Chapter 10 - The Knife
Ryan left before the officers arrived.
That worried me more than if he had stayed.
At midnight, Frank Walker was interviewed.
At 7:00 the next morning, he asked to speak with me.
Police arranged it at the station.
Frank looked nothing like the family pictures.
He was thinner. Gray beard. Deep grooves around his eyes. He held a coffee cup with both hands like it was warming more than his fingers.
"You look like Anna's mother," he said.
"I never met Anna."
"No. I know."
He looked down.
"I should've made sure everyone did."
I didn't comfort him.
"Tell me about the knife."
Frank nodded slowly.
The night before Anna died, Matthew had confronted Diane.
He had seen her strike Ryan hard enough to split his lip.
Matthew grabbed a kitchen knife and told Diane to stay away from his brother.
Frank came home in the middle of it.
Anna had been hiding upstairs with the cassette recorder.
"I took the knife from Matthew," Frank said. "No one was stabbed. The blood Anna mentioned came from Ryan's mouth."
"Then why was Anna threatened?"
Frank's eyes filled.
"Because she'd seen something else two days earlier."
Here it was.
Another door.
"What?"
"Diane stealing money from my mother."
I blinked.
Not murder.
Not some secret body.
Money.
"Anna saw her take checks from my mother's bedroom. Diane had been forging signatures. Anna told me."
"And Diane threatened her."
"Yes."
"The next day Anna died."
Frank nodded.
"Why didn't you tell police?"
He began crying quietly.
"Because I was a coward."
He didn't dress it up.
That almost made it worse.
"I believed if I protected Diane, I could keep the boys. She told me they'd go into foster care. She said I'd lose everything."
"So you let your daughter become the lie holding the family together."
He closed his eyes.
"Yes."
For a moment neither of us spoke.
Then I asked, "Why did you disappear?"
Frank looked toward the two-way mirror.
"Because nine years ago I decided to give Claire everything I had about Diane. Videos. Documents. Anna's tape."
"But Claire never got them."
"No."
"Why?"
"Ryan stopped me."
My chest tightened.
Frank continued.
"He met me at the old lake house. He said if I reopened Anna's case, I'd destroy Matthew, Diane, him, everybody. We fought."
"Did Ryan hurt you?"
"He knocked me down. Then he begged me to leave."
"And you did."
"I did."
"Why contact me now?"
Frank looked at me with a grief so old it seemed carved into him.
"Because I saw the video from your party."
"What video?"
"One of your guests streamed part of it. Lily crying. Diane being arrested."
He swallowed.
"I watched history start again."
The door opened.
Officer Patel stepped inside.
"Megan, we have a problem."
I stood.
"What happened?"
"Ryan filed an emergency custody petition this morning."
I stared at her.
"On what grounds?"
"He says you're unstable, physically violent, and alienating Lily from him."
I laughed once.
"He watched his mother hit her."
"His filing says the bottle slipped during an argument you started."
My stomach turned.
"And Diane?"
Patel's face hardened.
"Submitted an affidavit supporting him."
Frank whispered, "There it is."
I looked at him.
"What?"
"The family rule."
His eyes moved to the custody papers.
"When Diane is cornered, everyone else becomes the criminal."
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