Chương 7
“Did anyone touch the bottle before it was placed in there?”
Evelyn lifted one hand.
“I did.”
The officer’s mouth tightened.
“I didn’t know what it was.”
“That’s okay.”
“I picked it up with my apron.”
Reyes glanced at the younger officer.
“Note that.”
Nora finally spoke.
“That proves nothing.”
Her voice was hoarse.
Daniel looked at her.
“You recognize it.”
“I recognize a blue bottle.”
Lily whispered, “It’s the same one.”
Nora closed her eyes.
Reyes stepped between them again.
“Mr. Mercer, take Lily to the sitting room for a few minutes.”
Daniel’s first instinct was refusal.
Then he looked down at his daughter.
She was staring at the evidence bag as if the bottle might move on its own.
“All right.”
He guided her toward the adjoining room.
Several guests shifted aside to make space.
Daniel hated the way they looked at him.
Some with sympathy.
Some with curiosity.
Some with the alertness of people already deciding whom they believed.
Warren Kline came toward him.
“Daniel, if you need counsel tonight, call me.”
Daniel almost snapped that he did not need anything.
Instead he said, “Thank you.”
Warren lowered his voice.
“Don’t say more than you have to.”
“I’m not under investigation.”
“That isn’t what I said.”
Daniel stared at him.
Warren gave a small shrug.
“Everyone is under investigation until someone isn’t.”
Lily tugged Daniel’s hand.
He followed her to a sofa near the windows.
The room beyond the glass was black except for the reflection of the chandelier.
Daniel sat.
Lily climbed beside him and tucked both feet underneath her dress.
Her knees were trembling.
He placed his jacket over them.
She pushed it away.
“I’m not cold.”
“I know.”
He left the jacket between them anyway.
Across the doorway, Nora remained seated while Reyes spoke to her.
The blue bottle was now on a side table several feet away, still sealed inside the clear bag.
Daniel could not hear everything.
He caught fragments.
Prescription.
Access.
Kitchen.
Consent.
Nora answered quietly.
Lily leaned toward him.
“Is she going to jail?”
Daniel looked at his daughter.
“I don’t know.”
“She did something bad.”
“We don’t know exactly what happened yet.”
“I saw her.”
“I believe you saw something.”
Lily frowned.
“That’s different.”
“Yes.”
“Do you believe me?”
Daniel wished children would ask easier questions.
He rubbed his thumb against the edge of his phone.
“I believe you’re telling me what you remember.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
He almost smiled despite himself.
She had inherited that from him.
The refusal to accept a carefully constructed answer.
“Yes,” he said.
“I believe you.”
Lily leaned back against the sofa.
“Then why are you talking like maybe I’m wrong?”
“Because people can tell the truth and still miss part of what happened.”
She considered that.
“Like when I said Max broke the lamp.”
Daniel nodded.
Max was the neighbor’s dog.
“You said he knocked it over.”
“He did.”
“You left your jump rope around the lamp first.”
Lily looked offended.
“That was not important.”
“It became important.”
She folded her arms.
Daniel let the small disagreement sit there.
It was the first thing all evening that felt like their normal life.
Then Lily said, “Nora saw me.”
Daniel turned.
“When?”
“When she had the bottle.”
His body tightened.
“Did she say anything?”
Lily looked toward the dining room.
“She told me not to tell you.”
Daniel felt the room change around him though nobody else had moved.
“What exactly did she say?”
Lily’s eyebrows pulled together.
“She said it was grown-up medicine.”
“Anything else?”
“She said you would get mad.”
Daniel stared at the doorway.
Reyes was now standing.
Nora remained in the chair.
Her hands were clasped between her knees.
Daniel stood.
Lily caught his sleeve.
“Where are you going?”
“Right there.”
He pointed toward the doorway.
“You stay where I can see you.”
“I want to come.”
“Not this time.”
Her face tightened.
Daniel crouched.
“You already did the brave part.”
“I can still come.”
“I know.”
He kissed her forehead.
“That’s why I’m saying no.”
She did not like the answer, but she let go.
Daniel walked back into the dining room.
Reyes looked at him immediately.
“I asked you to give us a few minutes.”
“Lily remembered something.”
Nora’s head came up.
Daniel saw fear return before she could hide it.
Reyes noticed.
“What did she say?”
Daniel kept looking at Nora.
“She said Nora told her not to tell me about the bottle.”
Nora’s face collapsed for half a second.
Then she stood.
“That is not what happened.”
Reyes raised a hand.
“Stay seated.”
“No.”
“Nora.”
Daniel said her name quietly.
She looked at him.
He had known her long enough to recognize when she was lying.
Not because she had a tell.
Nora’s gift was the absence of tells.
When she lied in business, her face became cleaner, calmer, stripped of unnecessary movement.
This was different.
She looked cornered.
Daniel had seen that expression only once before.
Three years earlier, after Lily had fallen from a playground platform and stopped breathing for several seconds.
Nora had ridden with them to the hospital.
She had sat in the waiting room with both fists pressed against her mouth.
That same helpless fear was in her now.
Daniel hated what that resemblance did to his certainty.
“What happened?” he asked.
Nora shook her head.
“Not here.”
Reyes said, “Here is where you need to answer.”
Nora looked toward the guests.
Most were pretending not to listen.
Nobody was convincing.
“Not in front of them.”
Daniel laughed once.
“You stopped caring about that when you put something in my cup.”
“I didn’t put poison in your cup.”
The word settled over the room.
No one had used it so plainly before.
Daniel said, “Then what did you put in it?”
Nora stared at him.
Reyes stepped closer.
“That’s a question you should think carefully about before answering.”
Nora’s eyes flicked toward her.
May you like
“You’re not arresting me?”
“Not at this moment.”
