Someone Came Back
Chapter 05 - Someone Came Back
Detective Ruiz advised them not to return to the house alone. Noah agreed immediately. Claire did not.
“If Lily is alive and she came back for something, Graham knows it,” she said. “And if she isn’t alive, someone still whispered to us through that wall.”
They returned with Ruiz and two officers after sunrise. Luis widened the opening in the bedroom and removed enough drywall for a person to enter. Behind it was a narrow corridor lined with the house’s original floral wallpaper. The air smelled of dust, rain, and old lavender perfume.
Max stepped inside first.
The corridor ended at a small hidden room. It contained a rusted bed frame, a child’s desk, and shelves carved directly into the studs. On the wall were pencil marks showing a girl’s height from ages ten to fifteen. The last mark was dated three days before Lily disappeared.
Beside the marks were tiny drawings of stars, each one numbered. Claire counted fourteen. The final star had never been finished. Its outline stopped halfway around, the pencil line trailing downward as if the person drawing it had suddenly been interrupted.
The room was not abandoned.
A battery lantern sat on the desk. A blanket had been folded neatly in the corner. Beside it lay a half-empty bottle of water with an expiration date from the current year.
Someone had been there recently.
Claire found a loose floorboard beneath the bed. Under it was a bundle of letters tied with blue ribbon. Most were written by Evelyn to her daughter.
If anything happens to me, one letter read, remember that fear is not the same as weakness. Surviving is its own kind of courage.
The final envelope was empty, but three words had been written inside: LISTEN BEHIND 217.
Noah tried the metal key in every lock they could find. It fit none of them.
Max sniffed the desk, then pawed at the wall behind it. Luis removed a warped strip of molding and found a tiny brass keyhole hidden in the wood. The key turned with a click.
A section of paneling opened, revealing a shallow compartment.
Inside was an old microcassette recorder.
Claire pressed Play.
Static filled the room. Then a woman’s trembling voice said, “Lily, if you hear this, he knows I found the papers.”
A floorboard creaked in the corridor behind them.
Max spun around.
May you like
A hooded woman stood in the opening, tears running down her face.
“Turn that off,” she said. “Before Graham hears it.”
