Chương 9
“The common substances included on a routine screen were not detected today.”
“When was the last possible exposure?”
“Yesterday?” I looked at Nora.
She shook her head.
“No.”
“The last time Daddy went away.”
That had been twelve days earlier.
The doctor nodded.
“Then a negative result today tells us very little about what she may have received then.”
“Can you test the bottle if we find it?”
“Depending on what it contains, yes.
Law enforcement would likely handle that through an appropriate lab.”
Alvarez, listening from the doorway, spoke.
“We’ve requested consent to search the residence.”
I turned toward him.
“Requested from who?”
“You and Mrs. Blake are both occupants.”
“You have mine.”
“We do.”
“What about hers?”
“She declined.”
That did not surprise me.
“What happens now?”
“We decide whether the evidence supports seeking a warrant.”
“How long?”
Alvarez’s mouth tightened.
“As long as it takes.”
My phone buzzed.
A message from Vanessa.
Please come home alone.
I showed it to Alvarez.
He read it.
“She knows you’re here?”
“She knows I never flew.”
“Do not go.”
A second message arrived.
There is something in the house Colin cannot know I kept.
Alvarez took a breath.
Then a third.
If police find it first, he will know I talked.
I looked at him.
“She’s scared of him.”
“That may be true.”
“You don’t sound convinced.”
“I sound like somebody who has heard scared people lie.”
I stared at the screen.
Then Vanessa called.
Alvarez shook his head.
I answered anyway.
“Ethan.”
Her voice broke on my name.
I had never heard her sound like that.
Not once.
“Where are you?”
“You know where.”
“I need you to listen before you decide what I am.”
“That decision is not your biggest problem.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
She breathed unevenly.
Then she said, “The drops weren’t what Colin told me they were.”
Every muscle in my body tightened.
“What were they?”
“I don’t know.”
“You gave them to Nora without knowing?”
“I was told they were a stimulant supplement that would clear quickly.”
I stood.
Louise looked at me.
Vanessa began crying, but she kept speaking.
“I know how that sounds.”
“No, Vanessa.
You don’t.”
“I stopped.”
“Twelve days ago you didn’t stop.”
Silence.
Then she whispered, “That was the last time.”
“How generous.”
“I was trying to get enough evidence to make Colin believe I was still doing what he wanted.”
“You used my daughter as evidence.”
“I know.”
“No.
You keep saying that.”
My voice cracked.
“You do not know what that means.”
“I know she was shaking.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“You watched her shake.”
“Yes.”
“And recorded it.”
“Yes.”
“And then you put her to bed.”
Vanessa made a sound I could not identify.
“I sat outside her room until morning.”
I pressed my knuckles against my mouth.
“That isn’t redemption.”
“I didn’t say it was.”
For the first time, she sounded almost like herself.
Then she lowered her voice.
“There’s a flash drive taped under the bottom drawer of the desk in the guest room.”
Alvarez was already writing.
“What’s on it?”
“Transfers.
Messages.
Audio.
Names.”
“Colin’s?”
“Yes.”
“Why keep it in our house?”
“Because he searched my apartment after I met you.”
I looked at Alvarez.
Vanessa continued.
“I thought if I ever had to run, I needed something he couldn’t afford to let become public.”
“Why didn’t you use it?”
“Because some of it incriminates me.”
There it was.
Not nobility.
Not sacrifice.
Self-preservation woven through fear.
“How much does it incriminate you?”
“Enough.”
“And Nora?”
A long pause.
“What about her?”
“Did Colin tell you to drug her?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
“Then whose idea was it?”
Vanessa began to cry again.
This time I waited.
When she finally spoke, her voice was almost inaudible.
“Mine.”
I stared at the phone because for one insane second I thought I had misunderstood her.
“You decided to drug a six-year-old.”
“I decided to make the episodes believable.”
Her answer came stripped of excuses.
That made it worse.
I walked out of the exam room before Nora could hear my voice.
Alvarez followed me into the hallway.
Vanessa said, “Colin wanted medical documentation.”
“You gave him that.”
“No.”
“You gave him videos.”
“I gave him what I thought would keep him away from the next step.”
“What next step?”
She went quiet.
“Vanessa.”
“He wanted a diagnosis.”
“What diagnosis?”
“Anything that supported long-term placement.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“What does that mean?”
“He wanted Nora out of the house.”
Alvarez’s expression sharpened.
“Why?”
I asked.
“Because if she was placed somewhere for treatment, he thought you would be easier to push toward selling the property.”
The fluorescent lights above me buzzed faintly.
“You thought that was better?”
“No.”
“You just said you created the episodes instead.”
“I thought if I gave him enough to believe things were moving, I could delay everything.”
“You hurt her to buy time.”
“Yes.”
The word came out small.
I leaned against the wall because my knees had started to feel unreliable.
“You could have told me.”
“I know.”
“You could have gone to police.”
“I know.”
“You could have left.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that.”
Alvarez lifted a hand, asking silently for the phone.
I shook my head.
Not yet.
Vanessa breathed on the other end.
“I was afraid if I ran, Colin would send you everything from before.”
“What everything?”
“The complaints.
The money.
The recordings of me recruiting people.”
“And that mattered more than Nora?”
“No.”
“Your actions say otherwise.”
She did not defend herself.
That silence was the first honest thing she had given me all day.
“What did you use?” I asked.
“The drops.”
“I told you.
I don’t know exactly.”
“Where did you get them?”
“Colin gave me bottles at first.”
“You said it was your idea.”
“The method was mine.”
I closed my eyes.
May you like
“He told me he needed behavioral proof.
I said I could create short episodes.”
