"Leave it to me," Vance said, placing a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "I'm calling the police right now to have him permanently trespassed. And just to be safe, during recess today, I'll have Lily stay inside. She can help me organize the library books in the back office. She'll be completely safe."
"Thank you, Arthur," I breathed, feeling a massive weight lift off my chest. "Thank you."
I left the office, walking out through the school's front doors. The damp morning air felt refreshing against my flushed face. I had overreacted. I was a paranoid single father who had watched too many true crime documentaries.
I walked across the parking lot toward my SUV. As I approached the driver's side, I stopped dead in my tracks.
The glass on my rear passenger window was entirely shattered, scattered across the asphalt like diamonds.
I surged forward in a panic, looking inside the car. Nothing was missing. The radio was intact. My spare sunglasses were still in the cup holder. But resting perfectly in the center of the driver's seat was a thick, manila envelope.
I yanked the door open and grabbed the envelope. There was blood on the corner of the paper—fresh blood, someone had cut their hand breaking the glass.
My hands shook as I tore the top open and pulled out a stack of photocopied documents. They were police files. Not public records, but actual internal police evidence logs. The name at the top of the page made my vision blur.
EVIDENCE LOG: REMAINS OF MAYA COLE. RECOVERED 2013.
I stopped breathing. The news articles had said she was never found. But this was a sealed police report. I scanned the lines of text rapidly, my eyes burning. She had been found in a shallow grave on a private logging road two years after she vanished. The case had been kept sealed because the police were actively hunting the killer and didn't want to tip him off.
My eyes locked onto the final line of the evidence log detailing the items found with the remains.
Item #4: Silver half-moon pendant. Left half only. Severed forcefully. Right half missing from crime scene.
I froze. The world around me seemed to tilt dangerously sideways.
Left half only.
Lily hadn't had the left half. I remembered the shape of the metal in my kitchen. The jagged edge was on the left side. Lily had the right half.
Vance didn't confiscate that necklace. He didn't pull it from a lost-and-found box. The right half was missing from the burial site. It was a trophy.
Arthur Vance had given my daughter the trophy from his last murder.
I looked at the clock on my dashboard. It was 11:15 AM.
Recess had just started.
I'll have Lily stay inside. She can help me organize the library books in the back office. She'll be completely safe.
A guttural, animalistic sound tore from my throat. I dropped the papers, slammed the car door shut, and sprinted back toward the heavy glass doors of the school.
I practically tore the front doors of the school off their hinges as I sprinted back into the main lobby. My dress shoes slipped against the polished linoleum, but I caught my balance, my momentum carrying me forward like a freight train.
"Mr. Evans!" Mrs. Higgins, the secretary, stood up from behind her desk, her eyes wide with alarm. "You can't just run in here—"