Chương 8
“Laurie.”
Laura’s gaze moved slowly across the room.
It found Douglas.
Her entire body tightened.
The monitor accelerated.
One paramedic leaned over her.
“Ma’am, stay with me.”
Laura tried to move her restrained wrist.
Beth pointed.
“Take that off.”
The paramedic had already cut the fabric strap.
Laura pulled her hand against her chest.
Her lips moved.
Beth leaned closer.
“What?”
Laura whispered again.
“Girls.”
“They’re alive.”
Beth touched the floor beside Laura but not her body.
“They’re at the hospital.”
Laura shut her eyes.
Tears leaked toward her temples.
“The medicine.”
“They’re being treated.”
Laura’s mouth trembled.
“Both?”
“Yes.”
Beth hesitated.
“Delilah got sick.”
Laura’s eyes opened.
Fear came back instantly.
“Charlotte?”
“She’s okay.”
Laura began shaking her head.
“No.”
Beth frowned.
“What?”
“No, no.”
The paramedic asked, “Ma’am, what is it?”
Laura tried to sit.
They stopped her gently.
“My girls.”
“They’re safe.”
Laura looked directly at Terrence.
“He switches them.”
Terrence moved closer.
“What does that mean?”
Douglas said, “She’s confused.”
Laura flinched at his voice.
Terrence turned.
“Get him upstairs.”
Douglas resisted.
“You need to hear this.”
“No.”
“She is not competent.”
“Upstairs.”
The officers walked Douglas toward the broken door.
He twisted once to look back.
“Laura, don’t do this.”
She stared at him.
His voice changed.
“Think about what happens to the girls.”
Beth stood.
“Get him out.”
Douglas raised his voice as the officers forced him through the doorway.
“You think foster care is better?”
Laura covered her ears.
Beth shouted, “Shut up.”
“Beth.”
“Shut up.”
His voice faded up the stairs.
The paramedic waited until Laura’s pulse settled somewhat.
Terrence crouched several feet away.
“You said he switches them.”
Laura looked exhausted.
“He writes Delilah.”
“What?”
“On the records.”
Her eyes closed.
“Sometimes it’s Charlotte.”
Terrence thought of the syringe in the refrigerator.
Charlotte’s name on the label.
“What is he giving them?”
Laura swallowed painfully.
“I don’t know everything.”
“Tell me what you do know.”
“He said he was studying metabolism.”
Beth stared.
“What?”
Laura spoke in fragments.
“Twins.”
She breathed.
“Same age.”
Another breath.
“Same house.”
Her face crumpled.
“I thought it was vitamins at first.”
Terrence felt cold despite the furnace beside him.
“When did you find out it wasn’t?”
“January.”
The papers went back nine months.
“What happened in January?”
“Charlotte fell at school.”
Beth whispered, “The concussion.”
Laura nodded weakly.
“She didn’t have a concussion.”
“What did she have?”
Laura looked toward the ceiling.
“She was drugged.”
Beth sat back on her heels.
“You told me she fainted.”
“I believed him.”
“How long?”
Laura began crying.
“Too long.”
The paramedic gave Beth a warning look.
Beth pressed her lips together.
Terrence said, “What changed?”
“I found the spreadsheet.”
“The one in the box?”
Laura nodded.
“He said I didn’t understand it.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
She laughed weakly.
“That was the problem.”
Terrence waited.
“I knew enough.”
Her fingers tightened in the blanket.
“He was comparing them.”
“Comparing what?”
“Doses.”
“To determine what?”
“He said genetically matched subjects remove variables.”
Beth stared at her sister.
Laura whispered, “He called our daughters subjects.”
The sentence seemed to drain the remaining strength from her.
The paramedic said they needed to transport.
Terrence stood.
“Can she give us anything else first?”
“Thirty seconds.”
Terrence looked at Laura.
“Why did he drug you?”
Her eyes moved toward the blue box.
“I copied everything.”
“And he found out?”
“Yesterday morning.”
“How?”
“My printer history.”
Of course.
Something ordinary.
Something stupid.
Something modern and small enough to ruin a plan.
“He confronted you?”
Laura nodded.
“I tried to leave.”
“What happened?”
“He took my phone.”
“The text to Beth?”
“Bathroom.”
Beth covered her mouth.
“I should’ve called.”
Laura looked at her.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Laura.”
“You came now.”
Beth looked down.
The paramedics lifted the stretcher.
Laura caught Terrence’s sleeve as they passed.
Her grip was surprisingly strong.
“The refrigerator.”
“We know about the syringe.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“Not the syringe.”
Terrence leaned closer.
“What’s in the refrigerator?”
“Bottom drawer.”
“What?”
Laura looked toward the stairs.
Her fear sharpened again.
“Blood.”
Terrence stared at Laura.
“Blood?”
She nodded once.
“In labeled tubes.”
The paramedic guiding the stretcher toward the stairs said, “We have to move.”
Terrence stepped aside.
Beth followed until Maya caught her elbow.
“Let them work.”
Beth stopped.
Her eyes stayed on Laura as the stretcher disappeared up the stairs.
For a few seconds nobody in the basement spoke.
Then Terrence turned toward the evidence officer.
“Kitchen refrigerator.”
The officer nodded.
“Already within the warrant scope.”
“Photograph before opening drawers.”
They went upstairs.
Douglas was seated in a dining chair with an officer standing behind him.
His wet raincoat had been removed.
Without it, in navy scrubs and handcuffs, he looked less like the furious father from the station parking lot and more like a tired physician who had been called from a bad shift.
Terrence disliked how ordinary that made him seem.
Douglas looked toward the basement stairs.
“Is she conscious?”
Terrence did not answer.
“Officer.”
Terrence walked past him.
Douglas raised his voice.
“If Laura aspirates, she needs to be positioned laterally.”
Beth stopped in the hallway.
“She already was.”
Douglas looked at her.
Beth’s face tightened.
“You knew that.”
He said nothing.
The refrigerator stood beneath a row of white cabinets covered with children’s magnets.
A spelling test with DELILAH SINCLAIR written across the top had been held under a ceramic strawberry.
Ninety-eight percent.
A teacher had drawn a smile beside the grade.
Terrence found himself looking at the missing two points.
The word necessary had been spelled with one c.
He did not know why that detail stayed with him.
The evidence officer photographed the refrigerator exterior, then the interior as it opened.
Juice boxes occupied the top shelf beside leftover pasta in a glass container.
A carton of eggs sat in the door.
May you like
There were grapes in a bowl, three yogurts, mustard, milk, and a plastic bag of baby carrots.
The bottom drawer was labeled MEAT.
