The Day of My Brother's One Month Party, My Family Was Destroyed

4: 4

Dana didn't argue right away. He just looked at her.

"Joy, walk me through your thinking."

Joy nodded and pulled out Nancy Dickerson's case file.

"Captain Lawrence, look here."

"Last week Nancy went to the counseling center and told Dr. James she'd been having trouble sleeping lately."

"And Dr. James wrote her a prescription for sleeping pills."

"That was the first time in two years Nancy filled a script for them."

Joy flipped to the father's statement.

"Nancy's father says that when he sent her out to collect the cash gifts, Clint was already asleep."

"Which means she had plenty of time with the baby before that."

"Isn't it possible she fed him the pills while he was sleeping?"

"Then, to hide the real cause of death, she put him in the foam box."

"There were ice packs from the frozen watermelon inside the box, so everyone would assume the baby froze to death."

Dana said nothing.

After a moment, he asked, "And the motive?"

Joy froze.

Dana went on, "Besides, her file shows she saw her brother as someone to protect. Someone who'd spent all that time protecting him — why would she suddenly kill him?"

"Could Nancy have been lying?"

He added another point.

"And there's this."

"Before she jumped, Nancy was at the door the whole time collecting the cash gifts."

"The hallway camera proves she was out of everyone's sight for less than a minute."

"And in that minute, her aunt confirms she was in the bathroom. So how did she get the baby into the foam box?"

Joy went quiet.

It was true.

If I were the killer, too much of it didn't add up.

But she was still frowning.

"But Captain Lawrence…"

"Clint's parents had him late in life. Every relative says they treated that boy like a treasure."

"There's no way they'd hurt their own son."

"And everyone at the one-month celebration party has alibis that back each other up."

"Except Nancy…"

Her voice dropped lower and lower.

"Is there really no one left?"

Dana shot her a glance.

"It's not that we can't find the killer. It's that we've missed one key thing."

"Find that, and all of it connects."

Just then Dana's phone rang.

It was the Forensics Division.

"Captain Lawrence, the fingerprint results on the foam box are in."

He answered at once.

"What have you got?"

The line was silent for a second.

"There are only Mr. Dickerson's and Ms. Lambert's prints on the box. No third person."

Dana's expression changed in an instant.

"You're sure?"

"Positive."

The call ended, and the office fell silent.

Dana stared at the case materials on the desk, his brow drawing tighter.

The foam box was in my bedroom.

Even if I weren't the killer, my prints couldn't just be missing from it.

Yet now Forensics was saying only my father's and my mother's prints were on it.

Dana rubbed the space between his brows.

"What a mess."

"Joy, get me the hallway footage. I'm running it from the top again."

"We've missed something. I know it."

Joy pulled up the surveillance from that day at once.

Dana watched it over and over.

The first time, nothing stood out.

The second time, still nothing.

The third time, his hand stopped.

The image froze.

The timestamp read 10:40.

A figure flashed past.

Dana narrowed his eyes.

"Joy, look at this person. Doesn't he look a little familiar?"

Before Joy could catch up, Dana shot to his feet.

"So that's it!"

"I know who the killer is!"