Chapter 4 - Walter's obsession
I opened the door only after police returned.
Elmer sat opposite me.
He looked destroyed.
Not dangerous.
That made his secret worse.
Three years earlier, after Louisa was born, Walter began insisting something was “wrong” with her appearance.
Her eyes.
Her chin.
A birthmark behind her left ear.
He repeatedly demanded a DNA test.
I laughed.
“Between Louisa and you?”
Elmer shook his head.
“Between Louisa and him.”
My stomach turned.
“That makes no sense.”
“I know.”
Walter apparently believed Louisa carried “his blood” in a way nobody understood.
He'd secretly collected strands from her hair several times.
Each attempt failed because samples were contaminated or improperly handled.
Suddenly I understood.
Her hair.
Lydia hadn't shaved Louisa merely to humiliate her.
They wanted it.
I reopened the footage.
Hours after shaving my daughter, Walter entered carrying a clear plastic bag.
He collected her hair.
Every strand.
The cruelty hadn't been punishment.
It had been evidence collection.
But why frame Louisa first?
Elmer didn't know.
Or claimed not to.
Then police contacted me.
They had executed a search connected to my complaint.
Lydia's bracelet had been recovered.
Not from Louisa.
Not Heather.
It was hidden inside Walter's locked desk.
Heather claimed she'd planted it in Louisa's backpack on Lydia's orders, but later Walter removed it.
“Why?”
Heather refused to explain.
Until police discovered another item in Walter's desk.
A laboratory invoice.
Genetic Relationship Analysis.
Subject A:
Walter Mercer.
Subject B:
Louisa Mercer.
Result:
Probability of grandparent relationship — excluded.
I almost laughed from relief.
Walter wasn't her grandfather?
Then I realized what that meant.
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If Walter was excluded as Louisa's biological grandfather…
Elmer could not be her biological father.
