Cooper Mall

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Colonial Hills in the 1950s felt like every town USA.

Small Cape Cod homes, each with its own patch of clipped lawn, stood side by side like siblings in matching outfits.

This suburb of Columbus was one of those places where people believed they were building something, not just houses, but lives.

And to the extent that a baby could know there was a great big world beyond it, little Margo Freshwater seemed determined to explore that great big world.

She stepped back out, expecting to see her daughter still inside the fenced yard.

And I was gone.

just vanished.

No gate open, no tracks in the mud.

Houdini in diapers.

She hunted everywhere, and all the neighbors were looking for me.

Every backyard was checked, every corner scanned, until the search party spilled out to the boundary where homes end and danger begins.

This was Margot's first great escape.

Stepping into trouble and surviving it would become her signature, the trait that shaped every turn to come.

From Sony Music Entertainment and Glass Podcasts, this is The Crimes of Margot Freshwater.

I'm Cooper Mall.