William did not sleep that night.

Martin stayed until after midnight, making calls from the kitchen table while William sat in the hallway outside Eva's room with his back against the wall.

The light under the door had finally gone off around ten.

He had checked once, quietly.

Eva was asleep.

Lily was on the floor beside the bed, wrapped in a blanket, her breathing slow and even.

He had stood there for a moment watching them both, then pulled the door shut and sat back down in the hall.

He could hear Martin's voice from the kitchen.

Low, methodical, unhurried.

Around one in the morning Martin came and crouched beside him.

"Account in a minor child's name with a single adult signatory," Martin said quietly.

"It's not untouchable.

But she's right that it's more complicated.

If the funds in that account can be traced back to the marital estate or to the property fraud, we can move to freeze it.

That requires a court order."

"How long?"

"If I file first thing in the morning and we can demonstrate urgency — given the circumstances — a judge could grant an emergency freeze within twenty-four to forty-eight hours."

"Can she move the money before then?"

Martin was quiet for a moment.

"Possibly.

If she acts tonight or early tomorrow before we file."

William looked at the kitchen doorway.

"Where is she now?" Martin said.

"She went to the bedroom two hours ago."

"Is she still there?"

William stood up.

He walked to the end of the hall and pushed open the bedroom door.

The bed was empty.

The closet door was open.

Three of Sandra's coats were gone.

The small safe on the shelf — the one she used for her passport and personal documents — was open and empty.

He went to the bathroom.

Empty.

He went back to the kitchen.

The back door was unlocked.

The car keys that usually hung by the door were gone.

"She left," he said.

Martin was already on his phone.

William stood in the middle of the kitchen.

He looked at the drain in the floor.

The cover was still off, leaning against the wall where he had set it hours ago.

The dark space beneath it was empty now.

He picked up the cover and set it back in place.

Martin finished his call.

"I've contacted the emergency line for the court.

Given that she may be attempting to move assets, we have grounds for an emergency application.

I also think you should call the police now, William.

Not just for the asset issue.

For Lily."

William nodded.

"There's one more thing," Martin said.

He held out his notepad.

On it he had written a name and a phone number.

"While you were in the hall, I made some calls about Gerald Foss.

The lawyer who handled the house sale.

He has two prior complaints filed against him with the state bar.

Both involved undervalued property transactions.

Both were settled quietly." He paused.

"He's not a careful man.

If we subpoena his records, I think we find the full picture of what Daniel and Sandra built together."

William took the notepad.

"Call the police," Martin said.

"I'll start the filing."

William called.

Two officers arrived within the hour.

They were calm and professional.

They took his statement in the kitchen.

They took a preliminary statement from Lily, who came out of Eva's room when she heard the knock at the front door, still wrapped in the blanket, her voice steadier than it had been but her hands still not quite right.

One of the officers photographed the crawl space.

The bolt.

The interior dimensions.

"Three days," the officer said, looking at the bolt.

"Yes," William said.

The officer looked at him.

Then at Lily.

Then he wrote something in his notebook and said they would be in touch in the morning.

After they left, Lily sat at the kitchen table and William made tea.

Neither of them spoke for a while.

"I should have called you," Lily said finally.

"Instead of coming here.

I should have just called."

"You didn't know what she'd do."

"I knew she didn't like me."

"That's different from what she did."

Lily wrapped both hands around the mug.

"When I was down there, the second day, I started thinking I'd made it up.

All of it.

The photograph, the account, the house.

I started thinking maybe I was wrong and that's why she'd done it.

To protect you from me getting it wrong."

"You weren't wrong."

"I know.

But it's strange what your mind does in the dark."

William looked at her.

"There's a second account," he said.

"In Eva's name.

Sandra told me tonight.

She was using it as leverage."

Lily was quiet for a moment.

Then she reached into her pocket and took out her phone.

She turned it to face him.

On the screen was a screenshot of a bank statement.

An account in Eva Rose Hartley's name.

The balance shown was just over one hundred and eighteen thousand dollars.

"I found it two weeks before I came here," she said.

"I didn't include it in what I showed you because I wasn't sure if you already knew about it.

I thought maybe you'd set it up for her yourself."

William stared at the screen.

"I didn't," he said.

"I know that now."

He sat back in his chair.

One hundred and eighteen thousand dollars.

In his daughter's name.

Controlled entirely by the woman who had just walked out the back door in the middle of the night.

His phone buzzed on the table.

A text from a number he didn't recognize.

*You should have taken the quiet way out, William.

This gets uglier from here.

— D*

He turned the phone so Lily could see it.

She read it.

Set the phone back down.

"That's Daniel," she said.

"I know."

"He's not careful when he's scared."

William looked at the message again.

Then he screenshot it, sent it to Martin, and set the phone face-down on the table.

"Good," he said.