Chương 6
He froze.
The trash bag hung from one hand.
Terrence expected him to retreat.
Instead, Douglas smiled.
It was not a broad smile.
It was the thin expression of a man trying to demonstrate that he had nothing to fear.
He dropped the bag into the bin.
Then he wheeled the entire bin toward the curb.
Maya said, “Collection isn’t until tomorrow.”
Terrence looked at her.
“You know that how?”
“My sister lives three streets over.”
For some reason, that nearly made him laugh.
He did not.
Douglas turned back toward the garage.
Then he stopped.
A woman was standing across the street in a yellow raincoat.
She held a leash attached to a small terrier that was pulling toward a hedge.
She stared at Douglas.
Douglas stared back.
The woman raised her phone.
Maya muttered, “Great.”
“What?”
“Neighborhood audience.”
The woman began recording.
Douglas immediately changed posture.
He lifted one hand and called something they could not hear.
She shook her head.
Then she walked toward Terrence’s cruiser.
Maya intercepted her halfway.
Terrence got out.
The woman spoke quickly.
“I’m Beth Mercer.”
Terrence’s attention sharpened.
“You’re the girls’ aunt?”
“Yes.”
“Where have you been?”
“At work.”
Her face changed.
“Where are Charlotte and Delilah?”
“At the hospital.”
Beth went white.
“What happened?”
“We’ll explain what we can.”
She looked toward Douglas’s house.
“My sister is in there.”
Terrence stepped closer.
“How do you know?”
“Because she texted me yesterday.”
Douglas appeared at the garage entrance again.
Beth saw him.
Her jaw clenched.
“He told me she left town.”
Terrence said, “Do you have the text?”
Beth pulled out her phone with shaking hands.
“Yes.”
She opened a message thread.
The last incoming text from her sister, Laura, was timestamped 10:13 the previous morning.
DOUG IS SCARING ME.
A second message followed.
I PUT COPIES IN THE BLUE BOX.
Then nothing.
Terrence asked, “What blue box?”
Beth swallowed.
“I don’t know.”
“Did you respond?”
“A hundred times.”
“Calls?”
“No answer.”
“Why didn’t you call police?”
Beth looked ashamed.
“Because this isn’t the first time she’s said she was leaving him.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“I know.”
Her voice hardened.
“I thought she was being dramatic.”
Douglas began walking toward them.
Maya raised a hand.
“Stay on your property, Dr. Sinclair.”
“This is harassment.”
Beth laughed once.
The sound was ugly.
“Of course that’s what you call it.”
Douglas ignored her.
He looked at Terrence.
“You’re involving my wife’s unstable sister now?”
Beth took a step forward.
Maya blocked her with an arm.
“You told me Laura went to Vermont.”
“She did.”
“She texted me from inside that house.”
Douglas’s face remained still.
Beth held up the phone.
“Yesterday morning.”
Douglas said nothing.
Terrence watched him.
Charlotte’s words returned.
He gets quiet when he already decided.
The radio on Terrence’s shoulder crackled.
“Warrant signed.”
Everything moved at once.
Terrence raised his voice.
“Dr. Sinclair, step away from the house.”
Douglas turned.
Maya shouted, “Do not go inside.”
He ran.
Not toward the front door.
Toward the garage.
Terrence and Maya sprinted after him.
Douglas hit the wall control.
The garage door began descending.
Terrence ducked under before it reached his shoulders.
Maya came behind him.
Douglas was already at the interior door.
Terrence shouted, “Stop.”
Douglas yanked it open and disappeared into the house.
Terrence followed.
The kitchen smelled faintly of bleach.
A pot sat burned dry on the stove.
Douglas ran through the hall.
Terrence heard a door slam below them.
“Basement.”
Maya reached the stairwell first.
The door at the top stood open.
They descended quickly.
The air grew colder.
At the bottom, a second door was shut.
Terrence tried the handle.
Locked.
“Douglas.”
No answer.
Maya stepped back.
Terrence struck the door beside the lock with his shoulder.
It held.
He hit it again.
Wood split.
On the third impact, the frame gave.
The room beyond was dim and smelled chemical, sweet and sharp beneath mildew.
Douglas stood beside a utility sink.
In one hand he held a clear plastic bag filled with syringes and small medication vials.
In the other he held a bottle of liquid over the drain.
Terrence drew his weapon but kept it lowered.
“Put it down.”
Douglas looked at him.
“Do you understand what you’re destroying?”
Terrence said, “Put it down.”
“This is treatment data.”
“Drop the bottle.”
“You think because children are frightened, reality changes?”
Maya entered behind Terrence.
“Douglas.”
He looked at her.
Then past both officers.
A mattress lay on the floor near the furnace.
Someone was on it.
Beth appeared at the broken doorway despite the officer outside shouting for her to stay back.
She saw the mattress.
“Laura.”
Douglas flinched.
It was the first uncontrolled reaction Terrence had seen from him.
Beth pushed forward.
Maya caught her.
“Don’t.”
“That’s my sister.”
“Stay back.”
Laura Sinclair lay on her side beneath a thin blanket.
Her skin was gray.
One wrist was secured loosely to the metal bed frame with a fabric restraint.
Terrence’s stomach dropped.
He keyed his radio.
“Need EMS inside now.”
Douglas lifted the bottle higher.
Terrence stepped toward him.
“Don’t.”
Douglas said, very quietly, “You have no idea what she’s done.”
Then he poured the bottle into the sink.
The liquid struck the stainless steel and disappeared in a clear ribbon toward the drain.
Terrence crossed the room before Douglas could empty the bottle completely.
He caught Douglas by the wrist and drove his arm against the wall hard enough to knock the bottle loose.
It bounced once in the sink, rolled toward the drain, and Maya snatched it before it tipped.
Douglas twisted.
“Get off me.”
Terrence forced his arm behind his back.
“You are being detained.”
“For what?”
“For starting with obstruction.”
Douglas laughed breathlessly.
“That’s pathetic.”
“Keep talking.”
“You think that helps you?”
“No.”
Terrence tightened the cuff around one wrist.
“It helps me know where your hands are.”
Douglas tried to turn toward Laura.
May you like
“Don’t let Beth touch her.”
Beth was already kneeling three feet from the mattress, both hands clamped over her mouth.
