Chương 11
She recommended that Nora remain with a trusted adult away from Vanessa for the immediate future.
Louise volunteered before I could.
“She can stay with me.”
Nora looked at me quickly.
I saw fear flash across her face.
“No.”
I answered before anyone else could.
“She stays with me.”
Louise’s eyes narrowed.
“Ethan.”
“She thinks she’s being sent away.”
That stopped her.
Nora looked down.
Louise sat beside her.
“Oh, sweetheart.”
Nora’s lower lip trembled.
“You said I could stay at your house sometimes.”
“Sometimes.”
“Not because I’m bad?”
Louise took her hand.
“Never because you’re bad.”
Marisol crouched beside them.
“No one is sending you away.”
Nora looked at me.
“Promise?”
I hesitated.
Promises had become dangerous in that room.
I could not promise what police would do, what courts might decide, or whether our house would even be available tonight if officers searched it.
But I could promise something smaller.
“You will know where I am.”
She studied my face.
“Every day?”
“Every day.”
That seemed to satisfy her more than a grander promise would have.
Louise said she would take Nora home with her for the night if needed, but only if I came too.
I agreed.
Alvarez returned fifteen minutes later.
“We’re moving on the residence.”
“You got a warrant?”
“We have enough to seek one.
I’m not discussing the affidavit with you.”
“Can I go home?”
“No.”
“It’s my house.”
“Not while we’re securing evidence.”
I swallowed my frustration.
“Did you find Vanessa?”
“We found the car.”
“And?”
“She wasn’t in it.”
“Was the phone?”
He looked at me.
“Yes.”
“Anything else?”
“A device attached beneath the rear bumper.”
My stomach tightened.
“A tracker?”
“Appears to be.”
“Colin?”
“We don’t know.”
“Does Vanessa know?”
“Not yet.”
Alvarez’s phone vibrated.
He glanced at the screen.
His expression changed.
“What?”
He did not answer immediately.
Then he looked toward Ramirez, who had just entered the hallway.
“Get someone to the hotel possibilities near that car.”
Ramirez was already moving.
I stepped closer.
“What happened?”
Alvarez looked at me.
“The second phone in Vanessa’s car received a message.”
“What message?”
He hesitated.
Then he showed me a photograph sent to the device.
It had been taken less than ten minutes earlier.
Vanessa was visible through the window of a hotel room.
Beneath the image were five words.
You should have kept working.
For one second, nobody in the hallway moved.
Then Alvarez took the phone back and started issuing instructions with the clipped calm of someone who had no room left for speculation.
Ramirez was already on her radio.
I looked through the exam-room glass at Nora.
She was showing Louise how to fold the paper bracelet into something she claimed was a snake.
I wanted to keep staring at her because every adult problem outside that room seemed to grow teeth the moment I turned toward it.
Alvarez stepped closer.
“You stay here.”
“I’m going with you.”
“No.”
“My wife is being threatened.”
“And your daughter is six feet away.”
“She has Louise.”
“That is not the point.”
I felt anger rise again.
“You keep telling me what the point is.”
“Yes.”
His voice hardened for the first time.
“Because you are trying to become three people at once.”
I stared at him.
“You want to protect your daughter, confront your wife, and help us catch whoever is doing this.”
He lowered his voice.
“You cannot do all three at the same time without becoming a problem for all three.”
The accuracy of it made me hate him for about two seconds.
Then I looked at Nora again.
“Find Vanessa.”
“We’re trying.”
“Alive.”
Alvarez’s eyes changed.
“That’s the goal.”
I went back into the room.
Louise watched me close the door.
“What happened?”
“Nothing Nora needs to hear.”
Nora frowned.
“That means something bad happened.”
Louise gave me a look that said she blamed me for raising a child with functional pattern recognition.
I sat beside her.
“Police are looking for Vanessa.”
“Because she ran away?”
“Something like that.”
“Is she scared?”
I hesitated.
“Yes.”
Nora looked down at the paper snake.
“She gets scared when Colin calls.”
Louise and I both went still.
Marisol, who was standing at the counter finishing paperwork, turned carefully.
“Nora, what makes you say that?”
Nora shrugged.
“She talks different.”
“How?”
“She gets quiet.”
Marisol waited.
Nora twisted the paper between her fingers.
“Sometimes she locks the bathroom door.”
“Did she tell you who Colin was?”
“No.”
“Did you hear them talking?”
Nora nodded.
“When?”
“When Daddy went to Phoenix.”
That had been the trip from the archived recording.
“What did they say?”
Marisol asked.
Nora’s forehead creased.
“I don’t know all of it.”
“That’s okay.”
“He said she was getting soft.”
My stomach tightened.
“What else?”
Marisol asked.
Nora looked at me, then back at her.
“He said if she messed it up, he’d make sure Daddy knew what kind of person she really was.”
Louise closed her eyes briefly.
Nora continued.
“Then Vanessa said she didn’t care anymore.”
That was new.
“What happened after that?”
Marisol asked.
“She cried.”
“Did Colin stay?”
“No.”
“Did Vanessa say anything to you?”
Nora nodded.
“She said sometimes grown-ups make bad choices and then get stuck trying to hide them.”
Her voice changed slightly.
“She said hiding usually makes them worse.”
The hypocrisy of that nearly made me laugh.
Instead, I looked at the wall.
Marisol asked one more question.
“Did she ever tell you to keep secrets from your dad?”
Nora’s fingers stopped moving.
“Yes.”
My chest tightened.
“What kind?”
“She said the juice was private.”
“Anything else?”
Nora shook her head.
Then she whispered, “She said Daddy already lost Mommy and I shouldn’t make him lose another person.”
Louise made a sound under her breath.
I did not trust myself to speak.
Marisol ended the questions there.
She did not press Nora for details.
She redirected her toward the paper snake and asked whether it had a name.
May you like
“Kevin.”
“Why Kevin?”
