7b2696c981e3d60fa8abbc841c83ccf4

Amongst the things she stuffed into her backpack was an iPad. She had cleverly tried to conceal that fact, but it’s hard to conceal things from two concerned parents, especially parents who have been told by the police detective in charge of the investigation into their son’s death to be extra vigilant where their daughter is concerned.

Breakfast over, Tilton got up and grabbed his car keys from the hallway dresser.

“See you, Mom,” said Aisha, waving to her mother, who was trying to put more food into the baby’s mouth than was smeared all around it.

“Call me if you want me to pick you up, honey,” said Rosa.

“I’ll be fine,” said Aisha, producing one of those eye rolls she’d become so proficient in.

In the car, she placed her backpack in the backseat, then took up position next to her stepdad, and soon they were en route.

“You don’t have to act tougher than you are, sweetie,” said Tilton. “It’s all right if you don’t want to go to school.”

“It’s fine, Tilton,” said Aisha as she sagged in her seat and put her feet up on the dash.

Under normal circumstances Tilton would have told her to put her feet down, but these were not normal circumstances, so he didn’t say anything, just put the car in gear and then they were off.

“And please call me dad,” said Tilton.

“Fine… Dad,” said Aisha, sounding even more bratty than usual.

But it was hard on her, of course, losing a brother like that, so Tilton kept his tongue. He and Rosa had agreed to give Aisha all the space she needed, and had even discussed going to a psychologist with the girl. There was a good one they could schedule through the school, and they had the feeling Aisha was probably going to need it.

It was typical, they’d read after consulting Doctor Google, for kids to appear stronger and more brash than they actually were, to suppress their very real feelings of grief. Sooner or later that grief was bound to express itself, when they realized what had happened, and that the brother they loved and cared for was suddenly gone—ripped from their lives through a cruel twist of fate—or the unseen hand of an as yet unknown force of malice that had reached into their lives and turned it upside down and inside out.

They arrived at school and Aisha got out, studiously ignored her stepdad, then disappeared through the school gates.

Tilton glanced back, saw the backpack, and opened the window to yell,“Aisha—your backpack!”

But it was too late—she had already been swallowed up by the swarming mass of kids.

Tilton glanced back at that backpack, shrugged and then drove off.

On his way to work, he passed an abandoned old factory building, and so he steered his car in that direction, underneath the old sign that said that the best wheelbarrows in the world were made there, and swung his car into the old parking lot, which was now rutted and where weeds and tree roots were steadily pushing up the slabs of concrete.

He reached back and took the backpack, frowning when he opened it and saw the iPad. Todd’s iPad. The one he hadn’t even known existed.

For a moment, he wondered how to proceed, then he made a decision.

He had to think about his family, after all. Todd was gone, but Rosa was there, and Aisha, and the baby.

He simply had to do what needed to be done.

And so he turned the car around and steered it in the direction of the office.

He parked the car in his usual spot, reserved for him. He got out, glanced around for a moment, then took out the hammer he’d taken from the toolshed that morning before ushering Aisha into the car, and quickly smashed the side window of his car. The glass splintered easily, and moments later he was already heading into the building, took another look around, and when he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, proceeded in the direction of the bank of elevators, zooming up to the top floor, a smile of relief on his face.

The smile was quickly wiped from his lips, however, when he walked into his office and found Chase and Odelia Kingsley there waiting for him. Chase was holding up Aisha’s backpack, the one Tilton had dumped in a dumpster around the corner just now, and Odelia was holding up the iPad, which he’d destroyed with a rock.

You could see the glass spidering where the rock had hit.

But it was Detective Kingsley’s next words that really set the seal on his mood: “Tilton Bond, I’m arresting you for the murders of Josslyn Aldridge, Willie Dornhauser and Todd Bond. I’m also arresting you for the murders of Janice Schiller and Clive Atcheson. You have the right to remain silent, Tilton—or should I say… Ernest?”

Epilogue

“Tilton Bond never made his millions in the internet industry. He made it by robbing the bank he worked for and framing his boss, then murdering him in cold blood,” I said.

We were in the backyard of the Poole home, where Tex was whipping up some delicious—or not-so-delicious, depending on your culinary taste—treats for us and the rest of the family to gorge on, and where the entire Poole clan had gathered for the feast.