Chương 9
“You were at a hotel?”
“No.”
Margaret shook her head.
“I was at the pharmacy across the street.”
She swallowed.
“I saw Ryan come out of the side entrance with a woman.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“What woman?”
“Dark hair.”
Margaret closed her eyes briefly.
“Maybe forty.”
Claire almost laughed at the uselessness of the description and hated herself for it.
“Were they touching?”
Margaret looked at her daughter.
“Yes.”
Claire turned away.
The kitchen suddenly felt too bright.
The stainless steel appliances, the polished stone, the bowl of lemons Diane had arranged that morning, all of it seemed indecently clean.
“You should have told me.”
“I know.”
Claire pressed her fingertips to her forehead.
“You knew for three months.”
“I wasn’t sure what I saw.”
“You just said they were touching.”
“He had his hand on her back.”
“That is not exactly ambiguous.”
Margaret flinched.
Claire immediately regretted the sharpness.
She did not apologize.
Not yet.
Margaret looked toward the dining room where Diane was still speaking with Officer Bell.
“I thought maybe I was wrong.”
The answer stopped Claire.
Margaret continued quietly.
“By then everybody had been telling me I was wrong about so many things.”
Claire lowered her hand.
The anger remained, but its direction changed.
Margaret rubbed the edge of her cardigan.
“I kept thinking perhaps I had confused him with someone else.”
“Ryan?”
“I know.”
A sad smile touched her mouth and vanished.
“I have known his face for fifteen years.”
Claire sat beside her.
For a few seconds, neither woman spoke.
Daniel picked up the fallen grocery bag from near the doorway.
One carton of eggs had cracked inside.
He stared at the leaking cardboard.
“This is probably not the important emergency.”
Margaret looked at it.
“No.”
Daniel carried the bag to the sink anyway.
Claire watched him remove the groceries one by one because there was nothing else he could do with his hands.
A loaf of bread.
Milk.
Coffee.
A package of chicken.
Ordinary things Claire had expected to put away before asking her mother what she wanted for dinner.
The normality hurt.
Martinez returned from the dining room.
He looked first at Margaret.
“Ms. Ellis, are you comfortable continuing?”
“Yes.”
Elena touched Margaret’s shoulder.
“Her pressure is still high.”
Martinez nodded.
“We can keep this short and continue later.”
Margaret shook her head.
“I want it said while I can say it.”
Claire looked at her.
Margaret added, “And before anyone decides I’m confused.”
No one answered.
Martinez pulled a chair from the breakfast nook and sat a few feet away.
“Tell me about the bank transfer notice.”
Margaret described finding it in the mail that morning.
She explained calling Diane because Diane had offered for months to help her with financial paperwork.
She described Diane arriving within twenty minutes.
Claire noticed that detail.
“So she came quickly.”
Margaret nodded.
“She always came quickly when money was involved.”
Martinez wrote something down.
“What happened after she arrived?”
“She told me the notice was probably routine.”
“Did she read it?”
“Yes.”
“Then?”
“She asked me to give it to her.”
“Why?”
“She said she would call the bank for me.”
“Did you give it to her?”
“No.”
Margaret glanced toward the trash bin.
“I told her I was going there myself.”
“What did Ms. Mercer do?”
“She blocked the garage door.”
Claire inhaled.
This was new.
Martinez looked up.
“Physically blocked it?”
“Yes.”
“She stood in front of it?”
“Yes.”
“Did she threaten you?”
Margaret hesitated.
“Not exactly.”
“What did she say?”
“She said if I went to the bank in my state, someone might take my driver’s license.”
Claire stared at Diane’s purse.
Daniel whispered, “That’s sick.”
Martinez glanced at him.
Daniel raised both hands.
“Sorry.”
Margaret went on.
“She said people my age could lose independence very quickly if they behaved irrationally.”
Claire’s stomach twisted.
“Did you believe her?”
Margaret gave a small, embarrassed nod.
“For about five minutes.”
“What changed?”
“I asked her what amount was transferred.”
Martinez waited.
“She answered before looking at the notice again.”
Margaret’s voice steadied.
“She said twenty-five thousand.”
Claire remembered Margaret mentioning that clue earlier.
Martinez nodded.
“So you believed she already knew about the transfer.”
“Yes.”
“What happened then?”
“I told her to leave.”
“Did she?”
“No.”
Margaret glanced at her reddened wrist.
“She tried to take the paper.”
Martinez looked at the marks.
“And the physical struggle began there?”
“Yes.”
“She got it from me.”
“How?”
“She twisted my wrist.”
Claire’s eyes went to Diane’s empty stool.
Margaret continued.
“She tore the notice once and put it in the trash.”
“You tried to retrieve it?”
“Yes.”
“She stopped you?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Margaret’s voice became quieter.
“She grabbed me from behind.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Martinez asked, “And pushed you down?”
“Yes.”
“Toward the open bin?”
“Yes.”
Margaret looked at Claire.
“Then you came in.”
Claire nodded.
Martinez closed the notebook halfway.
“That’s enough for now.”
Margaret frowned.
“I haven’t told you about the key.”
“We have the key.”
“And my medication.”
“We have the medication.”
“And the deed.”
“We have the document.”
Margaret looked dissatisfied.
Martinez softened his tone.
“Nothing is being ignored.”
She studied him.
“People have been telling me that for months.”
Martinez held her gaze.
“I understand why that doesn’t mean much to you right now.”
That seemed to satisfy her more than reassurance would have.
She nodded once.
Elena began packing her equipment.
“I want her evaluated at the hospital.”
Margaret sighed.
“I knew you were going to say that.”
Claire touched her arm.
“You’re going.”
“I dislike hospitals.”
“You dislike most places with fluorescent lighting.”
“That is because fluorescent lighting is hostile.”
Daniel turned from the sink.
“She’s got you there.”
A little breath of laughter escaped Claire before she could stop it.
The sound felt wrong and necessary.
Margaret smiled faintly.
Then Diane appeared in the doorway with Officer Bell behind her.
Her face was blotched now.
May you like
She looked at Ryan’s empty stool.
“Where is he?”
