Chương 2
“Good.”
“I know that sounds stupid.”
“It sounds human.”
Evan placed the bottle inside a clean plastic food-storage bag because nothing better was available. When the sheriff’s deputy arrived, he transferred custody without opening it.
Daniel watched all of this.
“That is ridiculous,” he said quietly.
The deputy, a heavyset woman named Beth Colson, glanced at him.
“Which part?”
“My wife is ill, and people are turning it into a crime scene.”
Beth looked at Emily.
“Your wife is unconscious, a witness says you put something in her drink, another witness says you gave her the drink in the garage, and there’s a message on her phone that I’d like explained.”
“You’ve already decided what happened.”
“No, sir. I’ve decided I’d like an explanation.”
Daniel removed his gloves finger by finger.
“They’re having marital problems,” Lauren said.
Daniel looked at her again.
Beth turned.
“You know them?”
Lauren let out a breath.
“Yes.”
“Both of them?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’m going to ask you not to say anything else until I can talk to you separately.”
Lauren nodded.
Daniel smiled faintly.
“Good advice.”
Beth’s eyes returned to him.
“That applies to you too.”
For the first time, Claire saw irritation reach his face.
The paramedics arrived sixteen minutes later after a county plow escorted them up the access road. By then Emily had opened her eyes twice but could not stay awake. She knew her first name. She knew Daniel’s. When asked where she was, she whispered, “Not home,” with an urgency that made one paramedic look at Claire.
Daniel tried to follow the stretcher.
Beth stopped him with an arm.
“I need you here for a few minutes.”
“I’m going with my wife.”
“She’s being transported.”
“Yes. That’s generally why people use ambulances.”
Beth did not respond to the sarcasm.
“You can go when I’m finished speaking with you.”
Daniel’s voice lowered.
“Am I under arrest?”
“No.”
“Am I detained?”
“At the moment, yes.”
Richard stood ten feet away and said nothing.
Later he would tell Emily that Daniel’s entire body changed when Beth used that word. Not much. A tightening at the neck. A slight repositioning of his feet. The small physical calculation of someone measuring exits.
Richard recognized it because emergency rooms taught you to watch hands before faces.
He also recognized Daniel’s next move.
Daniel became reasonable.
He told Beth his wife had been under severe stress for months. He said she suffered from insomnia, occasional panic episodes, and migraines. He said he believed she had taken medication earlier in the day and had probably become disoriented. He said the message on her phone had been taken out of context.
“What context makes that message ordinary?” Beth asked.
Daniel exhaled.
“She ran away from home after an argument.”
“She’s thirty-two.”
“I’m aware of my wife’s age.”
“Then I’m not sure ‘ran away’ is the phrase I’d use.”
“She left without telling anyone where she was going. She drove into a blizzard despite knowing the roads were deteriorating. I was scared.”
“So you texted, ‘You were never supposed to reach this lodge’?”
Daniel’s eyes flicked toward Lauren.
“It was part of a longer conversation.”
Beth photographed the lock screen.
“We’ll see.”
Daniel’s attorney called before Beth finished her first page of notes.
That, too, stayed with Lauren.
Not because wealthy people did not have lawyers they could reach on Saturday evenings. Many did. She had known Daniel long enough to know he had three attorneys whose cell numbers he used without hesitation.
What troubled her was that he had called one before the ambulance doors shut.
As if he had been expecting to need him.
At the hospital in Silver Crossing, Emily woke beneath fluorescent lights and thought she was eleven years old.
The mistake lasted perhaps three seconds.
She smelled antiseptic, heard a monitor chirp, and saw a nurse’s purple scrub top moving at the foot of the bed. Somewhere beyond the curtain a man coughed repeatedly. Her mouth felt lined with cotton.
Then adulthood returned in pieces.
The lodge.
Lauren.
Daniel in the garage.
The bottle.
Her stomach clenched.
She tried to sit up.
The nurse was beside her immediately.
“Easy.”
“My husband.”
“You’re safe here.”
The phrase frightened her.
People did not say you’re safe here unless there had been somewhere you were not safe.
“Is he here?”
“No.”
Emily closed her eyes.
Her heart was racing fast enough to make the monitor notice.
The nurse adjusted something near her IV.
“Can you tell me your full name?”
“Emily Catherine Mercer.”
“Date of birth?”
Emily answered.
“Do you know where you are?”
“A hospital.”
“Good. Do you know why?”
Emily stared at the ceiling.
“I drank water.”
The nurse’s face did not change.
“Do you remember what happened afterward?”
“A little.”
“Don’t force it.”
“I need my phone.”
“A deputy has it right now.”
That brought Emily fully awake.
She turned her head.
“What?”
“They’re preserving some messages. You’ll get it back.”
“No. I need—there are files.”
The nurse paused.
“Files?”
Emily pressed her lips together.
This was how Daniel always got ahead of her.
She could hear him without him being present.
You don’t need to tell strangers our business.
You’re tired.
You’re embarrassed.
You’re making this bigger than it is.
Emily had spent six years learning to confuse privacy with loyalty.
She looked at the nurse.
“I need to talk to the police.”
Beth arrived forty minutes later, snow melting from her uniform shoulders.
She was gentler in the hospital than she had been at the lodge.
That made Emily suspicious at first.
Gentleness had become suspicious.
Beth pulled a chair close but not too close.
“Before we talk, I need to know whether you feel well enough.”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s a fair answer.”
“What was in the bottle?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“Richard saw him.”
“Yes.”
“And Lauren.”
“Yes.”
“So arrest him.”
Beth folded her hands.
May you like
“I know that probably feels obvious from where you’re lying.”
Emily laughed once, without humor.
