Chương 4
She had told him she was meeting Claire.
That lie sat in her now with a different weight.
“I wasn’t supposed to be out for fun,” she said.
Claire looked at her.
“I was meeting a lawyer.”
“You never told me.”
“I canceled twice before. That night I actually went.”
Claire leaned back.
“Oh.”
“I was going to ask what separation would look like. Custody. The house. Everything.”
“Did Daniel know?”
“No.”
“Margaret?”
“No.”
Emily shook her head.
“I thought nobody knew.”
Claire sat very still.
“What time did you leave?”
“Eight twelve. Maybe eight fifteen.”
“And what did Daniel tell police?”
“That he’d already left for work at eight.”
Emily laughed once, without humor.
“So according to him, I walked out of a house knowing our four-year-olds were alone.”
Claire’s face hardened.
“He didn’t just lie about where he was.”
“No.”
“He made you the last adult there.”
“Yes.”
The room was quiet except for the refrigerator downstairs switching on.
Claire said, “Tell Hayes about the pills.”
Emily looked at her.
“All of it.”
“If I do, they’ll ask why I left.”
“They’re already asking why you left.”
“I knew he’d had problems.”
“That does not mean you knew he was impaired that night.”
“I knew enough to be afraid.”
Claire waited.
Emily looked at the cereal box.
“If I tell them, everybody will say I should’ve known.”
“Some people already say that.”
“I might say it.”
Claire’s expression softened.
“That’s different.”
Emily pressed her lips together.
The next morning she called Hayes.
He met her at the police station in an interview room with gray walls, a metal table, and a paper cup that smelled faintly of old coffee.
Emily told him about Daniel’s pills.
She told him about the back injury three years earlier, the prescription pain medication, the times she discovered extra tablets in unmarked containers.
She told him about the whiskey.
She told him she had threatened separation.
Then she told him where she had actually gone on the night of the fire.
Hayes stopped writing.
“You met with an attorney?”
“Yes.”
“What kind?”
“Family law.”
“Daniel knew?”
“No.”
“Did anyone know?”
“The attorney. Her assistant, I guess.”
“What time did the meeting end?”
“Around nine fifteen.”
“And then?”
“I sat in my car.”
“For how long?”
“I don’t know. Twenty minutes. Maybe more.”
“Why?”
Emily looked at the gray wall.
“Because she told me what joint custody might look like.”
Hayes waited.
“I had spent months wanting him out of the house,” Emily said. “Then she started talking about weekends and holidays and who gets Christmas morning, and all I could think was that if I left him, I’d lose half my time with the boys.”
Her voice changed on boys.
She stopped.
Hayes did not offer a tissue.
Emily appreciated that.
“I drove to a grocery store. I bought toothpaste and cereal.”
“What cereal?”
She looked at him.
“What?”
“You said cereal.”
“The kind with marshmallows.”
Hayes wrote it down.
She almost told him it did not matter.
Then she realized it did.
It showed where she was. Cameras. Receipt. Time.
“I used my debit card.”
“We have that transaction.”
Of course they did.
“What time?”
“9:52.”
Emily closed her eyes briefly.
Noah had asked for that cereal before she left.
She had bought it.
It was probably still sitting somewhere in the ruined house, water-soaked and blackened at the edges.
Hayes said, “When did you first learn about the fire?”
“Daniel called me at 10:58.”
That was what she had said in both earlier interviews.
Hayes looked at a page in his folder.
“Did he sound like he was at the scene?”
“I couldn’t tell.”
“What did he say?”
“House. Fire. Boys.”
“Exact words?”
Emily gripped the edge of the chair.
“He said, ‘There’s a fire at the house. It’s bad. Get here.’”
“Did he say where he was?”
“No.”
“Did you hear sirens?”
“I don’t remember.”
“People?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Traffic?”
“I don’t remember.”
Hayes nodded.
“Okay.”
Emily looked at him.
“What does Lena’s video show?”
“We’ve authenticated enough of it to treat it seriously.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“No.”
He closed the folder.
“It shows Daniel entering your alley at 8:26 p.m. His vehicle remains in the garage area until 10:44. At 10:43, a person consistent with Daniel exits the rear of the house.”
Emily stared at him.
“You can see him?”
“Yes.”
“Can you see smoke?”
“Yes.”
“Can you see fire?”
“Not clearly.”
“What does he do?”
Hayes took a breath.
“He stands near the back door for approximately twelve seconds. He moves toward the yard. He goes back toward the door. He does not fully enter, as far as we can tell. Then he goes to the garage.”
“And drives away.”
“Yes.”
“When was 911 called?”
“10:51.”
“By who?”
“A call came from your mother-in-law’s phone.”
Emily stopped moving.
“What?”
Hayes watched her closely.
“Margaret called.”
Emily’s mouth went dry.
“She wasn’t there.”
“Correct.”
“How did she know?”
“That’s one of the things we’re working on.”
Emily sat back.
Seven minutes.
Daniel had left at 10:44.
Margaret called at 10:51.
Emily said, “He called her.”
Hayes did not answer.
“He called her before 911.”
“We are obtaining records.”
“You already know.”
“We have information. We’re verifying it.”
Emily looked at him.
“You keep saying verify.”
“That’s my job.”
“My children are dead.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Hayes let the anger hit him.
Emily hated him for being calm enough to allow it.
Then she hated herself for directing it at him.
She stood.
“I need air.”
He moved aside.
At the door she stopped.
“There were smoke detectors.”
“Yes.”
“They worked.”
“Were you certain of that?”
Emily turned.
“What do you mean?”
“The fire investigator found the upstairs hallway detector without a battery.”
Emily felt something inside her become very still.
“That’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because it was chirping two weeks before. I bought batteries.”
“Did you replace it?”
“No.”
May you like
“Who did?”
Emily saw Daniel standing on a dining chair, annoyed, twisting the detector from the ceiling.
