Chương 2
The scraping stopped.
Daniel waited with one hand held slightly behind him, palm open toward Sophie without looking back.
Her fingers found his almost immediately.
Vanessa stayed near the bed, breathing through her mouth now, her red satin sleeve twisted where she had grabbed him.
Another faint sound came from behind the wardrobe, not a knock this time but the dull bump of weight shifting in a narrow space.
Daniel looked at Vanessa.
“Move away from the door.”
“It isn’t a door.”
Her mistake hung between them.
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
Vanessa closed hers for half a second.
Sophie whispered, “She told me nobody could hear him.”
Daniel turned so fast that Sophie startled.
“Him?”
Vanessa said, “Sophie.”
The warning in her voice was unmistakable.
Daniel stepped toward her.
“Say her name like that again and you leave this room.”
Vanessa stared at him, jaw working.
“You have no idea what you’re doing.”
“That seems to be the theme tonight.”
He pulled his phone from his pocket.
Vanessa’s alarm sharpened.
“What are you doing?”
“Calling the police.”
“No.”
She crossed the space between them before he had even unlocked the screen.
Daniel put his shoulder between her and Sophie.
Vanessa stopped inches from him.
“You cannot call them yet.”
“Watch me.”
“You’ll make everything worse.”
“For who?”
Vanessa looked toward the wardrobe.
That single glance decided it.
Daniel tapped the emergency call.
Vanessa caught his wrist.
He pulled free.
“Don’t touch me.”
“Daniel, listen.”
The line connected.
A dispatcher’s voice came through the speaker.
Daniel gave the address.
He heard himself say that a child had been restrained and threatened with a heated appliance, that there might be someone trapped behind a wall, that he did not know whether the person was armed or injured.
The words sounded impossible when spoken aloud.
Sophie clung harder to his hand when he mentioned the wall.
The dispatcher asked if everyone was currently safe.
Daniel looked at Vanessa.
“No.”
Vanessa flinched.
He was told not to approach the concealed space and not to confront anyone who might emerge.
Officers were being sent.
Daniel ended the call only after the dispatcher confirmed he should remain on the line if the situation changed.
Vanessa sank onto the edge of the bed.
For a moment she looked less like the woman who had held burning metal near a child and more like someone who had just watched a bridge collapse behind her.
“What did you do?” she whispered.
Daniel gave a short, disbelieving shake of his head.
“You’re asking me that?”
“You should have let me explain.”
“You had time.”
“You walked in at the worst possible second.”
“There was a better second for tying up Sophie?”
Vanessa pressed both hands against her temples.
“That isn’t how it started.”
Daniel almost answered, but Sophie pulled at him.
“Daddy, he needs water.”
The room changed again.
Daniel crouched.
“Who needs water?”
Sophie pointed toward the wardrobe.
“The man.”
“How do you know there’s a man?”
“I heard him.”
“When?”
She looked at Vanessa.
Vanessa said nothing.
Daniel touched Sophie’s shoulder gently.
“You can tell me.”
“Yesterday.”
Vanessa stood.
“That’s enough.”
Daniel did not raise his voice.
“Sit down.”
She froze.
Perhaps it was the tone.
Perhaps it was the approaching consequences she could already hear in her head.
She sat again.
Sophie leaned toward Daniel.
“I heard coughing when she put my toys away.”
Daniel looked at the wardrobes.
“What did Vanessa say?”
“She said it was pipes.”
“And then?”
“I heard him say help.”
Daniel’s stomach tightened.
“What did you do?”
“I asked her.”
Sophie rubbed one wrist with the other hand.
“She got mad.”
Vanessa said, “I did not get mad.”
Sophie recoiled into Daniel.
He looked over his shoulder.
Vanessa stopped speaking.
“Then I looked,” Sophie whispered.
“Where?”
She pointed at the left wardrobe, the one closest to the curtained windows.
“There’s a little thing.”
Daniel followed the line of her finger.
From where he stood, the wardrobes appeared built flush against the wall.
Dark walnut panels rose almost to the ceiling, each door fitted with narrow brass handles.
He had lived in the house for six years and had never seen anything behind them except clothes, storage boxes, and a cedar shelf Claire once complained smelled like an old church.
“What little thing?”
“A button.”
Vanessa stood again.
Daniel turned.
“No.”
“You need to stop asking her questions.”
“Why?”
“Because she is scared and confused.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because it’s true.”
Sophie stared at the floor.
Daniel noticed it and lowered his voice.
“Hey.”
She looked at him.
“You’re not in trouble.”
Her chin trembled.
“I broke Mommy’s pillow.”
Daniel glanced at the torn white pillow.
It had been Claire’s.
Not because it was special, at least not originally.
Claire had bought two identical pillows at a department store and complained for months that Daniel kept stealing hers in his sleep.
After she died, Sophie had asked for it because it still smelled like her mother’s shampoo.
By then Daniel could smell nothing on it except detergent.
He had let Sophie keep it anyway.
“That’s okay,” he said.
“I used the scissors.”
“That’s okay too.”
“They’re the pointy ones.”
Despite everything, Daniel almost smiled.
“Those are definitely going somewhere higher after tonight.”
Sophie considered this with solemn misery.
Then she leaned closer.
“I had to cut it because the card was inside.”
Daniel touched the inside pocket of his jacket.
“How did you know?”
Sophie’s eyes moved toward Vanessa again.
“She put it there.”
Vanessa made a sound of frustration.
“I did not.”
“I saw you.”
“When?”
“Last night.”
Vanessa’s face changed.
Daniel saw the moment she began searching for a version of events she might survive.
“Sophie was supposed to be asleep.”
Daniel stared at her.
It was not a denial.
Vanessa seemed to hear that too.
“I mean she thought she saw something.”
“You just said she was supposed to be asleep.”
“I checked on her.”
May you like
“With a memory card?”
Vanessa stood and walked toward the windows.
