Page 49 of Our Lips Are Sealed
The front door stood propped open with strangers milling about on the porch. Josie charged up the steps while Miranda followed numbly.
The people at the door tried to stop them, and Josie went on the offensive, allowing Miranda a chance to shove past. Right away, she found Samuel in the library with some of the other children, and he rushed over, shaking as he clung to her.
“Mom, it was so bad.”
Miranda held her boy, taking in the others. Selah sat on the couch, holding Jamison in his lap. CeCe was on the floor at his feet, her arms wrapped around his legs, sucking her thumb. On the smaller settee was Evie, her face blank and eyes empty. Splashes of reddish-brown covered parts of her skin and clothes, caking as it dried. Toby lay against her, resting his head on her shoulder.
“Mrs. Fairweather?” The man speaking stood off to the side. “My name is Detective Mathis. Can I see you in the hall?”
Miranda laid a kiss on top of Samuel’s head, letting him go. “Where is Simone?”
“Mama went to get help,” Selah spoke up. His big brown eyes, identical to her son’s, filled with tears. “But she didn’t come back.”
“We’re currently searching the grounds for the Howard family,” Mathis stated. “Please, can you come into the hall?”
A sickening dread crawled through Miranda, locking her in place. “What’s happened?”
CeCe burst into tears at the question, and Selah laid a hand on her head while trying to maintain his hold on Jamison, who was crawling over him to get to CeCe.
Evie bent forward, doubling over, but Samuel caught her before she hit the floor, wedging himself between her and Toby.
Mathis stepped out of the room, leaving Miranda no choice but to follow.
Josie was waiting, gazing up at the estate mural Laura Jean had gifted to Simone earlier in the summer. Pale and trembling, she drew Miranda into her arms, not caring who was watching. “We’re strong and will get through this. I love you.”
Miranda nodded and faced the detectives gathering around them. Tears blurred her vision, like the rain on the windshield when they arrived, as she listened while they told her things her mind couldn’t accept.
Impossible things that would never happen in a place like Haven House.
“Do you know why Ms. Miller would have done this?”
Because they had failed her. They had all become too absorbed in their own happily ever afters to recognize how far Rebecca had fallen from hers.
Miranda attempted to explain, to connect the distorted dots for the detective. Mathis listened, seemingly sympathetic, while the other detectives and officers remained impassive, their curious gazes dropping to her hand in Josie’s every so often.
“Sometimes, I think you need a road map when dealing with us,” Miranda mumbled when finished. “We’re an odd family.”
“I know this is overwhelming, and a lot to take in, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask for some assistance with your ex-husband,” Mathis told her. “We can’t get him to leave the body.”
Miranda surrendered Josie’s grip and went with the detectives to the ballroom. More strangers lined the walls, with the hallway stretching outward before her, like a carnival funhouse where a person’s perception of reality no longer functioned as it should.
At the ballroom door, an officer standing guard blocked her path. “He won’t let anyone in.”
Over the officer’s shoulder, Miranda could see Ben on the ballroom floor, kneeling next to a white heap of sheets. He rocked heavily, holding a slender hand in his lap.
Miranda sagged on the door frame, breaking at the sight.
“We need to do our job, and it’ll be time for us to take her soon,” Mathis explained softly. “But he’s been combative whenever we come near.”
Ben’s head turned to the side, his lips moving.
“Is he talking to himself?” Miranda asked.
“He is,” Mathis confirmed. “But it’s a vast improvement from the screaming.”
There would be no coming back from this for Ben. He might as well lay down next to Laura Jean and let the police throw a sheet over him, too.
Mathis cleared the hall for privacy. “Whenever you’re ready, Mrs. Fairweather.”
