I froze.
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m not alone.”
“Who’s there?”
He told me.
I grabbed my keys.
The drive normally took twenty minutes.
I made it in seventeen.
When I turned onto Lakeview Drive, I immediately saw two police vehicles.
Dad was standing in the driveway beside an elderly woman with white hair and a folder tucked under one arm.
Richard was arguing with an officer.
Melissa stood nearby looking completely shaken.
I parked and hurried over.
The elderly woman approached me first.
“Are you Julie?”
“Yes.”
“My name is Eleanor Marks. I live on this street.”
She gestured toward Richard’s property.
“I was here when this house was built. I was here before it existed too.”
I stared at her.
“I don’t understand.”
“Your father will explain.”
Then she looked directly at me.
“But before he does, you should know something. What happened here is not his fault.”
