Chương 5
For the first time since the police arrived, Elena looked directly at her.
“What happens now?”
“That depends on what we find and what Leo says when he’s ready to say it.”
“Will she come back tonight?”
“No.”
Elena exhaled.
It sounded embarrassingly close to relief.
Collins opened the notebook again.
“Has Mrs. Mercer ever told you not to enter Leo’s room?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
Elena thought.
“Three days ago.”
“Why?”
“She said he needed to learn independence.”
“At six?”
“She said I babied him.”
“What did you do?”
“I stayed out.”
“Entirely?”
Elena hesitated.
“No.”
A slight change passed through Collins’s expression.
“What did you do?”
“I checked on him after she went downstairs.”
“Did you notice anything unusual?”
Elena’s mind returned to the darkened bedroom, Leo curled beneath his comforter despite the August heat.
“There was a chair against the door.”
“On which side?”
“Inside.”
Collins’s pen stopped again.
“Was that normal?”
“No.”
“Did you ask him why it was there?”
“He pretended to be asleep.”
“Pretended?”
“I’ve put that boy to bed enough times to know the difference.”
Collins wrote for several seconds.
“What happened to the chair?”
“I moved it back to the desk.”
“Did Mrs. Mercer know?”
“I don’t know.”
The detective’s phone vibrated against the table.
She checked the screen, stood, and stepped toward the pantry.
Elena could hear only fragments of the call.
Hospital.
Photographs.
Father consenting.
No immediate danger.
The words made her chest tighten anyway.
When Collins returned, her expression had become more formal.
“Mr. Mercer is taking Leo to be examined.”
Elena stood too quickly.
The chair legs scraped the floor.
“Is something wrong?”
“Routine precaution.”
“Because of his arm?”
“And because of the concerns you reported.”
Elena looked toward the ceiling.
“Should I go with them?”
“That’s up to Mr. Mercer.”
A second officer appeared in the kitchen doorway.
“Detective.”
Collins walked to him.
They spoke quietly.
Elena caught Victoria’s name.
Then the phrase attorney is here.
The house seemed suddenly too large for all the people inside it.
A place built for entertaining now contained strangers opening doors, photographing stairs, asking who slept where.
Elena thought of tomorrow morning.
There would be cereal bowls.
Laundry.
Coffee.
Leo’s shoes near the mudroom.
Ordinary things seemed impossible and inevitable at the same time.
Arthur came downstairs carrying Leo again.
The boy had changed into a navy sweatshirt over his checkered shirt.
Arthur had apparently removed his tie.
His shirt collar stood open, and one sleeve was rolled higher than the other.
Elena had never seen him look less put together.
Leo saw her and lifted one hand.
“Elena.”
She crossed the kitchen.
“How are you feeling?”
He shrugged against Arthur’s shoulder.
“My hand stings.”
“We’re going to have someone look at it,” Arthur said.
His tone was calmer now, but Elena could see how carefully he was controlling it.
Leo looked at her.
“You’re coming back?”
Elena glanced at Arthur.
Arthur’s face tightened.
“Of course she is.”
Elena looked at him.
He seemed to hear the certainty in his own answer.
“Unless,” he added, “unless you want to go home tonight.”
Elena almost laughed.
“Mr. Mercer, my purse is still upstairs.”
“Right.”
“I’m not leaving without my purse.”
Leo smiled faintly.
It was the first hint of a smile Elena had seen since the staircase.
Arthur looked at him as though the expression were evidence of survival.
Collins approached from behind them.
“Mr. Mercer, before you leave, I need a minute.”
Arthur shifted Leo higher.
“Can it wait?”
“Not this.”
His eyes hardened again.
Elena started to step away.
Collins shook her head.
“You may want Mrs. Alvarez to stay.”
Arthur frowned.
“Why?”
“We found something in Leo’s room.”
Leo went rigid against him.
Arthur felt it immediately.
“What?”
Collins looked at the boy.
“Maybe we should speak out of earshot.”
Arthur’s jaw tightened.
“No.”
Elena understood the refusal.
He was afraid of leaving Leo even six feet away.
Collins seemed to understand too.
“Elena can stay with him.”
Leo grabbed Arthur’s shirt.
“No.”
Arthur lowered his voice.
“I’m right here.”
“No.”
Collins looked toward the hall.
“We can do this later.”
Arthur closed his eyes briefly.
“No.”
He carried Leo to the breakfast nook, sat him on his lap, and nodded toward Elena.
She sat beside them.
Arthur kept one arm around his son.
“Tell me.”
Collins remained standing.
“An officer photographed a section of wall behind Leo’s desk.”
Arthur stared at her.
“And?”
“There are pencil marks.”
Leo buried his face against Arthur’s chest.
Arthur’s hand moved to the back of his head.
“What kind of marks?”
“Dates.”
Arthur did not answer.
“And numbers.”
Elena felt cold spread through her arms.
Collins continued carefully.
“Some appear to correspond to days of the week.”
Arthur looked down at Leo.
“Buddy?”
Leo said nothing.
Arthur did not press.
Collins reached into a folder but did not remove anything.
“There are also initials.”
“Whose?”
“V.”
Arthur’s face changed.
Elena looked away.
“What do the numbers mean?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Arthur’s voice became rough.
“How many?”
Collins hesitated.
“Twenty-seven entries.”
Arthur stopped breathing for a moment.
Leo remained pressed against him.
The kitchen refrigerator hummed.
Someone outside rolled a trash bin down the neighboring driveway, its wheels knocking steadily over cracks in the pavement.
Arthur finally asked, “How far back?”
“The oldest date we can make out is seven months ago.”
He looked physically struck.
Victoria had moved into the house nine months ago.
Their wedding had been six months ago.
Elena saw Arthur make the connection.
He leaned back in the chair as if balance had become uncertain.
“Seven months.”
Collins nodded.
Arthur stared across the kitchen.
There was a framed photograph on the counter near the coffee machine.
He and Victoria stood beside Leo at the courthouse after the wedding ceremony, all three smiling toward someone outside the frame.
Leo wore a small gray suit.
Victoria had one hand resting on his shoulder.
May you like
Arthur turned the photograph facedown.
The movement was so abrupt that Leo looked up.
