Chương 7
“A belt once.”
The word came out barely above a whisper.
Denise shifted her weight.
Officer Bennett asked, “Your father?”
“He didn’t hit me.”
“Did he intervene?”
Sometimes.
The word nearly came out.
But memory corrected me.
Walt standing in the hallway.
Walt turning up the television.
Walt telling me afterward that I should not provoke her when she was tired.
“No.”
Officer Bennett closed the notebook halfway.
“Natalie, I need you to understand something.”
I looked at her.
“Your father is cooperating now.”
She emphasized the last word.
“Now does not erase before.”
I nodded.
She opened the notebook again.
“He also told us where the latch came from.”
I waited.
“He bought it two months ago.”
My skin prickled.
“He said your mother asked him to install it.”
“On the closet?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He says she told him Lizzy had started leaving time-outs.”
I closed my eyes.
Not storage.
Not an old garage latch already there.
Chosen.
Bought.
Installed.
Officer Bennett said, “We have an officer going to the residence.”
“For what?”
“To preserve the scene and document it.”
“My broken window.”
“That too.”
“Will they search the house?”
“Not automatically.”
She kept her tone precise.
“There are legal steps for that.”
“What happens to my parents?”
“I can’t predict charges before the investigation is complete.”
“Can they leave?”
“Your father is voluntarily speaking with us.”
“And my mother?”
“She is not currently detained.”
The idea of Gloria walking out made panic flash through me.
“She’ll go to my house.”
Officer Bennett’s eyes sharpened.
“Why do you think that?”
“Because Adam changed the door code.”
“That would prevent entry.”
“She has a key.”
“We’re changing the lock.”
“Tonight?”
“I don’t know.”
I stood too fast.
“I need to call him.”
Bennett held up a hand.
“You can.”
I pulled out my phone.
Adam answered on the first ring.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
I heard myself sounding exactly like my mother.
I corrected it.
“The police are documenting the house.”
A pause.
“Okay.”
“Did you change the code?”
“Yes.”
“She has a key.”
“I know.”
“What?”
“I remembered.”
“How?”
“She used it when we were in Florida last year.”
Right.
She had watered my plants and moved three of them because she said they needed better light.
“What are you doing?”
“I texted Megan.”
“And?”
“She locked the deadbolt.”
I closed my eyes.
The deadbolt could not be opened from outside with the regular key.
“Okay.”
“Noah’s asleep.”
“Okay.”
“Megan says he woke once and asked where you were.”
My throat tightened.
“What did she tell him?”
“That Lizzy was sick and we were helping her.”
“That’s good.”
“He went back to sleep.”
I pressed my knuckles against my mouth.
Adam lowered his voice.
“You still there?”
“Yes.”
“Nat.”
“I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Not now.”
“All right.”
He did not push.
“I’m with Lizzy.”
“Thank you.”
“She asked whether you were coming back.”
“I am.”
“She said to tell you her stomach feels better.”
The tears came then.
Quietly.
Annoyingly.
I wiped them away with the heel of my hand.
“I’ll be there in a minute.”
When I ended the call, Officer Bennett pretended to be reading her notes.
Denise offered me a tissue.
I took it.
“Your mother is requesting to leave,” Bennett said.
My head came up.
“To go where?”
“She doesn’t have to tell me.”
I stood.
Denise said my name.
I was already opening the door.
Gloria was near the exit with her purse over one shoulder.
One security officer stood several feet away.
Walt was nowhere in sight.
My mother saw me and stopped.
“You’re leaving?”
“Yes.”
“To go to my house?”
Her eyebrows lifted.
“Why would I?”
“Because Noah is there.”
For the first time all night, her expression showed genuine offense.
“I would never hurt Noah.”
The certainty in her voice almost broke something in me.
“You threatened to take him from me.”
“That was different.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“It wasn’t.”
She looked past me toward the treatment rooms.
“You have no idea what Lizzy has been like.”
“She is six.”
“She lies.”
“She steals food.”
“She wets the bed deliberately.”
I stared at her.
“Deliberately?”
“She does it for attention.”
Something cold settled inside me.
Not anger exactly.
Clarity.
“You punished her for wetting the bed.”
Gloria adjusted the strap of her purse.
“She is old enough to control herself.”
“How?”
“What?”
“How did you punish her?”
Her eyes met mine.
She said nothing.
That silence answered too much.
Behind me, Officer Bennett had come into the hallway.
Gloria noticed her.
Her face closed.
“I am done being interrogated by my daughter.”
She reached for the exit door.
I said, “Mom.”
She stopped.
For one stupid second, I wanted her to turn around and become somebody else.
The mother who brought me soup when Noah was born.
The woman who embroidered Lizzy’s name on a Christmas stocking.
The person I had defended because believing her explanations was easier than examining them.
She looked back.
I asked, “Did you lock me in there too?”
Her face went pale.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Gloria’s hand remained on the push bar of the exit door.
Officer Bennett looked from her to me.
My mother’s lips parted, then closed.
That was enough.
A memory surfaced without arriving whole.
Darkness under coats.
The smell of cedar blocks.
My knees hurting because there had not been room to sit properly.
A thin line of hallway light disappearing when a door shut.
I had always believed I was remembering a game.
Something childish.
Something unimportant.
“Answer me,” I said.
Gloria’s face hardened.
“You were dramatic even then.”
The hallway seemed to narrow around us.
Officer Bennett said, “Mrs. Mercer, I advise you to be careful about what you say.”
My mother looked at her.
“I am talking to my daughter.”
“You are talking in front of a police officer during an active investigation.”
May you like
Gloria gave a dismissive little shrug.
“She’s trying to turn childhood discipline into abuse.”
