Chương 4
He squinted against the light.
Then his eyes found Daniel.
For several seconds he simply stared.
When he finally spoke, his voice was barely more than breath.
“You’re Claire’s husband.”
Daniel felt Sophie’s fingers tighten around his hand.
The man looked at Vanessa.
Fear moved visibly across his bruised face.
“She knows who killed your wife.”
The room seemed to contract around the sentence.
Daniel looked at Vanessa, but she was staring at the injured man as if his words had physically struck her.
The first officer moved into the concealed space and cut the bindings from the man’s wrists.
His partner spoke into a shoulder radio, requesting paramedics and another unit.
Sophie buried her face against Daniel’s jacket.
He kept one hand over the back of her head.
“Who are you?” he asked.
The man tried to stand and failed.
The officer caught him under one arm.
“Easy.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine.”
The man gave a weak laugh that immediately became a cough.
When he lifted his face again, Daniel saw bruising around his left eye and a split in his lower lip.
“I’m Ethan Cole.”
Vanessa looked toward the bedroom door.
The second officer noticed.
“Ma’am, stay where you are.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Good.”
Ethan’s eyes moved to Daniel’s jacket pocket.
“Do you have the card?”
Vanessa said, “Don’t answer him.”
Daniel turned to her.
She stopped.
Ethan closed his eyes briefly.
“So she found it.”
Daniel felt Sophie move against him.
“Found what?”
“The recording.”
Ethan looked toward Sophie, then back to Daniel.
“I hid it where I thought Vanessa wouldn’t look.”
Sophie lifted her face.
“In Mommy’s pillow?”
Ethan’s expression changed when he saw her.
“Yes.”
“How did you get in my room?”
The question was so ordinary that for a second nobody answered.
Ethan looked ashamed.
“Through there.”
He pointed toward the concealed opening.
Sophie stared at it.
Daniel’s stomach turned.
The hidden passage connected directly to his daughter’s room.
He looked at Vanessa.
“How long have you known he could get in here?”
Vanessa rubbed her arms.
“Not long.”
“That’s not an answer.”
The officer nearest her said, “Sir, let us handle the questions.”
Daniel nodded once.
He knew the officer was right.
His body did not seem interested in knowing it.
A paramedic appeared in the doorway carrying a red medical bag, followed by another.
The room became crowded quickly.
One paramedic knelt beside Ethan while the other looked at Sophie’s wrists.
Daniel hesitated when she approached.
“I’m just going to check her.”
Sophie tightened against him.
“Can Daddy stay?”
“He can stay right there.”
Daniel crouched beside her while the paramedic examined the marks.
The woman had gentle hands and a practical voice.
“Can you wiggle your fingers for me?”
Sophie did.
“Any tingling?”
Sophie looked at Daniel.
“She means do your fingers feel funny.”
“A little.”
“Okay.”
The paramedic checked circulation and asked how long her wrists had been tied.
Sophie did not know.
Vanessa said, “Maybe ten minutes.”
Daniel looked at her.
Vanessa looked away.
The paramedic did not comment.
She simply wrote something on a tablet.
From across the room, Ethan said, “Longer.”
Vanessa’s head snapped toward him.
“You weren’t even out here.”
“I could hear.”
“You could hear everything?”
“Enough.”
The officer raised a hand.
“Nobody talk to each other right now.”
That instruction produced an immediate and uncomfortable silence.
Daniel watched Sophie’s fingers open and close.
The skin around her wrists was red but unbroken.
The paramedic said she should be evaluated at the hospital, especially because of the threat involving the heated device.
Vanessa scoffed softly.
“There was no burn.”
Daniel turned.
The paramedic looked at her too.
Vanessa lifted both hands.
“I’m stating a fact.”
The first officer stepped between them.
“Ma’am, I need you to come with me into the hallway.”
“Am I under arrest?”
“Right now I’m separating everyone while we figure out what happened.”
“I want my attorney.”
“That’s your right.”
Vanessa looked at Daniel.
For the first time that night, she seemed to be asking him for something without saying it.
He did not know whether it was loyalty, silence, or simple recognition.
He gave her none of them.
She walked into the hallway with the officer.
Daniel listened to her footsteps fade toward the stairs.
Only after she was gone did Sophie’s shoulders lower slightly.
Daniel noticed.
The paramedic noticed too.
Neither said anything.
Ethan sat on the floor while the second paramedic cleaned the dried blood near his temple.
“You need stitches,” the paramedic told him.
“Later.”
“Not really optional.”
Ethan looked at Daniel.
“I need to tell him something first.”
“You can tell the police.”
“I tried that once.”
The officer standing near the wardrobe frowned.
“When?”
Ethan glanced toward the hallway.
“Three weeks ago.”
“Which department?”
“County.”
The officer took out a notebook.
“Who did you speak with?”
“I don’t know his name.”
“That’s helpful.”
Ethan smiled faintly despite himself.
“I was having a bad day.”
The officer did not smile back.
Daniel almost did, which made him feel guilty.
Sophie was still holding his hand.
He looked down at her.
“Would you go downstairs with the paramedic?”
“No.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“No.”
Her eyes went toward Ethan.
“He knows about Mommy.”
Daniel understood.
He wished she did not.
A six-year-old should have been thinking about breakfast cereal or whether she could wear mismatched socks.
Instead she was deciding whether to leave a room because a bruised stranger might know why her mother died.
Daniel stood.
“She stays with me.”
The officer looked like he might object.
Then he saw Sophie’s face and changed his mind.
“Fine, but keep her away from the opening.”
Daniel guided her toward a chair near the window.
He sat and pulled her onto his lap.
The curtains moved slightly from the air-conditioning vent.
Outside, blue and red lights flashed across the neighboring houses.
May you like
Someone across the street had stepped onto a porch.
Daniel could see a silhouette behind a railing.
