt. He claimed Caroline ordered the storage room filled with unsold merchandise so the insurance payout would be larger if an accident occurred.
“Did you set the fire?” detectives asked.
“No.”
“Did Caroline?”
“I don't know.”
He looked frightened.
“Then who?”
Richard asked for a lawyer.
On Christmas Eve, Walter accompanied Grace to a supervised family gathering at Mrs. Bell's house.
The table held roast chicken, mashed potatoes, and an uneven gingerbread house Eli and Rosie had made together.
There was enough food for everyone.
Eli stared at the serving platter.
“Can I have seconds?”
Mrs. Bell looked at him.
“Of course.”
“Even if I don't finish the first plate?”
“You can stop when you're full.”
He looked at Grace as though asking permission to believe it.
She nodded.
Walter had to excuse himself.
He went into the hallway and cried.
Then the doorbell rang.
Nina stood outside with a thick envelope.
“I didn't want to interrupt Christmas.”
“Then don't,” Walter said.
“I would wait if I could.”
He looked at her face.
“What is it?”
“The fire investigator found a witness.”
“Who?”
“Someone who saw a person leave the storage room just before the smoke.”
Walter gripped the doorframe.
“Caroline?”
Nina shook her head.
“Eli.”
Walter stared.
“He was four.”
“Yes.”
“Then what could he have seen?”
May you like
Nina lowered her voice.
“He says the person was wearing a Santa Claus costume.”
