Chương 9
Her face tightened.
“I’m tired.”
“So am I.”
“You got to sleep.”
Daniel laughed once.
Laura flinched.
It was slight.
He saw it anyway.
His anger vanished so quickly it left him ashamed.
He sat down.
For a while neither spoke.
A machine beside the bed measured something with a green line moving steadily across a screen.
Daniel kept his hands between his knees.
“Did I scare you Monday?”
Laura stared at the blanket.
“Yes.”
The word was barely audible.
“How?”
“You were angry.”
“I was frustrated.”
“You were angry.”
“Okay.”
She looked at him then.
The expression on her face was almost bitter.
“There.”
“What?”
“You always do that.”
“Do what?”
“Make the word smaller.”
Daniel leaned back.
“I never touched you.”
“I didn’t say you did.”
“Then what are we talking about?”
Laura swallowed.
“We’re talking about you pacing around the room because I wouldn’t stop asking where the money went.”
Daniel’s stomach tightened.
“This is about the credit card?”
“It was about you lying.”
“I told you about the overtime.”
“After I found out.”
“I was trying to keep you from worrying.”
“You keep saying that like lying becomes generous if you’re stressed enough.”
Daniel looked toward the door.
“Did you find pills in my jacket?”
Laura’s eyes sharpened.
“Yes.”
“Which jacket?”
“The gray one.”
“I threw it away in July.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“Yes, I did.”
“I saw it.”
“When?”
“Last week.”
“Where?”
Laura pressed her fingers against her temple.
“In the laundry room.”
“Our building doesn’t have a laundry room.”
She stared at him.
Daniel stopped breathing for a moment.
Laura’s face changed slowly.
“What?”
“Our washer is in the kitchen.”
“I know that.”
“You just said laundry room.”
“I meant the kitchen.”
“No.”
“Daniel, I’m on medication.”
He stood before he meant to.
Laura recoiled against the pillows.
Daniel froze.
The movement between them was small enough that another person might have missed it.
He did not.
He sat back down immediately.
“I’m sorry.”
Laura turned her face away.
“I need Owen.”
“I’ll get him.”
“Now.”
Daniel rose slowly.
At the door, he stopped.
“The bottle they found has a prescription date from three weeks ago.”
Laura said nothing.
“The doctor named on it says he didn’t prescribe it.”
Her fingers tightened around the blanket.
Daniel watched them.
“Did you know that?”
“No.”
“Where did you get it?”
“I told you.”
“You found it.”
“Yes.”
“In a jacket I didn’t own, in a room we don’t have.”
“Stop.”
“Laura—”
“I said stop.”
Daniel opened the door.
Mara was standing outside with Owen.
Cynthia had moved farther down the corridor with Rachel and the two security officers.
Mara studied Daniel’s face.
“What happened?”
“She wants him.”
Mara entered the room.
Daniel followed only as far as the doorway.
Laura reached out.
Mara placed Owen in her arms.
For the first time since Daniel had entered, Laura’s face opened completely.
“Oh, baby.”
Her voice broke.
She kissed Owen’s forehead, then again near his temple.
Owen made a small protesting sound.
Laura laughed and cried at once.
Daniel gripped the doorframe.
He had wanted this moment while sitting beside Laura’s unconscious body.
He had pictured it during every feeding and every diaper change and every terrified check to make sure Owen was still breathing.
Now that it was happening, he stood outside the room like a visitor.
Mara looked at him over Laura’s shoulder.
Daniel stepped into the hall.
Cynthia approached.
“How did it go?”
“She’s confused.”
“She’s recovering from a major medical event.”
“She said she found my pills in our laundry room.”
Cynthia’s brow furrowed.
“So?”
“We don’t have one.”
Cynthia glanced toward Laura’s room.
“That doesn’t necessarily mean—”
“I know what it doesn’t necessarily mean.”
Daniel rubbed both hands over his face.
“I’m not saying she’s lying.”
That was the first time the possibility had occurred to him clearly enough to reject it.
He lowered his hands.
“I think she believes what she’s saying.”
Cynthia was silent.
The bald security officer approached them.
His name badge read HARRIS.
“Mr. Mercer.”
Daniel turned.
Harris held a tablet against his chest.
“We checked the garage exit records and the available security footage.”
“And?”
“Your vehicle left the garage at 11:27 Monday night.”
Daniel looked at Rachel.
She stood near the nurses’ station, arms folded tightly.
Harris continued.
“Traffic cameras at the intersection on Grant picked up a vehicle matching your plate at 11:34 heading east.”
“So I left.”
“It appears so.”
“When did Rachel see me?”
“Approximately 11:52.”
Daniel felt the corridor narrow around him.
Mara had come back to the doorway.
Laura was visible behind her, holding Owen.
Daniel looked at Harris.
“Then it wasn’t me.”
Harris did not answer.
“You have cameras at the elevators.”
“We do.”
“And?”
Harris removed his glasses from his collar and put them on.
“The elevator footage shows a man arriving on the seventh floor at 11:46.”
Daniel waited.
Harris looked directly at him.
“He was wearing a gray work jacket.”
Daniel’s mouth went dry.
“Show me.”
“I can’t.”
“Could you see his face?”
“Not clearly.”
“Then how do you know it wasn’t just some guy in a jacket?”
“We don’t.”
Daniel heard Laura say something from inside the room.
Mara answered softly.
Harris continued.
“But there’s something else.”
Daniel said nothing.
“The man used a visitor badge to access the maternity corridor.”
“So?”
“The badge was issued earlier that evening.”
Harris looked down at the tablet, then back at Daniel.
“It was issued under your name.”
Daniel touched the plastic badge clipped to his coat.
The white card carried his photograph, his name, and a barcode beneath the word VISITOR.
“This one?”
Harris looked at it.
“Yes.”
“I’ve had it on me since Monday.”
“Have you?”
Daniel stared at him.
“What kind of question is that?”
“The kind I have to ask.”
Daniel pulled the badge free and held it out.
Harris did not take it.
May you like
“Were you wearing it when you left the hospital Monday night?”
“I assume so.”
