3: 3

Dana leaned forward.

“Does it have to do with the ten years she spent living at her grandmother's?”

“Because her grandmother fell to her death right in front of her?”

Sandra paused.

“For the details, you should watch the counseling recordings from back then.”

“After the fire, only three videos are left of anything to do with Nancy. They're enough to explain it.”

She turned to her computer and opened a video.

“This was the first time I met her.”

On the screen, a girl was curled into the corner of a couch, head down, both arms clamped around her knees.

That was me.

“Nancy, you don't have to be afraid.”

Sandra's voice came through.

She sat down beside me and took my hand.

“During the test, you wrote on the paper that you shouldn't exist.”

“Why do you think that?”

I didn't answer.

An hour passed before my fingers finally moved.

“Grandma died……I killed her.”

After that, I didn't say another word.

Sandra opened the second video.

This time, my arms weren't wrapped around my knees.

“Nancy, why do you feel like your grandma leaving was because of you? Would you like to talk to me about it?”

I lifted my head, blank.

“They came to play with me……I didn't want to. Grandma came back, and they argued with Grandma.”

“I hid. When I came out, Grandma wouldn't wake up anymore.”

“So much blood. The floor was all Grandma's blood……”

Sandra took my hand.

“Nancy, who were they?”

I was silent for a long time.

“They said they were Daddy's friends, coming to the house to play with me, to see how Grandma and I were getting along.”

“Every time they came for me, they'd give me a piece of candy.”

“The candy was so sweet.”

All at once I dug a piece of candy out of my pocket and pressed it into Sandra's palm.

A shriveled piece of candy that had already melted.

“But it hurt so much when we played the game. Do all games hurt like that?”

Sandra's voice caught:

“Nancy, did you ever tell your mom and dad, or your grandma, about this?”

I shook my head.

“Mom and Dad were so busy, and Grandma was busy too. I didn't want them to worry, so I hid on my own.”

“But even though I hid, Grandma still died.”

“If it weren't for me, would Grandma still be alive?”

The video said it in veiled terms.

But Dana and Joy still understood.

“Animals.”

Dana cursed under his breath.

Sandra let out a sigh.

“From then on, Nancy always believed she was the one who killed her grandmother.”

“She believed she was the one who shouldn't be alive.”

As she spoke, Sandra opened the third video.

On the screen, I was nothing like the girl in the first video.

I sat beside Sandra, reaching out to hold her hand myself.

“Dr. James, Mom had a baby brother!”

“Mom and Dad are happy, and I'm so happy too.”

“The first person he grabbed when he was born was me!”

“He's so tiny. I want to protect him the way Grandma protected me!”

“Dr. James, when it's time for his one-month party, will you come too? Please?”

The Sandra in the video looked regretful.

“I'm sorry, Nancy. I have patients to see that day.”

The three videos finished.

The office stayed silent for a long time.

Dana was the first to come back to himself:

“Dr. James, do you know why Nancy's bedroom was packed full of boxes?”

“It could be a hoarding disorder brought on by her mental illness.”

“Then why do you think Nancy would kill herself? And who killed her little brother?”

Sandra gave a bitter smile:

“I'm sorry. I don't know either.”

After they left the counseling center, Dana and Joy said nothing the whole way.

If I'd wanted so badly to protect my brother, why would I kill him?

My motive had all but collapsed.

Back at the police department, Kerry and Kate had just finished giving their statements.

Dana walked straight over.

“Mr. Dickerson, Ms. Lambert, there are too many things about this case that don't add up.”

“To get to the truth, we need to perform an autopsy on the child.”

My mother's eyes went red in an instant.

“Clint was still so small……”

My father took her hand.

“Let them do it.”

“If Clint really was killed by someone, we can't let him die without answers.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

Dana nodded and notified the Forensics Division right away.

Half an hour later, the office door was shoved open.

Joy rushed in.

“Captain Lawrence, Clint Dickerson's blood test came back.”

“He didn't freeze to death. The examiner found a large amount of sleeping pills in his blood.”

“Preliminary suspicion is death from a sleeping pill overdose.”

“The killer is Nancy Dickerson!”

4: 4

Dana didn't argue right away. He just looked at her.

"Joy, walk me through your thinking."

Joy nodded and pulled out Nancy Dickerson's case file.

"Captain Lawrence, look here."

"Last week Nancy went to the counseling center and told Dr. James she'd been having trouble sleeping lately."

"And Dr. James wrote her a prescription for sleeping pills."

"That was the first time in two years Nancy filled a script for them."

Joy flipped to the father's statement.

"Nancy's father says that when he sent her out to collect the cash gifts, Clint was already asleep."

"Which means she had plenty of time with the baby before that."

"Isn't it possible she fed him the pills while he was sleeping?"

"Then, to hide the real cause of death, she put him in the foam box."

"There were ice packs from the frozen watermelon inside the box, so everyone would assume the baby froze to death."

Dana said nothing.

After a moment, he asked, "And the motive?"

Joy froze.

Dana went on, "Besides, her file shows she saw her brother as someone to protect. Someone who'd spent all that time protecting him — why would she suddenly kill him?"

"Could Nancy have been lying?"

He added another point.

"And there's this."

"Before she jumped, Nancy was at the door the whole time collecting the cash gifts."

"The hallway camera proves she was out of everyone's sight for less than a minute."

"And in that minute, her aunt confirms she was in the bathroom. So how did she get the baby into the foam box?"

Joy went quiet.

It was true.

If I were the killer, too much of it didn't add up.

But she was still frowning.

"But Captain Lawrence…"

"Clint's parents had him late in life. Every relative says they treated that boy like a treasure."

"There's no way they'd hurt their own son."

"And everyone at the one-month celebration party has alibis that back each other up."

"Except Nancy…"

Her voice dropped lower and lower.

"Is there really no one left?"

Dana shot her a glance.

"It's not that we can't find the killer. It's that we've missed one key thing."

"Find that, and all of it connects."

Just then Dana's phone rang.

It was the Forensics Division.

"Captain Lawrence, the fingerprint results on the foam box are in."

He answered at once.

"What have you got?"

The line was silent for a second.

"There are only Mr. Dickerson's and Ms. Lambert's prints on the box. No third person."

Dana's expression changed in an instant.

"You're sure?"

"Positive."

The call ended, and the office fell silent.

Dana stared at the case materials on the desk, his brow drawing tighter.

The foam box was in my bedroom.

Even if I weren't the killer, my prints couldn't just be missing from it.

Yet now Forensics was saying only my father's and my mother's prints were on it.

Dana rubbed the space between his brows.

"What a mess."

"Joy, get me the hallway footage. I'm running it from the top again."

"We've missed something. I know it."

Joy pulled up the surveillance from that day at once.

Dana watched it over and over.

The first time, nothing stood out.

The second time, still nothing.

The third time, his hand stopped.

The image froze.

The timestamp read 10:40.

A figure flashed past.

Dana narrowed his eyes.

"Joy, look at this person. Doesn't he look a little familiar?"

Before Joy could catch up, Dana shot to his feet.

"So that's it!"

"I know who the killer is!"