Chương 2
“How long?”
Daniel looked toward the glass.
“Claire.”
“How long have you known?”
His throat moved.
“Since before he was born.”
The answer landed quietly.
Claire bent forward and pressed both palms against her knees.
She had the absurd thought that the floor needed refinishing near the doors. Daniel had been telling the contractor that for two summers.
Eight years of marriage.
Nine-year-old child.
The arithmetic was not difficult.
“When?”
“We weren’t married.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“We were having problems.”
“What does that mean?”
“You know what it means.”
“I really don’t anymore.”
Daniel glanced at Ethan.
“Can we not do this in front of him?”
Ethan said, “I already know you lie.”
Daniel flinched.
That one reached him.
Claire looked at the boy.
“Ethan, is there someone who knows where you are?”
His expression changed.
For the first time, actual fear broke through the determined mask.
“Mrs. Alvarez.”
“Who is she?”
“Our neighbor.”
“Does she know you came here?”
His eyes dropped.
“No.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Of course.
“Did you walk?”
He nodded.
“In this?”
“Mom told me where the boathouse was.”
“When?”
“Last week.”
Daniel spoke sharply. “Rachel told him to come here?”
Ethan looked at Claire rather than Daniel.
“She said if something bad happened, the envelope was for you.”
Claire’s phone was already in her hand.
“What’s Mrs. Alvarez’s number?”
Ethan recited it from memory.
The woman who answered was crying before Claire finished saying Ethan’s name.
“Oh my God. Put him on. Put him on right now.”
Claire handed him the phone.
He took it with both hands.
“Mrs. Alvarez?”
The woman’s voice became loud enough for Claire to hear.
“Ethan Miller, where are you?”
He winced.
“At the lake house.”
“You left without telling me?”
“I’m sorry.”
“I called the police.”
Daniel muttered something and turned away.
Claire heard it anyway.
“Jesus Christ.”
She looked at him.
He lifted both hands.
“I’m not blaming him.”
“You sighed because someone called the police about a missing child.”
“I sighed because this is getting out of control.”
Claire stared at him.
Daniel seemed to hear the sentence after he said it.
He pressed his fingers against the bridge of his nose.
“Okay. That sounded terrible too.”
Ethan was telling Mrs. Alvarez that he was safe.
Safe.
Claire looked at the man she had slept beside the previous night.
She didn’t know whether the word belonged in the room.
Twenty minutes later a sheriff’s deputy arrived soaked from the shoulders down despite a rain jacket. His name was Harris. He looked to be in his fifties, with graying hair and the patient expression of a man accustomed to entering houses where everyone believed the worst thing in the room belonged to somebody else.
Mrs. Alvarez arrived behind him in an old station wagon.
She ran across the covered entrance and hugged Ethan before the deputy could finish telling her to watch the slick boards.
Ethan tolerated the embrace with the stiff humiliation of a child who had intended to behave like an adult and had been reminded that he was not one.
Then Mrs. Alvarez pulled back and grabbed his face.
“You scared ten years off my life.”
“I’m nine.”
Claire nearly laughed.
Mrs. Alvarez made a noise halfway between a sob and a cough.
“That is not the point.”
For one second the room became human again.
Then Deputy Harris asked Daniel whether he knew Rachel Miller.
Daniel said yes.
The deputy asked when he had last seen her.
Daniel hesitated.
Claire watched him.
“Today,” he said.
Ethan stared at him.
The deputy wrote something in a small notebook.
“What time?”
“Around eleven.”
“At her residence?”
“Yes.”
“What was the purpose of the visit?”
“Private family business.”
Harris looked toward Ethan.
“What kind of family business?”
Daniel’s shoulders stiffened.
“I’m his father.”
Mrs. Alvarez stopped rubbing Ethan’s back.
She looked at Daniel for a long moment.
Then she looked at Claire.
“Oh,” she said.
Nothing more.
It was somehow kinder than sympathy.
Daniel explained that he and Rachel had argued. He said she had been angry when he left but not injured, threatened, or prevented from leaving.
“Did she say where she was going?” Harris asked.
“No.”
“Did you take her phone?”
Daniel’s gaze flickered.
Claire felt her stomach tighten.
The deputy noticed too.
“I picked it up by mistake.”
Ethan said, “No, you didn’t.”
Mrs. Alvarez whispered, “Sweetheart.”
“He put it in his pocket.”
Daniel turned toward the boy.
“I thought it was mine.”
“You have two.”
Silence.
Harris held out a hand.
“Do you have Ms. Miller’s phone now?”
Daniel reached into his pants pocket.
He produced a rose-colored phone Claire had never seen.
The deputy’s expression changed just slightly.
“You’ve been carrying it all afternoon?”
“I was going to return it.”
“To someone you say you haven’t been able to locate?”
Daniel took a breath.
“Yes.”
Claire looked down.
There were too many facts now.
She had always imagined betrayal as one piece of information. An affair. A bank account. A hotel receipt. Something terrible but singular.
This was different.
This was a structure.
A second phone.
A child.
A woman’s missing phone in his pocket.
A photograph from ten years ago.
Birthdays.
A boy who knew where the boathouse was.
A whole architecture of rooms Claire had apparently been living beside without doors.
Deputy Harris took Rachel’s phone and placed it inside a clear evidence bag after asking Daniel several more questions. He did not accuse him of anything. He did not handcuff him. He did not provide Claire the relief of turning confusion into a simple story with a villain and a procedure.
He told them another deputy was checking Rachel’s rental house.
He told Mrs. Alvarez that Ethan could return with her if she was the adult Rachel had asked to watch him.
She showed him a string of messages from Rachel confirming exactly that.
May you like
The last message had been sent at 10:42 that morning.
Running an errand. Daniel is coming by. If I’m not back by two, please keep Ethan with you until I call.
