Chương 9
Tessa’s forehead wrinkled.
“She said somebody might stop by and I should stay upstairs if they did.”
“Did she say who?”
“No.”
“Did she tell you he had a key?”
“No.”
“Did she tell you he’d go into our room?”
“No.”
I rubbed my thumb over a scratch in the coffee table.
“You thought you were following her instructions.”
“I tried.”
“You did.”
“But I didn’t go upstairs.”
“That may have been safer.”
“Or not.”
She said it flatly.
I looked at her.
“Nine-year-olds are not supposed to make those calculations.”
“You keep saying what I’m not supposed to do.”
The resentment in her voice was small but real.
“Mom said I wasn’t supposed to call you.”
She looked at Miles asleep against Mrs. Alvarez’s shoulder.
“She said I wasn’t supposed to let him cry.”
Then back at me.
“The policeman says I’m not supposed to remember wrong.”
“He didn’t say that.”
“That’s what everybody means.”
I swallowed.
“What do you want us to mean?”
She stared at me for a while.
“I want somebody else to know what to do.”
I pulled her against me.
This time she came without resistance.
“I can do that.”
“Can you?”
There was no cruelty in it.
That made it worse.
“I’m going to try.”
She nodded against my chest.
“That’s what you said before.”
Shaw came back inside.
Her face told me enough before she spoke.
“We found something in Claire’s car.”
“What?”
“Blood.”
Tessa stiffened against me.
I looked at Shaw hard.
“Take this outside.”
She did not argue.
Mrs. Alvarez took Tessa’s hand.
I followed Shaw onto the porch and closed the door.
“How much?”
“A small amount on the passenger-side door panel.”
“Claire’s?”
“Unknown.”
“Could it be old?”
“Possible.”
“Was the photograph taken in that car?”
“We think so.”
“Why?”
“Interior stitching and door trim appear consistent.”
My mouth went dry.
“So whoever sent the photo was in the car.”
“Or had access to someone who was.”
“Same difference.”
“No.”
Her tone sharpened.
“Not the same difference.”
I looked out at my street.
A delivery driver pulled up three houses down and carried a box to a porch.
Somebody’s sprinkler clicked.
A dog barked behind a fence.
Every ordinary thing felt offensive.
“What about cameras at Lake Hefner?”
“We’re pulling what exists.”
“Parking lot cameras?”
“Not everywhere.”
“Road cameras?”
“Yes.”
“Then how did the car get there?”
“That’s what we’re tracing.”
“Do you have Daniel Caldwell’s picture?”
“Yes.”
“Show Tessa.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because we don’t contaminate a child witness by handing her the person we hope she identifies.”
“He may have been inside my house.”
“Exactly why we do it properly.”
I stepped away from her before I said something useless.
Shaw waited.
Then she said, “There’s more.”
I turned.
“The backpack wasn’t random.”
“What does that mean?”
“An item was missing.”
“You just said it had school stuff.”
“According to Tessa, what else was normally kept in the front pocket?”
I tried to picture it.
“Nothing important.”
“Tessa told Officer Palmer she sometimes kept a house key there.”
My stomach dropped.
“She doesn’t need one.”
“She said Claire gave it to her.”
“When?”
“Last month.”
“Why?”
“In case she ever got home before Claire.”
“She’s nine.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
The anger came fast.
“She rides the bus.”
“Grant.”
“She’s never supposed to be home alone.”
Shaw’s expression did not change.
“That is becoming relevant.”
I stared at her.
“Are you suggesting Claire planned this?”
“I’m saying we have indications she created contingencies you did not know about.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know.”
I walked to the porch steps and sat.
My knees had gone weak.
Claire had given Tessa a key without telling me.
Claire had been leaving her alone with Miles.
Claire had told her to hide from a man who had his own key anyway.
Every new fact made the marriage I thought I had look less like a marriage and more like a house I had entered through the wrong door.
Shaw sat on the railing, leaving space between us.
“Tell me about Claire with the kids.”
I looked up.
“What?”
“Before today.”
“She’s their mother.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“She packs lunches, loses permission slips, sings too loudly in the car, gets angry when Tessa leaves wet towels on the floor.”
I heard my voice getting rough.
“She cut grapes in half until Tessa was six because she was terrified she’d choke.”
I looked through the window.
Miles had woken and was pulling Mrs. Alvarez’s earring.
“She checks Miles’s breathing when he sleeps.”
Shaw said nothing.
“She’s not careless.”
“People can be careful in one part of life and reckless in another.”
“No.”
“Grant.”
“No.”
I stood.
“You don’t get to turn her into a category.”
“I’m not.”
“She left them.”
“Yes.”
“She left them more than once.”
“Apparently.”
“And I didn’t know.”
Shaw let the silence do what it did.
I hated her for that too.
Palmer opened the front door.
“Detective.”
His voice was different.
Shaw stood immediately.
“What?”
“We got a hit on Daniel Caldwell’s vehicle.”
“Where?”
“Northbound on Portland about twenty minutes ago.”
“With Claire?”
“Can’t tell.”
“Any units close?”
“Already moving.”
I stepped toward them.
“I’m coming.”
“No,” Shaw said.
“You know what I’m going to say.”
“And you know my answer.”
“That man may have my wife.”
“Which is why you are not driving into an active stop.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Keep your children safe.”
The phrase had become unbearable.
“I have been doing that.”
Shaw’s eyes held mine.
“Today suggests otherwise.”
The words struck harder than if she had shouted.
For an instant, I saw myself grabbing her.
I saw my fist closing.
I saw all fifteen years of controlling animals stronger than me collapse into one stupid second.
Instead I stepped backward.
“You’re right.”
She looked almost surprised.
“I was at work.”
My voice sounded distant.
“I thought their mother was here.”
“Grant—”
“I didn’t know.”
May you like
“I know.”
“That doesn’t change what happened.”
