Chapter 5 - THE BROWN BOTTLEPolice searched Diane’s home after obtaining a warrant based on the developing evidence.
They found several medications.
Nothing dramatic at first.
Blood-pressure tablets.
Arthritis medication.
Sleeping pills prescribed to Diane.
Cold medicine.
A brown glass bottle in a bathroom cabinet.
Empty.
Label partially peeled.
Forensics did not immediately announce what it contained.
No television moment.
The bottle went to the lab.
Fingerprints.
Residue testing.
Chain of custody.
Waiting.
I hated waiting.
At home, I began opening every cabinet.
Rachel, my sister, followed me.
“What are you looking for?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then stop.”
“I can’t.”
She caught my wrists.
“Grace.”
“Don’t.”
She released me immediately.
Good sister.
Learning the new rules faster than Trevor ever had.
I looked at the cabinet where we kept infant supplies.
Formula tins.
Bottles.
Sterilizer.
Everything still there because I had not been able to touch it.
Then I noticed one thing.
The bottle brush was new.
Bright white.
The old brush had been blue.
“Rachel.”
“What?”
“Diane replaced this.”
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
I remembered her saying after Benjamin died:
I cleaned everything. You shouldn’t have to come home to a mess.
At the time, kindness.
Now?
Maybe destruction of evidence.
Maybe simply cleaning.
We photographed it.
May you like
Called Laura.
Did not invent certainty.
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