Chương 10
“Several incidents over the last two months.”
“That’s impossible.”
Alvarez watched him.
“Why?”
“Because I would have seen them.”
The detective did not answer.
Daniel understood the problem with that statement before anyone pointed it out.
He swallowed.
“Unless she covered them.”
Claire looked at him.
He looked back.
For the first time, neither of them seemed sure which possibility frightened them more.
Alvarez opened the folder.
“There’s something else.”
Vincent came fully into the room.
“What?”
“She provided messages between herself and Daniel.”
Daniel straightened.
“What messages?”
“Texts discussing Lily’s behavior.”
He frowned.
“We text all the time.”
“She highlighted several.”
Claire’s gaze moved to Daniel.
“Highlighted how?”
Alvarez looked at him.
“One where Vanessa wrote that Lily needed stronger consequences because she was becoming impossible.”
Daniel’s face went pale.
“What did I say?”
Alvarez studied him.
“You don’t remember?”
“No.”
She looked down at the paper.
“You wrote, ‘Do whatever works.’”
Claire closed her eyes.
Vincent swore quietly.
Daniel stared at Alvarez.
“That doesn’t mean hit her.”
“I know.”
“I meant take away the tablet or dessert or something.”
“I understand.”
“Then why are you looking at me like that?”
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
Daniel stood.
Alvarez remained seated.
“Sit down.”
“I’m not under arrest.”
“No.”
“Then don’t tell me to sit.”
Vincent said, “Daniel.”
Daniel turned on him.
“Not now.”
Vincent’s expression hardened.
Daniel saw it and stopped.
The old reflex in the room was immediate.
Father rises.
Son braces.
Nobody moves.
Claire saw it too.
So did Alvarez.
Vincent stepped back first.
Daniel remained standing for another second, then sat.
He pressed his palms to his knees.
“I never gave her permission to hurt Lily.”
Alvarez nodded.
“But you did give her broad authority.”
“I didn’t think—”
He stopped.
Nobody filled the sentence for him.
He stared at the table.
“That’s becoming a theme.”
Claire looked down.
The bitterness had gone out of her face.
Alvarez closed the folder.
“This is why Monday matters.”
Daniel’s voice was quieter.
“What if Lily says nothing?”
“Then she says nothing.”
“What if she doesn’t remember?”
“Then she doesn’t remember.”
“What if she says Vanessa hurt her?”
“Then we investigate that.”
“What if Vanessa’s lawyer says we coached her?”
“That is why you do not coach her.”
Daniel nodded.
His hands were shaking.
Claire noticed.
She slid a glass of water toward him.
He looked at it.
Then at her.
“Thanks.”
She nodded once.
From the living room came Lily’s laughter at something on the television.
The sound reached the dining room and changed everyone’s posture slightly.
Alvarez looked toward the doorway.
“She sounds okay.”
Vincent answered.
“She has moments.”
“That’s normal.”
Daniel stared at the water.
“Nothing about this feels normal.”
“No,” Alvarez said.
“But children can still laugh while bad things are happening.”
Claire’s face tightened.
Vincent looked at Lily through the doorway.
She was sitting cross-legged on the couch now, absorbed in the movie.
Alvarez stood.
“One more thing.”
Daniel looked up.
“Vanessa’s attorney requested that all communication go through counsel regarding the investigation.”
Daniel nodded.
“Fine.”
“She also left the residence.”
“I know.”
“Do you know where she is besides her sister’s house?”
“No.”
Alvarez watched him.
“If she contacts you, do not argue about the allegations by text.”
Daniel gave a tired laugh.
“I’m learning a lot of things twenty-four hours too late.”
“That happens.”
She gathered the folder.
Vincent walked her to the door.
Before leaving, Alvarez turned to him.
“And you.”
“What?”
“No confronting Vanessa.”
Vincent said nothing.
“I mean it.”
“I heard you.”
“That’s not the same as agreeing.”
He sighed.
“I agree.”
Alvarez gave him a skeptical look.
Vincent opened the door.
“I said I agree.”
She left.
When he returned, Claire was kneeling beside Lily and fixing the loose sock that had nearly come off when she ran to her.
Daniel stood a few feet away.
Lily looked up at him.
“Daddy, are you staying here?”
He hesitated.
“Do you want me to?”
She thought about it.
Not long.
“Maybe for dinner.”
Daniel swallowed.
“Okay.”
Vincent went into the kitchen.
Claire followed a minute later.
He took four plates from the cabinet.
“You hungry?”
“Not really.”
“Good.”
She looked at him.
“Why good?”
“Because I’m ordering pizza.”
Claire almost laughed.
Then she lowered her voice.
“Vincent.”
He kept arranging plates.
“What?”
“How bad do you think this is?”
He stopped.
For the first time since she arrived, the old confidence left his face.
“I don’t know.”
Claire stared at the countertop.
“That scares me more than if you said terrible.”
“Me too.”
She folded her arms.
“I keep thinking I should have pushed harder.”
“So does Daniel.”
“I know.”
Vincent looked toward the living room.
Daniel had lowered himself onto the floor beside the couch.
Lily was explaining the movie to him with both hands.
He listened without correcting her.
Vincent said, “You can spend the next ten years deciding which warning should have been louder.”
Claire’s eyes remained on Daniel.
“And?”
“And Lily still wakes up Monday morning.”
Claire looked at him.
Vincent picked up the phone to order dinner.
“We deal with Monday.”
Monday arrived with gray light pressing against the kitchen windows and the smell of coffee no one seemed to want.
Lily sat at Vincent’s table in a yellow cardigan over her blue dress from the weekend because she had insisted the dress was lucky.
Claire had washed it Sunday night and dried it over the back of a chair.
Daniel stood by the sink pretending to read an email on his phone.
He had not slept much.
Vincent could tell because Daniel had shaved only one side of his jaw cleanly and left a narrow strip of stubble beneath the other ear.
Claire noticed too and said nothing.
Lily ate half a piece of toast.
Then she pushed the plate away.
“Do I have to talk a lot?”
Claire crouched beside her.
“No.”
May you like
“What if I don’t know an answer?”
“You say you don’t know.”
