Chapter 3 - The Secret Daniel Buried
Z
By sunrise, I had not slept for even five minutes.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Chloe on the kitchen floor. I saw Daniel’s body beside the island. I saw Lauren standing outside our house, crying as if she were the victim.
Detective Harris returned just after eight in the morning with news that made the entire situation feel even darker.
Lauren’s SUV had been impounded.
Inside the trunk, officers found the black leather bag Chloe described.
But it was empty.
“There was nothing in it?” I asked.
“Nothing except a pair of gloves, a receipt from a gas station, and traces of shredded paper.”
“She destroyed it?”
“Possibly. Or someone removed the contents before we located the vehicle.”
I stared at the detective. “She was in police custody.”
“She was questioned, not formally detained, until we had lab confirmation. Her attorney arrived quickly.”
Of course she had an attorney.
Lauren had claimed she was broke. She had cried at my kitchen table about overdue rent, unpaid bills, and the landlord threatening eviction. She borrowed money from me twice in the last month. She slept in our guest room. She ate our food.
Yet somehow, within an hour of police arriving, she had legal representation.
“What did she say?” I asked.
“She says Daniel had been blackmailing her.”
The word landed like a slap.
“Blackmailing her for what?”
“She refuses to say.”
I almost laughed. Not because it was funny, but because it was impossible. Daniel was the person who reminded me to donate old coats. He volunteered at Chloe’s school fundraiser. He once drove three hours in the rain to help Lauren after her car broke down outside Richmond.
He wasn’t a blackmailer.
But then I remembered the burner phone.
And the storage unit.
And the note.
That afternoon, Detective Harris took me to the storage facility. The unit was in Daniel’s name, paid six months in advance with cash. That alone didn’t sound like my husband.
The clerk led us down a narrow hallway that smelled like dust and metal. Unit 214 was near the back, behind a row of rusted roll-up doors. When the detective cut the lock, I felt like I was about to walk into another version of my marriage.
The door rattled open.
At first, the unit looked ordinary.
There were boxes labeled “Tax Records,” “Old Furniture,” and “Winter Clothes.” A folded crib sat in one corner—the crib Chloe had used as a baby. Daniel had always said he gave it away.
Then Detective Harris pulled aside a moving blanket.
Behind it was a steel filing cabinet.
Inside, there were folders.
Dozens of them.
Most contained bank statements, printed emails, property records, and photographs. Some of the photos showed Lauren entering buildings I had never seen. Others showed her meeting people in parking lots, restaurants, and hotel lobbies.
One folder had my name on it.
My hands went numb as I opened it.
Inside was a copy of my driver’s license, my work badge, our mortgage documents, and a recent credit report.
“Why would Daniel have this?” I asked.
Detective Harris looked uncomfortable. “There may be an explanation.”
“No. There needs to be one.”
At the bottom of the folder was a printed email from Daniel to someone named M. Pierce.
I’m doing this to protect Emma and Chloe. Lauren is getting deeper into something dangerous. If she finds out I kept records, she’ll come after me.
I read it three times.
Then I found another email.
She used Emma’s identity once already. I stopped the bank transfer before it went through, but I don’t know how many times she has done this.
My knees nearly gave out.
Lauren had used my identity.
Suddenly, the past few months rearranged themselves in my mind. The credit card alert I thought was a mistake. The call from a lender I ignored because I assumed it was spam. The envelope Daniel intercepted from the mailbox and told me was “just junk.”
He had known.
He had been investigating my sister behind my back.
A police officer handed Detective Harris another box. It contained a flash drive and several handwritten pages.
The pages were from Daniel’s journal.
The handwriting was rushed, uneven, and clearly written under stress.
Lauren owes money to people who do not forgive mistakes. She says she got involved because of Marcus. She says he has proof that could send her to prison. I don’t know if that’s true. I only know she’s scared.
Marcus.
The name sounded familiar.
I had seen it on Lauren’s phone once, months earlier, when she thought I wasn’t looking. She had quickly turned the screen over and said he was “nobody.”
The next journal entry was dated four days before the attack.
Lauren asked me to help her disappear. I refused. She accused me of betraying her. She doesn’t understand that I’m trying to save her.
I sat down on an overturned storage bin, unable to stop shaking.
The detective crouched beside me. “Mrs. Bennett, there’s more.”
I looked up.
He held a photograph.
It showed Daniel standing outside a downtown office building with a woman I didn’t recognize. She was tall, blonde, maybe in her forties, wearing a dark business suit. Daniel looked tense.
Written on the back of the photo were four words.
Mara Pierce. Federal prosecutor.
My husband hadn’t been having an affair.
He had been working with the government.
But the part that terrified me most was the final note tucked beneath the photograph.
It was written in Daniel’s hand.
If Lauren is arrested, Marcus will target Emma and Chloe.
I left the storage facility with one question burning through my mind.
May you like
If Daniel had been trying to protect us from Marcus…
Why had Lauren tried to silence him first?
