Page 107

And more knowledge is exactly what’s in the box.

He’s doing this for her own good. He can help her.

Jordan takes out his pocket knife and slices through the tape.

CHAPTER 105

When he opens the lid, the first thing he sees isn’t an intake form or a doctor’s examination notes. It’s a copy of a police photograph.

In the picture, a small girl lies twisted in a half-filled bathtub. Her mouth is open in a scream and her body is covered in stab wounds. Blood stains her skin, blood darkens the water.

Jordan knows exactly who this is.

It’s Mary.

He grabs the trash can next to his desk and vomits into it. When he wipes his mouth, he picks up a newspaper clipping.

THEBRONXSENTINEL

A Lost Child Leads Police to a Horrific Crime Scene

BY ALIYAH JACOBS

Heart-wrenching questions about a sweet 7-year-old girl found lost, sobbing, and bleeding in a Bronx park Tuesday morning were grimly answered today. After being treatedfor multiple stab wounds at Jacobi Medical Center, little Hannah Dougherty was able to tell authorities her name and address. When officers went to her apartment in the Soundview neighborhood, they discovered a scene of utter horror: a woman, a man, and a child dead, in an apparent murder-suicide.

Alana Dougherty, 32, and her 4-year-old daughter, Mary, were discovered in the bathroom, lying in pools of their own blood. A man identified as Brandon Mills, 39, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the living room.

A senior Bronx police official who spoke on condition of anonymity said, “Going into that apartment—it shook me. I’ve seen a lot. I haven’t seen anything like that.”

Neighbors reported that they had heard screaming from inside the apartment, including the words, “No, no, don’t hurt us.”

But no one, it appears, ever called the police.

CHAPTER 106

In Room 5A, Jordan and Hannah sit across from each other. Hannah’s on her bed, and Jordan’s on the one that used to belong to Sophie. The mattress is barely softer than a camping pad; he wonders how he never noticed that before. The door is open, and Jordan catches glimpses of Andy shuffling back and forth, up and down the hall.

He rubs his eyes. He’d lain awake all night, haunted and sickened by what he’d read. Turning the awful images over and over in his mind. Debating, all over again, whether it was right to bring Hannah’s dark past into the light.

No matter how Jordan tossed and turned and fought with himself, he always came to the same conclusion. Hannah deserved to know the past she’d been hiding from herself.

But, he decided, no oneelsedid.

That’s why none of the Belman staff knows he’s in here, or has any idea what he’s about to do.

Hannah looks at him quizzically. Her dark eyes seem especially bright today. “Come on, what’s up?” she says. Then she smiles. “Lulu always likes to ask me that, but I never like to answer.”

He waits another minute. If he eases into the subject, he’ll onlygive her time to run. He’s got to come out and say it, as quickly and gently as possible. He read the whole box. He knows everything.

Reports show that Alana Dougherty had called police about alleged abuse by Brandon Mills on three separate occasions. A restraining order was filed, and Mr. Mills entered inpatient treatment for alcohol abuse.

“Wow, you’re a barrel of laughs today,” Hannah says. “What happened to the terrible jokes? Why aren’t you trying to get me to do a stupid puzzle?”

Mr. Mills allegedly continued to return to the residence after his discharge from Ludlow Treatment Center. Ms. Dougherty informed social workers that he had “turned everything around.”

“I need to talk to you about your family,” Jordan says.

Hannah immediately stiffens. “I don’t have a family. Not in this world, anyway.”