Chương 9
After she left, Daniel turned off the overhead light.
The room softened into blue shadows and machine glow.
Claire tried to sleep.
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the kitchen floor.
Not Ryan’s face.
The broken glass.
She could hear pieces skittering beneath the refrigerator.
A stupid thing to remember.
She wondered whether any blood had dried on the hardwood.
She wondered whether the faucet was still dripping because Ryan had promised to tighten it last weekend.
She wondered if the front door had been locked after the paramedics came.
Her mind kept reaching for small household problems because the large one was impossible to hold.
“Danny.”
“Yeah?”
“Did anybody secure the house?”
Daniel looked up from his phone.
“What?”
“The front door.”
He blinked.
“I have no idea.”
“The paramedics came through it.”
“I can go check tomorrow.”
“The broken glass is still there.”
He stared at her.
“Claire.”
“I don’t want someone stepping on it.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“An intruder with poor footwear?”
She gave him a tired glare.
“Just text Ryan.”
Daniel’s eyebrows rose.
“You want me to text him about sweeping?”
“Yes.”
“You just threw him out of your hospital room.”
“And there’s glass on the kitchen floor.”
For the first time all night, Daniel laughed.
It escaped him before he could stop it.
Claire started laughing too.
Pain immediately punished her.
“Oh God.”
“Stop laughing.”
“You started it.”
“I absolutely did not.”
She pressed a pillow carefully against her abdomen.
Daniel composed himself.
Then he texted Ryan.
Claire watched him.
“What did you say?”
“Claire wants to know if the house is locked and if somebody cleaned the glass.”
“That sounds hostile.”
“It’s a factual masterpiece.”
“Read it.”
He read the message.
It was exactly what he had said.
Ryan replied almost immediately.
House is locked.
I cleaned everything before coming here.
Claire stared at Daniel’s screen.
“He cleaned it?”
“Apparently.”
The fact bothered her.
She could not explain why.
Perhaps because it complicated the story her anger wanted to tell.
Ryan had left her.
Ryan had also returned long enough to clean broken glass before going to the hospital.
“Ask why.”
Daniel gave her a look.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because we are not conducting a forensic analysis of domestic chores at one in the morning.”
Claire sank into the pillow.
“He came back to the house.”
“Maybe.”
“He must have.”
Daniel set his phone down.
“You need sleep.”
“Did he go back after the restaurant?”
“Claire.”
“Ask him.”
Daniel sighed, picked up the phone, and typed.
The response took longer this time.
I went home when Daniel called.
Ambulance was already gone.
I locked up and cleaned the glass because I didn’t know what else to do.
Daniel read it aloud.
Claire stared at the ceiling.
“So he came home first.”
“Yes.”
“Instead of going straight to the hospital.”
Daniel hesitated.
“The hospital is in the opposite direction from the restaurant.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“No.”
She closed her eyes.
A minute passed.
Then another.
“Don’t tell him I’m mad about that.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“I don’t even know if I am.”
“Also not my department.”
Claire opened one eye.
“What is your department?”
“Bad coffee, aggressive driving, and apparently neonatal emotional support.”
“That sounds accurate.”
The medication began pulling at her.
Daniel settled into the visitor chair and stretched his legs awkwardly.
He was too tall for it.
Claire drifted in and out.
At some point she heard his phone buzz.
He stepped into the hallway to answer.
She assumed it was work.
It was not.
Ryan stood downstairs beneath the covered entrance, looking across the nearly empty parking lot.
He had called Daniel because he could not bring himself to call Claire again.
“Is she asleep?”
“Almost.”
“How is she?”
“Exhausted.”
Ryan rubbed his forehead.
“Did she ask about me?”
“She asked about broken glass.”
There was a long silence.
“That sounds like Claire.”
Daniel leaned against the corridor wall.
“She wanted to know why you went home.”
“I told you.”
“I know.”
“I thought she might be there.”
Daniel frowned.
“What?”
“I didn’t know the ambulance had taken her yet.”
“You knew she called an ambulance?”
“Mom called me after Claire hung up.”
Daniel straightened.
“What exactly did Evelyn tell you?”
“That Claire was bleeding and in an ambulance.”
“Then why would you think she was home?”
Ryan said nothing.
Daniel closed his eyes.
“You went back before your mother called you.”
Another silence.
“Yes.”
The answer changed the temperature of the hallway.
“When?”
“I left the restaurant after you called.”
“You said Mom told you about the ambulance.”
“She did.”
“When?”
“After.”
Daniel gripped the phone.
“So when I called you, you still didn’t know she had been taken?”
“No.”
“You only knew she was in surgery because I told you.”
“Yes.”
“And your first move was to go home.”
“I panicked.”
Daniel pushed away from the wall.
“Why?”
“I wanted to see if she’d actually left.”
The words came quietly.
Daniel stared at the closed door to Claire’s room.
“What does that mean?”
Ryan exhaled.
“I thought maybe she had called somebody to pick her up.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“You do know.”
“I thought maybe she was trying to scare me.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Even after I told you she was in emergency surgery?”
“I didn’t believe you at first.”
Daniel stopped breathing for a second.
Ryan continued quickly.
“I do now.”
“That isn’t the point.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
Daniel lowered his voice because a nurse had glanced toward him.
“You walked into your empty house and saw blood, didn’t you?”
Ryan did not answer.
Daniel felt cold crawl over his skin.
“Ryan.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Kitchen.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know.”
“Enough to know she wasn’t pretending?”
“Yes.”
Daniel looked through the narrow window in Claire’s door.
She was asleep.
“You are going to tell her that.”
“Not tonight.”
“I know.”
May you like
“And not in some version where you call it confusion.”
Ryan’s breathing roughened.
