Chương 9
Morales switched subjects.
He asked Noah whether he wanted to tell him anything about dinner.
Noah looked at Emily.
She nodded.
He looked at Morales.
“Dad didn’t eat.”
Emily’s head turned.
Morales asked what he meant.
“He cut the chicken.”
Noah spoke slowly.
“But he didn’t really eat it.”
“You noticed that?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
Noah shrugged.
“Because he always tells me not to waste food.”
Emily felt cold despite the hospital blanket.
Morales asked whether Daniel drank anything.
“Coffee later.”
“What did he drink with dinner?”
Noah frowned.
“Nothing.”
Emily remembered a glass beside Daniel’s plate.
She had assumed it was water.
“Are you sure?”
Noah looked irritated.
“He had a glass, but he didn’t drink it.”
Morales wrote again.
Noah leaned forward.
“And he switched Mom’s glass.”
Emily stopped breathing.
The detective looked up.
“When?”
“When she went to get the vegetables.”
Emily stared at her son.
“What do you mean, switched?”
Noah looked suddenly unsure.
“He moved them.”
“Whose?”
“Yours and his.”
Emily gripped the blanket.
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
Noah recoiled.
The question came out accusing.
She saw it immediately.
“I’m sorry.”
He looked at the floor.
“I thought he gave you the one with more ice.”
Emily closed her eyes.
Of course he had.
Why would a ten-year-old interpret it as anything else?
Morales asked Noah to describe exactly what he saw.
Noah said Daniel picked up both glasses, set one near Emily’s plate, and placed the other beside himself.
Then he wiped the counter with a paper towel.
“Did he put anything in either glass?”
“I didn’t see.”
“Did he say anything?”
“No.”
“Did you drink from your own glass before you got sleepy?”
“Yes.”
Emily looked at him.
The room seemed to narrow.
If Noah had been drugged too, Daniel had not merely needed Emily unconscious.
He had needed his son unable to interfere.
Morales’s phone vibrated.
He checked the screen.
His expression changed only slightly.
Emily noticed anyway.
“What?”
Morales stood.
“I need to take this.”
“What happened?”
He hesitated.
Then he looked at Noah.
“I’ll be right outside.”
He stepped through the curtain.
Emily could hear his voice but not the words.
Noah stared at the opening.
“Something happened.”
Emily reached for him.
This time he did not take her hand.
A minute later Morales returned.
He closed the curtain fully behind him.
“Officers executed a safety search of the bedroom because of the firearm you reported.”
Emily waited.
“They found the gun where you said it would be.”
He paused.
“They also found a folder in the closet safe.”
Emily’s stomach tightened.
“What kind of folder?”
“Insurance documents.”
Noah looked between them.
Morales continued carefully.
“There appears to be a recently increased policy on you.”
Emily’s mouth went dry.
“How much?”
“Two million dollars.”
The hospital monitor in the next bay began beeping.
Someone pulled the neighboring curtain aside.
A nurse called for another blood pressure reading.
Emily heard every sound with painful clarity.
Morales’s voice seemed farther away.
“There is also a policy on Noah.”
Noah stared at him.
Emily could not speak.
Morales looked down once before finishing.
“One million dollars.”
Emily stared at Detective Morales as if the number might change if she waited long enough.
It did not.
Noah looked down at his hospital bracelet.
“One million?”
Morales pulled his chair closer but kept his voice level.
“That’s what the paperwork appears to show.”
Noah glanced at Emily.
“Am I worth a million dollars?”
Emily’s face twisted before she could stop it.
“No.”
The word came out wrong.
Noah flinched.
She reached for him.
“No, that’s not what I meant.”
He looked away.
Emily swallowed against the pain in her throat.
“You’re not a number.”
Noah rubbed at the adhesive over the blood draw.
Morales gave them several seconds before continuing.
“The policy doesn’t prove what happened tonight.”
Emily laughed once without humor.
“My husband drugged us, tried to choke me, and has insurance policies on both of us.”
“We don’t have toxicology back yet.”
“So we’re pretending?”
“No.”
Morales’s expression barely changed.
“We’re being precise.”
Emily hated the answer.
Then she understood why she needed him to keep giving answers like that.
Daniel would attack every mistake.
Every exaggeration.
Every word that could be bent.
Precision was not politeness now.
It was protection.
Emily looked toward Noah.
He had gone quiet in a way she recognized.
He sometimes did that after Daniel scolded him.
His body stayed in the room, but something inside him stepped backward.
Emily reached across the gap between the stretcher and his chair.
This time she did not try to take his hand.
She rested her palm on the edge of his seat instead.
After a few seconds, Noah hooked one finger around hers.
Morales closed his notebook.
“That’s enough for tonight unless something changes medically.”
Emily nodded.
“What happens to Daniel?”
“That depends on the evidence, witness statements, and what the prosecutor decides can be supported.”
“You saw my neck.”
“I did.”
“He was on top of me.”
“We have witness statements describing that.”
“Stallone saw him.”
“Yes.”
Emily stopped.
The detective waited.
She realized she was trying to make him promise certainty because she had none left.
“If he gets out?”
“We can talk about emergency protective orders.”
“Talk?”
Emily heard the anger rise.
Morales did too.
He did not respond defensively.
“I don’t want to tell you something is guaranteed when it isn’t.”
She hated that answer even more.
But she believed it.
Noah tightened his finger around hers.
“Can Dad come here?”
Morales looked at him.
“Not tonight.”
“You promise?”
“I can promise he is in police custody right now.”
Noah studied his face.
“You say stuff like Mom now.”
Morales raised an eyebrow.
“What stuff?”
“Careful stuff.”
Emily almost laughed.
Morales gave a tired half smile.
“Occupational hazard.”
Noah considered that.
Then he asked, “What’s an occupational hazard?”
Emily did laugh this time.
May you like
The sound hurt enough that she pressed a hand against her throat.
Noah smiled despite himself.
