Chương 5
Mark said nothing.
Denise continued.
“It was in the dishwasher.”
“That means nothing.”
“By itself, no.”
She looked at him carefully.
“They also observed multiple medication bottles in a kitchen cabinet, including one prescription that is not in your name or Natalie’s.”
Mark’s brow tightened.
“Whose name?”
“Karen Bell.”
I recognized it before he did.
“Natalie’s mother.”
Mark looked at me.
His confusion gave way slowly.
“Karen had surgery last year.”
Denise nodded.
“Do you know whether she stays at your home?”
“Sometimes.”
“Does she leave medication there?”
“I don’t know.”
I thought of something Lily had said months earlier at my house.
Grandma Karen sleeps funny.
At the time I had assumed the child meant snoring.
I asked Denise what prescription the officers found.
“I don’t have confirmation on the exact medication yet.”
Mark reached for his phone again.
This time Denise stopped him.
“You should know something else before you make any calls.”
He froze.
She took a breath.
“Natalie told the responding officers that Karen was the person who first suggested giving Lily medication at night.”
Mark stared at her.
Then he laughed once, sharply.
“Of course she did.”
Denise did not react.
“She claims her mother told her it was safe.”
“And that makes it okay?”
“No.”
“Where is Karen?”
“Officers are trying to contact her.”
Mark looked toward Lily’s room.
For several seconds, the anger in his face changed direction.
Then Denise added the part none of us expected.
“Natalie also said she did not give Lily the medication every time.”
I felt cold despite the overheated hallway.
Mark turned back.
“What does that mean?”
Denise’s expression remained controlled, but her voice softened.
“She said there were nights when someone else prepared Lily’s drink.”
Mark stopped breathing.
“Who?”
Denise looked directly at him.
“She said you did.”
Mark stared at Denise as if the hallway had tilted under him.
“That’s a lie.”
Denise did not move.
“I wasn’t there.”
“She says there were evenings when you mixed something into Lily’s drink because you believed it was melatonin.”
“I have never put anything in that kid’s juice.”
His voice carried farther than he intended.
The security officer at the desk looked up again.
Mark lowered it.
“I gave her children’s chewable melatonin twice last winter when she had the flu and couldn’t sleep.”
Denise opened her notebook.
“Was that prescribed?”
“No.”
“Did Natalie ask you to give it to her?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“I don’t remember.”
“You need to try.”
Mark turned away.
“It was months ago.”
I could see the trap closing around him, not because Denise was trying to trap him, but because ordinary family details had suddenly become evidence.
He had given his daughter something for sleep.
Natalie had said he helped with the drinks.
Those two facts did not mean the same thing.
They looked close enough from across a desk.
“Was it in juice?” Denise asked.
“No.”
“How did you give it?”
“A gummy.”
“Did you see the packaging?”
“Yes.”
“What did it look like?”
Mark’s face tightened.
“Purple label.”
“Brand?”
“I don’t know.”
“Dose?”
“I don’t know.”
Denise wrote something down.
Mark watched the pen.
“You believe her.”
“I haven’t said what I believe.”
“You wrote it down.”
“That’s my job.”
He laughed again, quieter this time.
“Great.”
The door to Lily’s room opened and Priya stepped out.
“She’s asking for you.”
Mark immediately moved toward the room.
Denise stopped him with one question.
“Did Natalie ever tell you she was leaving the house after Lily went to sleep?”
“No.”
He answered without hesitation.
Then he went inside.
I stayed with Denise.
“What happens now?”
“That depends on several things.”
“There has to be something more useful than that.”
Her expression changed slightly.
Not anger.
Fatigue.
“Mr. Whitaker, everyone wants one sentence that tells them what happens next.”
She tucked the notebook into her bag.
“Usually there isn’t one.”
I looked through the glass.
Lily had shifted over in the bed to make room for Mark, though the mattress was barely wide enough.
He sat beside her with one hip hanging off the edge while she peeled the foil lid from a second applesauce cup.
“Does Natalie get arrested?”
“I don’t know.”
“Does Mark lose Lily because Natalie accused him too?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s convenient.”
Denise looked at me.
“No, it’s difficult.”
I regretted the remark before she finished saying it.
She had probably spent her entire workday being blamed for not knowing the ending to other people’s disasters.
“I’m sorry.”
She nodded once.
Then my phone rang.
The number was unfamiliar.
I nearly ignored it.
Something stopped me.
“Hello?”
For a moment there was only breathing.
Then Karen Bell said my name.
“Richard?”
Her voice was thin and shaky.
I moved away from Denise.
“Karen.”
“Where’s Lily?”
“At the hospital.”
“Oh, God.”
“Where are you?”
“At home.”
“Police are looking for you.”
“I know.”
She began crying.
Not loudly.
Just little broken breaths that made me press the phone harder against my ear.
“Karen, did you give Natalie medication for Lily?”
“No.”
The answer came quickly.
Too quickly.
“Did you tell her to sedate Lily?”
“No.”
“Then why did Natalie tell the police you did?”
“I don’t know.”
“You do know.”
“I told her about melatonin.”
“That isn’t what they found.”
Silence.
I looked over at Denise.
She was watching me now.
“Karen.”
Another breath.
“She took some of my pills.”
My stomach tightened.
“What pills?”
“I didn’t give them to her.”
“What pills?”
“Zolpidem.”
The name meant nothing to me for half a second.
Then it did.
A prescription sleep medication.
The second compound the pediatrician had mentioned.
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
“How many, Karen?”
“I had a bottle after surgery because I couldn’t sleep.”
Her voice sharpened defensively.
“It was prescribed to me.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“I noticed some missing months ago.”
“And you said nothing?”
“I asked Natalie.”
“What did she say?”
May you like
“She said I must have misplaced them.”
I closed my eyes.
