Chương 13
“Can I ever use that again?”
“Probably.”
The word felt ridiculous enough to make Emily smile.
Tasha smiled too.
“Just not before we check some things.”
Noah yawned.
He tried to hide it behind his fist.
Emily saw how exhausted he was.
“What time is it?”
Tasha checked her watch.
“A little after one.”
Emily stared.
It felt impossible.
Dinner had been only six hours ago.
Her life had become unrecognizable in less time than a school day.
Noah leaned against the wall.
His eyes closed.
Emily patted the stretcher beside her.
“Come here.”
He shook his head.
“There’s room.”
“I’m fine.”
“Noah.”
He looked at her.
She softened her voice.
“Please.”
He stood and climbed onto the edge carefully.
Dr. Patel had said his hip appeared bruised but stable.
He settled beside Emily without touching her neck.
For a minute he sat rigidly.
Then his head found her shoulder.
Emily rested her cheek against his hair.
The television still showed the cooking program.
The pie was gone.
Now someone was chopping onions.
Noah watched with half-closed eyes.
“They’re cutting them wrong.”
Emily looked up.
“You suddenly know how to cut onions?”
“Dad says you tuck your fingers.”
The sentence landed between them.
Noah stiffened as if he had made a mistake.
Emily looked at the television.
The host’s fingertips were indeed curled inward.
“He was right about that.”
Noah turned toward her.
Emily took a slow breath.
“Bad people can know how to cut onions.”
Noah stared at her for a second.
Then he laughed.
It was the strangest sound of the night.
A real laugh.
Short and tired and surprised.
Emily laughed too, carefully because of her throat.
Tasha smiled from across the room.
Morales looked down at his notes and pretended not to.
Noah eventually fell asleep against Emily’s arm.
She stayed awake.
The hospital changed around them as the night deepened.
A crying toddler passed the bay in his father’s arms.
Someone argued quietly about insurance at the desk.
A vending machine thumped when a bottle dropped.
A janitor returned with the yellow mop bucket.
Emily watched him clean a dark mark from the floor until it disappeared.
Around two, Morales came back with coffee.
He offered one to Tasha.
Emily shook her head when he looked toward her.
The smell made her think of Daniel.
Morales noticed.
He set his cup farther away.
“Something else came in.”
Emily looked down at Noah.
His breathing remained slow.
“What?”
“The prescription bottle from your kitchen had enough adhesive residue for the lab technician to recover part of the pharmacy label.”
Emily’s heart began beating faster.
“Name?”
“Not yet.”
“Medication?”
“It appears consistent with the drug found in your preliminary screen.”
Emily closed her eyes.
Morales continued quietly.
“There’s also a partial prescription number.”
“Can you trace it?”
“We’ll request the pharmacy records.”
“Tonight?”
“The request starts tonight.”
“And then?”
“We see whose prescription it was.”
Emily looked at him.
“You think it’s Carol’s.”
“I think we verify it.”
Emily nodded.
Precision.
She was beginning to understand the discipline of it.
Morales opened his notebook.
“There’s another issue.”
Of course there was.
Emily waited.
“The insurance documents list Daniel as primary beneficiary.”
“That’s normal.”
“For your policy, yes.”
“And Noah’s?”
“Also Daniel.”
Emily frowned.
“He’s Noah’s father.”
Morales nodded.
“The amount and timing are what we’ll look at.”
“When was Noah’s policy changed?”
“Six weeks ago.”
Emily felt sick again.
“Mine?”
“Same period.”
She stared at the hospital floor.
Six weeks.
Daniel had taken her out to dinner around then.
Not a special occasion.
He said they needed to reconnect.
He ordered a bottle of wine even though they rarely drank.
He apologized for being stressed.
He talked about taking Noah camping before school started.
Emily had gone home believing things might improve.
The memory now felt contaminated by information that had not existed for her then.
She hated that too.
Daniel was reaching backward into good memories and changing them.
Morales asked whether she signed anything six weeks earlier.
“The papers I told you about.”
“Do you remember how many?”
“Maybe five pages.”
“Did anyone witness the signature?”
“No.”
“Electronic or paper?”
“Paper.”
“Where?”
“At home.”
“Did Daniel give you the full packet?”
“No.”
Morales wrote.
Emily looked at Noah’s sleeping face.
“Could he have changed the amount after I signed?”
“We don’t know.”
“Could he forge it?”
“We’ll examine the documents.”
“You say that like it’s easy.”
“It isn’t.”
Emily almost smiled.
Another careful answer.
Her anger was becoming tired.
“What happens if Carol’s prescription matches?”
Morales closed the notebook.
“We ask how Daniel got it.”
“And if she says she doesn’t know?”
“Then we look for evidence.”
“If she lies?”
“We look for evidence.”
“If everyone lies?”
Morales looked toward the curtain.
“Then evidence matters more.”
Emily sat with that.
Noah shifted against her and murmured something she could not understand.
She pulled the blanket over his legs.
A nurse entered with the results of Noah’s additional bloodwork.
The sedative level was consistent with recent ingestion, but his vital signs were stable.
They wanted to observe him for several more hours.
Emily nodded.
The nurse asked whether she needed anything.
Emily almost said no.
Then she stopped.
“Yes.”
The nurse waited.
“Water.”
“Absolutely.”
It felt strange to ask.
Even stranger when someone brought it without demanding an explanation.
Emily drank slowly because swallowing hurt.
Halfway through the cup, Morales’s phone buzzed again.
He checked it.
Emily saw the familiar shift in his eyes.
“What?”
Morales read the message once more.
“The patrol supervisor says Daniel has retained an attorney.”
Emily waited.
“That was fast.”
“Yes.”
“Carol?”
“We don’t know.”
Emily looked at the sleeping boy beside her.
“What does that change?”
“He may stop answering questions.”
“He was answering?”
“Not much.”
“So nothing changes.”
“Not necessarily.”
Morales hesitated.
Emily recognized that hesitation now as a warning.
“What?”
“His attorney contacted the department with an allegation.”
Emily’s fingers tightened around the paper cup.
May you like
“What allegation?”
Morales looked at Noah before answering.
