Chương 3
“She lies when she gets anxious.”
Charlotte whispered, “I don’t.”
Terrence did not turn around.
Douglas’s voice softened.
It was more unsettling than the anger.
“Charlie, you know your sister needs treatment.”
Charlotte’s fingers curled around the edge of Terrence’s desk.
“For what?”
Douglas blinked.
“For what, Daddy?”
The station seemed to contract around the question.
Douglas stepped closer to the glass.
“You don’t understand.”
“I asked what it was for.”
“She has a condition.”
“What condition?”
“Charlotte.”
“What condition?”
Delilah lifted her head weakly.
“I’m not sick.”
Douglas closed his eyes for half a second.
When he opened them, the softness was gone.
“Officer, I am instructing you to return my children to my custody immediately.”
Terrence heard the distant rise of a siren.
Douglas heard it too.
His gaze moved toward Mercer Avenue.
Then he looked back through the glass and, for the first time, appeared afraid.
Not afraid for Delilah.
Afraid of who was coming.
Terrence reached for the radio clipped to his shoulder.
Douglas struck the door once with the heel of his hand.
“You have no idea what you’re interfering with.”
The siren grew louder.
Terrence glanced at the prescription record beside the syringe.
The dose was not the only thing that bothered him anymore.
Charlotte had said her father checked their pockets.
She had hidden evidence in her shoe.
Delilah had been told she was taking vitamins.
Douglas had reported them missing before coming to the station, yet he had described the medication to dispatch as something the girls had knowingly refused.
Too many small lies were beginning to lean in the same direction.
Charlotte tugged Terrence’s sleeve again.
Her voice was barely audible.
“There’s another syringe.”
He turned.
“Where?”
“At home.”
Douglas stared through the glass as though he could hear her anyway.
Charlotte’s eyes filled, but she kept speaking.
“In the refrigerator.”
“What’s in it?”
“I don’t know.”
She wiped her nose on her sleeve.
“It has my name on it.”
Terrence looked at Charlotte so quickly that she flinched.
“Your name?”
She nodded.
Douglas struck the glass again.
“Do not listen to her.”
The ambulance turned into the lot with its lights washing blue and red across the wet pavement.
Terrence pressed the release for the rear service entrance instead of opening the lobby doors.
He spoke into his radio.
“Bring EMS around back.”
Douglas heard enough through the glass to understand.
He stepped away from the entrance and moved toward the corner of the building.
Terrence keyed his radio again.
“Front subject moving toward rear access, adult male, dark raincoat, navy scrubs.”
A patrol unit answered from less than a block away.
Douglas stopped.
For a moment he stood under the gutter runoff with one hand clenched around his phone and stared through the lobby at Terrence.
Then he lifted the phone to his ear again.
Delilah moaned behind the counter.
The sound snapped Terrence’s attention back to her.
Her eyelids drooped.
Charlotte was patting her cheek too hard.
“Dee.”
Delilah opened her eyes.
“Stop hitting me.”
“I’m not hitting.”
“You are.”
“You keep sleeping.”
The rear door opened.
Two paramedics entered with a stretcher and medical bags, rain shining on their jackets.
The older one, a woman named Denise Harper whom Terrence had seen on half a dozen calls, knelt beside Delilah.
“I’m Denise.”
Delilah stared at the reflective strip on her sleeve.
“You have sparkles.”
“Occupational hazard.”
That got the faintest movement at one corner of Delilah’s mouth.
Denise asked simple questions while her partner checked pulse, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, and blood glucose.
Terrence handed her the medication information without interpretation.
Denise read it once.
Then she looked at him.
“This the confirmed concentration?”
“From the dispensing pharmacy.”
“How much was administered?”
“Unknown.”
Charlotte said, “All of it.”
Everyone turned.
Denise kept her voice low.
“All of what, honey?”
“The plastic thing.”
“The syringe was full?”
Charlotte nodded.
Terrence looked at the empty syringe sealed on the counter.
The barrel held markings to ten milliliters.
Denise’s partner saw the same thing.
His expression tightened.
“Let’s move.”
Delilah complained when they lifted her.
“My stomach.”
“I know,” Denise said.
“We’re going to take care of that.”
“I don’t want Daddy.”
“He’s not coming in the ambulance.”
Delilah gripped Denise’s sleeve.
“You promise?”
Denise glanced at Terrence before answering.
“Yes.”
Charlotte climbed onto the lower rail of the stretcher.
Her father’s voice came faintly from outside.
“Charlotte.”
She froze.
Denise put a hand out.
“Sweetie, I need you walking next to us, okay?”
“I go with her.”
“You can ride with us.”
Charlotte did not move until Terrence nodded.
The first patrol car came into the lot as the paramedics wheeled Delilah through the rear entrance.
Officer Maya Rodriguez stepped out before the vehicle had fully settled.
Douglas moved toward her immediately.
“Finally.”
Maya held up one hand.
“Sir, stay where you are.”
“I’m Dr. Sinclair.”
“I heard dispatch.”
“My daughter has been taken from me by an officer who apparently does not understand parental consent.”
Maya looked toward Terrence.
He said, “Possible medication overdose, prescription originated under father’s credentials, child alleges forced administration.”
Douglas gave a short, humorless laugh.
“That is an absurd distortion.”
“Sir,” Maya said, “I need you to remain here.”
“My daughter needs a physician.”
“She has paramedics.”
“I am a physician.”
“You’re also part of the complaint.”
The sentence landed harder than anything Terrence had said.
Douglas looked at Maya as if she had violated some private social rule by naming the obvious.
Charlotte walked past him beside the stretcher.
Douglas turned toward her.
“Charlie.”
She kept moving.
“Charlotte, look at me.”
Her shoulders tightened.
She did not look.
Then Douglas changed tactics.
“Your mother is going to be terrified.”
Charlotte stopped.
Terrence saw it happen before anyone could prevent it.
Fear opened across her face.
“Mommy?”
Douglas took one step closer.
“She doesn’t know where you are.”
Maya blocked him.
“Back up.”
May you like
He ignored her.
“Charlotte, your mother has been trying to call.”
