Chương 5
“My mother does.”
“She has agreed to come to the station tomorrow morning with an attorney.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Tonight we’re collecting evidence and statements. We don’t have grounds to arrest anyone.”
“Emily identified his car.”
“She identified a black SUV. She has not clearly identified a person.”
“She said, ‘That’s them.’”
“I believe you.”
The response was calm, which made Daniel hear what it did not say.
“That’s not enough.”
“Not by itself.”
His phone vibrated again. Anna.
This time he answered.
“Dan, why did Mom text me that Emily is at St. Catherine’s?”
His sister’s voice was sharp with fear.
“Emily’s okay.”
“What happened?”
He looked at his daughter coloring the worried turtle.
“She was locked in the chest freezer.”
Anna did not speak.
“Dan.”
“She’s okay.”
“You said that.”
“I found her.”
“How?”
“I heard her.”
“How did she get in there?”
“Someone told her they were playing hide-and-seek.”
Another silence.
Then Anna asked, “Where’s Mom?”
“At home, maybe. Or the police station.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means she hired a private investigator and brought him into my house without telling me.”
Anna exhaled slowly. “Charles Mercer?”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“You know him.”
“I know the name.”
“How?”
“Mom asked me about him two weeks ago.”
“What did she ask?”
“Whether I thought you’d moved any of Nora’s files.”
The hospital room seemed to tilt without moving.
“What files?”
“I don’t know. She was vague.”
“Anna.”
“She said there were documents missing from Dad’s old lockbox. She asked whether Nora had ever kept copies of family records. I told her to talk to you.”
“She didn’t.”
“No.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Mom asks strange legal questions when she’s bored.”
“She hired someone.”
“I didn’t know that.”
Daniel looked at Officer Alvarez. She was watching him without pretending otherwise.
“What documents?” he asked Anna.
“I don’t know.”
“Think.”
“I am thinking.”
Emily held up her coloring page. “Dad, should the water be green?”
He covered the phone. “Any color you want.”
“Turtles don’t live in purple water.”
“They can tonight.”
She studied him, then chose a blue crayon.
Anna said, “There was something about guardianship.”
Daniel walked into the hall.
“What about it?”
“She asked whether Nora ever signed a letter naming me as Emily’s temporary guardian.”
The air conditioner blew cold against the back of his neck.
“Nora and I named you in our wills.”
“I know.”
“Mom knows.”
“I know.”
“So what was she looking for?”
“I don’t know, Dan.”
“Stop saying that.”
A nurse passing with a medication cart glanced toward him.
Anna lowered her voice. “I’m not the person who put Emily in a freezer.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re scared. I’m scared too.”
He leaned against the wall. “Mom thinks I’m moving.”
“Are you?”
He did not answer immediately.
Anna said, “You interviewed for the Seattle position.”
“How do you know that?”
“You told me.”
“I told you not to tell Mom.”
“I didn’t.”
“Then how does she know?”
“I don’t know.”
This time the words frightened him.
He had interviewed three weeks earlier for a partnership at an architectural firm in Seattle. It was the first professional decision he had made since Nora’s death that was not based on preserving the shape of their old life. He had not accepted anything. He had not even received an offer. But he had imagined a smaller house, rain against different windows, Emily starting second grade where no teacher lowered her voice when mentioning mothers.
Margaret lived with them because she had arrived one week after the funeral with two suitcases and announced she would stay until things became manageable. Two years later, she still occupied the east guest suite. Laura had followed after Margaret’s knee surgery, then remained because Margaret preferred not to drive at night, manage medications, or deal with service appointments.
Daniel had allowed each extension because opposing his mother required energy he kept spending elsewhere.
Nora had once accused him of treating peace like a debt he could refinance forever.
“What exactly did Mom ask you?” he said.
Anna hesitated. “She wanted to know whether a relocation would affect the guardianship language.”
“There is no guardianship while I’m alive.”
“I told her that.”
“And?”
“She said courts consider continuity.”
Daniel looked through the doorway at Emily.
The blue crayon moved in short careful strokes.
Officer Alvarez stepped into the hall. “Was that relevant?”
He told her.
She wrote it down.
Anna arrived at the hospital forty minutes later wearing leggings beneath a raincoat and two different earrings. She hugged Daniel first, then Emily, then stepped back and looked at both of them as though checking whether they were complete.
“Your turtle is excellent,” she told Emily.
“It’s worried.”
“I can see that.”
“It was trapped in a net, but the dolphin gets help.”
Anna sat beside the bed. “That sounds like a smart dolphin.”
Emily glanced toward Daniel. “Dad heard me.”
Anna’s face changed.
She took Emily’s hand carefully. “Of course he did.”
The child-interview specialist arrived but spoke only briefly with Emily after consulting the doctor. Her name was Denise Ward. She wore no uniform and carried no visible recording equipment. She asked Emily whether she understood the difference between something that happened and something imagined. Emily said imagined things could still be scary.
Denise accepted that answer.
She asked whether Emily would speak with her another day in a special room with toys.
“Will Dad be there?”
“He’ll be nearby.”
“Can Aunt Anna come?”
“If your dad says yes.”
Daniel said yes.
Denise did not ask who closed the freezer.
After she left, Emily slept.
Daniel sat with his elbows on his knees and watched the slow rise of the hospital blanket. Anna stood by the window, drinking coffee from a paper cup and making a face after each sip.
“This is terrible coffee,” she whispered.
“Stop drinking it.”
“I paid three dollars.”
“You can afford to lose three dollars.”
May you like
“It’s the principle.”
Daniel looked at her.
