“Mom, lock your door!”
“I can’t. He has the key.”
Then I heard footsteps.
“Grandma? Are you talking to Mom?”
The call ended.
I drove to her house immediately.
When Daniel opened the door, he was wearing gloves.
“What happened?” I demanded.
“Nothing, Mom. Grandma’s sleeping.”
But behind him, I could see a small black bag on the kitchen counter.
And something else.
An envelope bearing my mother’s name, with a handwritten warning:
DO NOT LET MARGARET SEE THIS.
The following afternoon, I secretly placed a motion-activated camera in the hallway, facing my mother’s bedroom door.
Two nights later, my phone alerted me at 3:17 a.m.
I opened the live feed.
Daniel was carrying the black bag.
He unlocked my mother’s bedroom and disappeared inside.
Minutes later, I heard her crying.
“Please, Daniel. I can’t do this again.”
His voice was firm.
“Grandma, we have to finish it before Mom finds out.”