Chapter 1 - The Question by the Water
The pumpkins were already glowing even though the sun had not yet gone down.
Daniel Carter’s mansion looked almost cheerful beneath the late-October sky. Orange lanterns hung along the covered patio. Artificial cobwebs stretched between stone columns. Black paper bats fluttered in the light breeze above the French doors.
At the far end of the property, the rectangular swimming pool reflected everything upside down.
Three-year-old Nora Carter stood beside it in a pumpkin-orange sweater, black leggings, and little closed shoes.
She stared into the blue water.
Vanessa stood several feet behind her.
“Can I jump in and swim?” Nora asked.
Her voice was innocent enough to hurt.
She turned her entire small body toward her stepmother, brown pigtails bouncing against her shoulders.
Vanessa smiled.
For almost two years, Daniel had praised that smile.
Patient.
Gentle.
Exactly what Nora needed after losing her biological mother, Lauren.
Nora trusted it too.
That was why she never stepped away when Vanessa approached.
“You want to swim?” Vanessa asked softly.
Nora nodded.
Vanessa waited until the child’s eyes returned to the water.
Then she looked toward the mansion.
Left.
Right.
The patio was empty.
The housekeeper had been sent home early. The gardener had been told the family wanted privacy before the Halloween party. Daniel was downtown dealing with what Vanessa had described as an urgent problem involving one of his company’s construction loans.
Vanessa’s smile vanished.
She placed one hand against Nora’s back.
And pushed.
Nora’s arms flew outward.
Her little shoes slipped across the stone.
Then she disappeared over the edge.
The splash shattered the quiet.
Nora surfaced almost immediately, coughing and crying.
Her sweater had turned dark with water. Her leggings clung heavily to her legs.
“Vanessa!”
Vanessa walked to the edge.
She looked down.
For the first time, Nora saw a face she did not recognize.
“Rest in peace.”
Nora stopped crying for one stunned second.
Vanessa smiled.
Then she crossed the deck to the pool’s only metal ladder.
She pulled it from its mounts.
The bottom rails scraped against the tile before clearing the water.
Nora paddled toward her.
“Vanessa!”
Vanessa carried the ladder away.
The pool walls were smooth and vertical, the water surface nearly two feet below the deck.
Nora tried to reach upward.
Her fingers scraped stone.
“Please!”
Vanessa disappeared behind the hedge.
For several minutes Nora screamed.
Then a familiar bark answered.
Milo, the family’s Golden Retriever, raced across the lawn.
He reached the edge and whined.
Nora stretched toward him.
“Milo!”
The dog circled frantically before jumping into the water.
Nora grabbed the fur across his shoulders.
Milo paddled until he found a place near the wall where he could keep them both steady.
Time passed.
The daylight faded.
Nora cried until her voice became thin and cracked.
She did not know how long she remained there.
Only that Milo stayed.
Night had fully fallen when the patio doors opened again.
Daniel hurried outside.
Vanessa followed him.
“I don’t know where she is either!” Vanessa said, performing panic so convincingly that Daniel barely noticed how dry her eyes were.
“Nora!” he shouted.
They hurried along the path.
Daniel stopped.
Somewhere beyond the Halloween music from neighboring houses came a sound almost too weak to hear.
Crying.
His daughter.
Daniel ran.
He saw Milo first.
Then the orange sweater.
“Oh my God!”
Nora lifted her face.
“Daddy!”
Daniel jumped into the pool.
He reached her, wrapped both arms around her, and carried her toward the wall.
With Milo swimming beside them, Daniel managed to lift Nora onto the deck before pulling himself out.
He dropped to his knees.
Nora clung to him, trembling violently.
“You’re okay,” Daniel whispered. “Daddy’s here.”
Vanessa stood behind them.
She had stopped pretending.
For one fraction of a second, something horrifying crossed her face.
Disbelief.
Nora had survived.
Nora looked at Daniel.
Then she raised one tiny shaking finger.
Toward Vanessa.
“Daddy…”
Daniel followed her finger.
Nora’s lips trembled.
“She pushed me.”
Silence.
Vanessa’s mouth opened.
Daniel slowly rose.
Until that moment, the worst thought in his mind had been that Nora had wandered outside and fallen.
Now he looked at his wife.
And saw terror in her eyes.
Not terror for Nora.
Terror of Nora.
Daniel tightened his arms around his daughter.
Then he noticed something else.
Two empty metal sockets beside the pool.
The ladder was gone.
And suddenly Nora’s accusation was no longer the only question.
May you like
It was merely the first.
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