Chương 2
At the hospital, Thanksgiving decorations had been taped to the emergency department windows by someone with access to a color printer and no artistic ambition.
Paper turkeys smiled over a row of plastic chairs.
A television played a morning parade with the sound muted.
A little boy in dinosaur pajamas slept across three seats while his father stared at a vending machine without buying anything.
Chloe disappeared behind double doors.
I was left with her hospital bag, which contained nothing because she had arrived with nothing.
No coat.
No purse.
No phone.
No second shoe.
I sat down and realized I was still holding one of her earrings.
It must have caught in my glove when I lifted her at the terminal.
A tiny silver crescent.
I placed it carefully in the inside pocket of my purse.
Then I called my sister Ruth.
She answered immediately.
“Are you already cooking?”
“No.”
Something in my voice changed hers.
“What happened?”
“Chloe is in the emergency room.”
Ruth did not gasp.
She had been a school principal for thirty-five years and believed gasping wasted oxygen.
“Car accident?”
“Marcus.”
A pause.
“I’m putting on pants.”
“Ruth.”
“What hospital?”
“St. Vincent’s, but don’t come yet.”
“Eleanor, if you think I am going to sit in my house watching people turn balloons into cartoon dogs while my niece is in the ER, you have confused me with someone pleasant.”
Despite everything, a small laugh escaped me.
It hurt.
“Bring my reading glasses.”
“You lose them again?”
“They’re on the kitchen table.”
“You have three pairs.”
“Bring the brown ones.”
“I hate those.”
“They’re my glasses.”
“That has never improved them.”
She hung up.
At 6:38, Daniel called back.
I walked toward the far end of the waiting room before answering.
“I checked what I could without opening anything I shouldn’t,” he said.
“And?”
“Marcus Vane does not have investigative authority.”
My shoulders loosened slightly.
“But.”
There was always a but.
“He is attached to Halcyon’s internal integrity unit.”
“What does that mean?”
“Company compliance, employee disclosures, internal reporting coordination, some liaison work on government contracts.”
“Access to whistleblower identities?”
“Potentially.”
My hand went still around the phone.
“Potentially is doing a lot of work there.”
“Yes.”
“Is Chloe employed by Halcyon?”
“I thought she worked for Benton Engineering.”
“She did.”
“Did?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel lowered his voice.
“Eleanor, there’s something else.”
I waited.
“Halcyon reported a potential unauthorized data transfer three weeks ago.”
My stomach tightened.
“From whom?”
“That is exactly the kind of detail I cannot give you.”
“Fair.”
“The matter may be nothing.”
“Also fair.”
“But if Chloe was somehow involved, Marcus’s role becomes complicated.”
A nurse pushed a cart past me, humming under her breath.
“Daniel, I need you to hear this carefully.”
“I’m listening.”
“I know.”
“I know that too.”
“And if my daughter committed a crime, I will not protect her from lawful consequences.”
This time his silence lasted longer.
“Eleanor.”
“What?”
“You’re talking like a prosecutor because talking like her mother is harder.”
I looked through the narrow window in the emergency-room doors.
A doctor crossed the corridor carrying a tablet.
“I called you for information, not therapy.”
“There she is.”
“Goodbye, Daniel.”
“Call me if the facts become federal.”
I ended the call.
Ruth arrived ten minutes later wearing a red winter coat over plaid pajama pants.
She handed me my glasses, a travel mug, and half a bagel wrapped in foil.
“I brought cream cheese, but I put it on the bagel because I’m not carrying condiments through a hospital at dawn.”
I took the coffee.
“You look ridiculous.”
“So do you.”
She sat beside me.
“Tell me.”
I did.
Not everything.
Only what I knew.
When I finished, Ruth stared straight ahead at the muted parade.
A marching band moved across the screen in perfect formation.
“I never liked him,” she said.
“You told me you did.”
“I lied at the wedding.”
“You cried.”
“I cry at airports.”
“That explains nothing.”
She rubbed her hands together.
“Did Chloe ever tell you he hit her before?”
“No.”
“You sure?”
The question landed harder than accusation.
I looked down at the coffee lid.
Three months earlier, Chloe had come to my house with a bruise near her elbow.
She said she had slipped carrying a laundry basket.
I had believed her because she laughed while saying it.
Or maybe I had chosen belief because the alternative required action.
Ruth saw something change in my face.
“Oh, Ellie.”
“Don’t.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were about to.”
“I was about to say we don’t know yet.”
The emergency-room doors opened.
A physician in dark blue scrubs stepped out and called my name.
He was perhaps forty, with tired eyes and a wedding band that had left a pale indentation beneath the glove he had just removed.
“I’m Dr. Patel.”
“How is she?”
“She’s awake.”
My knees weakened so suddenly that I gripped the back of a chair.
“She has hypothermia, dehydration, a concussion, bruising to the ribs and abdomen, and injuries consistent with being restrained.”
Ruth made a soft sound beside me.
Dr. Patel continued carefully.
“We’re doing imaging because she has significant abdominal tenderness.”
“Internal bleeding?”
“We need to rule it out.”
“Is she stable?”
“For now.”
For now had frightened juries when I used it in court.
It frightened me more coming from a doctor.
“She also has a sedative in her system,” he said.
I stared at him.
“What kind?”
“We’re still confirming.”
“Could it be prescribed?”
“Possibly.”
“She doesn’t take sedatives.”
“That will be relevant.”
I looked through the open doors.
“Can I see her?”
“Yes, but there’s a detective with her now.”
I stopped.
“Already?”
“The patrol officer requested someone from the domestic violence unit.”
“Good.”
Dr. Patel studied my face.
“Your daughter asked for you.”
I followed him down the corridor.
May you like
Chloe lay beneath warmed blankets with an IV in each arm and a monitor clipped to her finger.
Her hair had been cleaned away from a cut near her temple.
