Chapter 10 - BUSTER FOUND IT

I moved back into my house without Rachel.

Changing the locks took less than an hour.

Making the place feel like home again took much longer.

I turned my portrait upright.

Then I removed every photograph of Brad.

Lily wouldn't sleep in her old room.

So I made a bed for her in mine.

Buster slept beside the door.

For three nights, Lily woke screaming.

Each time she touched my face.

"You real?"

I answered the same way.

"I'm real."

On the fourth morning, she asked whether we could go into the backyard.

I almost said no.

Then I realized I couldn't let that yard belong to the worst night of her life forever.

We put on boots.

Buster raced toward the shed.

Lily held my hand tightly.

We stopped near the patch of mud where I had found her.

I expected her to cry.

Instead, she looked at Buster.

"He dug me a warm hole."

I swallowed.

Buster had curled his body around her.

Probably for hours.

I knelt and rubbed his neck.

"Good boy."

Buster suddenly pulled away.

He began scratching beside the shed.

At first, I thought he smelled an animal.

Then his paw struck plastic.

I moved Lily back.

I dug with a small shovel.

Less than six inches beneath the dirt was a sealed plastic container.

My pulse quickened.

I carried it inside without opening it.

Katherine arrived thirty minutes later.

We called the police.

Inside the container were documents.

Bank statements.

Prepaid phones.

Copies of my identification.

And handwritten notes.

Some were in Brad's handwriting.

Dates.

Amounts.

Passwords.

Then an officer powered on one of the phones.

There were dozens of audio files.

One was dated two days before Rachel announced my death.

We played it.

Brad's voice filled the kitchen.

"You need to stop waiting for him."

Rachel answered.

"What if he comes home?"

Brad laughed.

"Then everything gets complicated."

Rachel sounded nervous.

"He will come home."

Brad replied.

"Not if everybody already believes he didn't."

No one in the room spoke.

The recording continued.

Rachel whispered.

"And Lily?"

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Brad's response made every hair on my arms rise.

"Kids believe whatever their parents repeat long enough."