Chương 6
“It’s nothing.”
Daniel frowned.
“That’s what Hannah says when it’s not nothing.”
Arthur looked at him.
“You know Hannah?”
Daniel seemed surprised.
“She came twice.”
Arthur’s head turned toward Erin, then back.
“When?”
Daniel’s face closed.
Arthur regretted the question immediately.
“Forget it.”
Daniel looked at the ceiling.
“She didn’t know.”
Arthur waited.
“She thought the room was storage.”
“What room?”
“The one behind the wall.”
Arthur felt something shift.
Not relief.
Nothing that simple.
“Hannah was inside?”
“Not inside.”
Daniel spoke carefully.
“She came to the house.”
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
He looked frustrated with himself.
“Before winter, maybe.”
Arthur said, “You don’t have to get the dates right.”
Daniel rubbed his thumb against the blanket.
“She asked Victoria why the hallway was shorter.”
Arthur stared at him.
That explained Hannah’s certainty that afternoon.
It did not explain why she had waited.
His jaw tightened.
Daniel noticed.
“Are you mad at her?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Daniel seemed to consider that answer.
Then he nodded.
Arthur realized most adults in Daniel’s life had probably answered uncertainty with lies.
The thought made him feel ashamed of how many simple promises he wanted to make now.
You’re safe.
It’s over.
I’ll never leave.
He could not prove any of them yet.
So he said nothing.
Daniel looked toward the ambulance doors.
“I thought you were dead.”
Arthur closed his eyes.
The machine beside them continued its small rhythmic beeping.
“Who told you?”
“Michael.”
Arthur opened his eyes.
“When?”
“A long time ago.”
Daniel’s mouth twisted.
“He said Victoria kept bringing food because she felt sorry for me.”
Arthur leaned forward, elbows on his knees.
“Daniel.”
The boy looked at him.
“I was alive.”
Daniel’s eyes filled but did not spill.
“I know now.”
Arthur nodded.
It was not enough.
Still, it was true.
At the hospital, Daniel was taken through a side entrance after Morales called ahead.
Arthur stayed so close to the stretcher that a nurse finally told him he could walk beside it without touching the rail.
He apologized automatically.
Daniel heard.
“You don’t have to say sorry.”
Arthur looked at him.
“Apparently I do.”
Daniel almost smiled.
It vanished quickly, but Arthur saw it.
That tiny expression nearly undid him.
A pediatric emergency physician examined Daniel while Arthur sat in a plastic chair near the bed.
There were blood tests.
Chest imaging.
Questions about pain, food, sleep, dizziness, and injuries.
Daniel answered some.
He ignored others.
When the doctor asked whether anyone had hit him, Daniel stared at the wall.
Arthur did not interfere.
The doctor did not push.
“We can come back to that.”
Daniel nodded.
Arthur watched every adult in the room tell Daniel what they were about to do before touching him.
He wondered how long it would take before that stopped feeling remarkable.
A social worker named Maya Chen entered forty minutes later.
She spoke first to Daniel, not Arthur.
That mattered.
Arthur noticed.
She explained that because Daniel had been missing for years and had been found in circumstances suggesting confinement and abuse, there would be procedures.
Arthur disliked the word immediately.
“What procedures?”
Maya looked at him.
“Medical evaluation, forensic interviewing when Daniel is ready, law enforcement coordination, and child protective review.”
“I’m his father.”
“I understand.”
“So he comes with me.”
Daniel looked between them.
Maya kept her voice even.
“That may happen, but we need to verify the safest arrangement.”
Arthur stood.
“The safest arrangement is not putting him with strangers.”
Daniel flinched.
Arthur saw it and stopped.
Maya saw it too.
She lowered her voice.
“Nobody is taking him anywhere right now.”
Arthur sat back down.
He hated himself for making the room harder.
Daniel looked at him.
Arthur rubbed his face.
“Sorry.”
Daniel said nothing.
Maya pulled another chair closer.
“You’ve both had a major shock.”
Arthur almost objected to the equivalence.
Then he stopped himself.
For Daniel, today was not only rescue.
It was also the discovery that much of what he had been told about Arthur might be false.
Maya asked Daniel whether there was anyone besides Arthur he trusted.
Daniel took a long time.
“Hannah.”
Arthur looked at him.
Maya wrote the name down.
“Anyone else?”
Daniel shook his head.
Arthur felt the answer somewhere beneath his ribs.
Not because Daniel trusted Hannah.
Because the list ended there.
His phone vibrated in his pocket.
He ignored it.
Then it vibrated again.
And again.
Maya glanced at him.
“You may want to check that.”
Arthur pulled it out.
Twenty-three missed calls.
Nine from company counsel.
Six from board members.
Three from numbers he did not recognize.
One from his assistant.
Four from Michael.
The latest text was from Michael.
Do not speak to police until I get there.
Arthur stared at the screen.
A second message arrived.
Victoria is panicking and will say anything.
Then a third.
I can explain Daniel.
Arthur stopped breathing.
Maya noticed.
“What is it?”
Arthur did not answer.
He stood and walked into the hall.
Then he called Detective Morales.
She picked up immediately.
“Arthur?”
“My brother knows Daniel was found.”
“We expected that.”
“He just texted me.”
“What did he say?”
Arthur read the messages aloud.
There was a pause.
“Do not respond.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Screenshot them and preserve the phone.”
Arthur almost laughed at the simplicity.
Preserve the phone.
As if his life had become evidence.
Morales continued.
“We located the hidden device Daniel mentioned.”
Arthur leaned against the hallway wall.
“What was on it?”
“We haven’t accessed it yet.”
“Victoria?”
“Still at the residence.”
“Arrested?”
“Not at this point.”
Arthur closed his eyes.
“Why not?”
“Because we build cases before we make promises.”
He disliked the answer because it sounded responsible.
Morales said, “Arthur, where is Michael now?”
“I don’t know.”
“He says he’s coming there.”
Arthur looked through the glass panel into Daniel’s room.
Daniel was watching him.
Arthur straightened.
“Yes.”
“Then listen carefully.”
Morales’s tone changed.
May you like
“Do not confront him.”
Arthur’s gaze stayed on his son.
