Chapter 2 - The Red Door
Daniel didn't sleep.
He sat beside Lily's bed until sunrise.
Every time she moved, he looked up.
Every time she whimpered, he checked her blanket.
At six in the morning, he finally called his older sister, Claire.
“I need you to come over.”
“What happened?”
“Vanessa was arrested last night.”
Silence.
Claire's voice changed.
“What?”
Daniel told her everything.
When he mentioned the red door, Claire went quiet again.
“Daniel?”
“Yes?”
“Don't go there.”
“Why?”
“I've heard about that house.”
“What have you heard?”
“That it belonged to the Whitmore family.”
Daniel frowned.
“The old Whitmore estate?”
“Yes.”
“It was sold years ago.”
“No.”
Claire's voice was low.
“It wasn't.”
Daniel stood.
“What does that mean?”
“The house was supposed to be demolished.”
“But?”
“It never was.”
Daniel stared through the kitchen window.
The house with the red door was three blocks from their home.
He had passed it hundreds of times.
He had never noticed anything unusual.
Claire continued.
“Your father knew someone who lived there.”
“My father?”
“Yes.”
Daniel's father had died four years earlier.
He had left Daniel a successful construction company and a complicated collection of unfinished business.
“What person?”
“I don't know.”
Claire hesitated.
“But I remember Dad telling Mom never to talk about that house.”
Daniel felt his stomach tighten.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I thought it was family gossip.”
“Claire.”
“I didn't know Vanessa was involved.”
Daniel looked toward the stairs.
Lily was still asleep.
“Neither did I.”
After Claire arrived, Daniel drove to the police station.
Vanessa was being held overnight.
He asked to see her.
She refused.
That surprised him.
He had expected anger.
Instead, she sent a message through her attorney.
Tell Daniel to leave the red door alone.
Daniel stared at the paper.
His lawyer saw his expression.
“What is it?”
Daniel handed it over.
The lawyer read it.
“You need to listen to her.”
“No.”
“Daniel.”
“My wife was arrested for hurting our daughter, and the first thing she does is warn me about a house.”
“She may be protecting someone.”
“Exactly.”
That afternoon, Daniel drove to the red-door house.
It stood behind a rusted iron fence.
The windows were boarded.
The lawn was overgrown.
A faded FOR SALE sign hung crookedly.
But one thing bothered him.
The front door was freshly painted.
Bright red.
Daniel walked around the property.
He found footprints in the mud.
Recent ones.
Someone had been there.
He called Claire.
“I'm outside.”
“Daniel, don't go inside.”
“Too late.”
He opened the door.
The smell hit him first.
Dust.
Old wood.
And something chemical.
The living room was empty.
But the basement door was unlocked.
Daniel descended.
At the bottom, he found a table.
On it sat a photograph.
He picked it up.
His wife.
Vanessa.
Standing beside a man Daniel had never seen before.
Behind them was the red door.
The photograph had been taken recently.
Daniel's heart hammered.
Then he saw another photograph.
Vanessa holding Lily.
Another.
Vanessa talking to the same unknown man.
Another.
Lily standing outside the Carter home.
Then he found something that made him stop breathing.
A photograph of Daniel himself.
Sleeping.
Taken through his bedroom window.
Someone had been watching the family.
Daniel immediately called the police.
Before he could finish the call, his phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
“Hello?”
A man's voice spoke.
“You shouldn't have gone there.”
“Who are you?”
“You know who I am.”
“No, I don't.”
“You will.”
The call ended.
Daniel stared at the phone.
Then he heard footsteps upstairs.
He grabbed a metal flashlight.
“Who's there?”
No answer.
The footsteps continued.
Daniel climbed the stairs.
The front door was open.
Nobody was there.
But something had been left on the porch.
A small pink backpack.
Lily's backpack.
Daniel ran home.
The front door was locked.
Claire was inside.
She looked terrified.
“Where's Lily?”
Daniel's blood froze.
“What?”
“She was upstairs.”
They ran.
Lily was sitting on her bed.
Safe.
But beside her was the pink backpack.
Daniel stared at it.
“I found this at the red-door house.”
Lily shook her head.
“I didn't leave it there.”
Daniel opened the zipper.
Inside was a folded piece of paper.
Three words were written on it.
ASK YOUR DAUGHTER.
Daniel looked at Lily.
She started crying.
“Daddy…”
May you like
“What?”
“I know who the man is.”
