Chapter 1 - The apartment went dark
My name is Rachel Morgan.
I did not see what happened upstairs during those first minutes because I was trapped one floor below my own children.
I learned the details later from body-camera footage, police reports, and Lily herself.
Our apartment was on the first floor of a converted brick house in Columbus, Ohio.
Two bedrooms.
One bathroom.
A kitchen barely large enough for a table.
The basement was shared by all four units.
Laundry machines.
Storage cages.
Water heaters.
Electrical panels.
A narrow concrete stairwell connected the first-floor hallway directly to it.
At 9:42 that night, Officers Megan Walsh and Eric Holloway arrived after a neighbor called 911.
The neighbor, Mrs. Turner from apartment 2B, had heard Lily crying in the hallway.
When Officer Walsh entered, Lily was sitting on the living-room floor in pale-blue pajamas with her three-year-old brother Noah pressed against her.
Noah had been crying hard enough that his face was blotchy.
Lily was trying not to.
My phone was plugged into a charger on the kitchen counter.
My purse remained on a dining chair.
Keys inside.
Wallet inside.
Medication inside.
Nothing about the apartment looked like a woman who had chosen to leave her children and go somewhere.
Officer Walsh crouched several feet from Lily.
“Your mom said she’d be right back?”
Lily nodded.
Then tightened both arms around Noah.
Officer Holloway moved through the apartment with a flashlight.
Bedrooms.
Bathroom.
Kitchen.
No me.
No intruder.
No obvious damage.
His light moved across my phone.
Then my purse.
Lily followed it.
“She didn’t take anything.”
Officer Holloway stepped into the hall.
The building lights were on.
The upstairs apartments had power.
The stairwell bulb worked.
Only our unit was dark.
He went toward the basement utility panel.
Less than a minute later he returned quickly.
“The building has power. Someone shut off only this apartment.”
Lily’s expression changed instantly.
Not confusion.
Recognition.
“He did it again.”
Officer Walsh looked at her.
“Who did?”
Lily’s eyes moved toward the basement stairs.
Her entire body began trembling.
“Mom said not to follow her… even if I heard her downstairs.”
Both officers went still.
Then the sound came.
Metal against metal.
BANG.
The noise came from somewhere below the stairwell.
Noah screamed.
Another strike.
Louder.
Lily grabbed Officer Walsh’s sleeve.
“That’s where Mommy went!”
Officer Holloway drew his flashlight higher and bolted down the basement stairs.
May you like
Officer Walsh moved between the children and the hallway, pulling Lily and Noah behind her.
Then another metallic bang echoed from below.
