Chương 4
His third thought was that he wanted coffee.
He made coffee.
Then he sat at the kitchen table with the detective’s card beside the mug and looked at the broken patio chain.
At eight fifteen, he called his supervisor and said he would not be coming in.
“Family emergency?”
“Yeah.”
“You need anything?”
Daniel looked around the empty kitchen.
“No.”
“You sure?”
“No.”
His supervisor waited.
Daniel almost laughed.
“Sorry. I mean, I’m not sure. But I’ll call you.”
After hanging up, he called the detective.
Detective Elena Brooks did not sound suspicious or comforting. She sounded busy.
She asked whether Claire was at the house.
“No.”
“Do you know where she is?”
“I think she stayed with her sister.”
“Do you have reason to believe she’ll come back today?”
“She lives here.”
Brooks paused.
“All right. Don’t make any sudden changes to the living arrangement without getting advice about that. If you feel unsafe, call us. I’d like to speak with you in person.”
Daniel glanced toward the hallway.
“Can I change the locks?”
“I can’t give you legal advice about occupancy. We can discuss safety options when I get there.”
The answer irritated him because it was not an answer.
Then he realized that was probably the point.
Real life had fewer clean doors than television did.
At nine, Claire’s sister Rachel called.
Daniel let it ring.
At nine twelve, Laura texted.
The school wants to know if the girls are coming today. I’m keeping them home.
At nine nineteen, his mother called after Laura apparently told her something.
Daniel turned the phone facedown.
At nine twenty-seven, he received an email from the home security system.
BACK PATIO CAMERA OFFLINE.
He stared at the subject line.
Then he opened the app.
The camera had been offline since the previous afternoon.
He had noticed that before.
Several times.
Claire had said the outdoor camera was unreliable because the Wi-Fi signal did not reach the back wall well. Daniel had accepted that explanation because the camera usually came back on later.
He tapped the device history.
There were dates.
Not much else.
Offline Monday, 3:14 p.m.
Online Monday, 5:02 p.m.
Offline the previous Thursday, 4:08 p.m.
Online 5:41.
Offline three weeks earlier.
Online ninety minutes later.
Daniel sat very still.
He did not yet know what the timestamps meant.
That mattered.
He took screenshots anyway.
When Detective Brooks arrived, she was shorter than he expected, with gray beginning at her temples and a notebook that looked too small for serious things.
Daniel showed her the patio door.
She examined the loose chain plate.
“Did you touch this after it broke?”
“I unhooked it so I could open the door.”
“Anybody else?”
“Not that I know of.”
She photographed it.
Then she asked him to tell her everything from the beginning.
Daniel began with yesterday.
Brooks stopped him.
“When did you first suspect something was wrong?”
He did not like the wording.
“Six days ago.”
“What happened?”
He told her about Maya saying she had been locked outside.
“And you gave her the key?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“In case the side door was locked.”
“So you believed her?”
Daniel rubbed his hands together.
“I believed something had happened.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
He looked at Brooks.
She was not accusing him.
That almost made it worse.
“I thought she might be exaggerating how long.”
Brooks wrote something down.
Daniel said, “She’s eight.”
Brooks looked up.
He heard how it sounded.
“I know.”
For the next forty minutes, he described his work schedule, the custody arrangement, how long Claire had lived with him, how often she watched the girls alone, who handled school pickup, whether Claire used physical discipline, whether Daniel did, whether Laura did, whether the girls had ever been injured before.
“No physical discipline,” he said.
“Ever?”
“I’ve grabbed an arm to stop someone from running into a street. Things like that. I’ve never hit them.”
“Claire?”
“Not that I knew.”
Brooks nodded.
“Do you have cameras inside the house?”
“No.”
“Door sensors?”
“Front and side door. Not the slider.”
“Who has access to the security system?”
“Me and Claire.”
“Can either account disable the outdoor cameras?”
“I think so.”
“Do the logs show which account?”
“I don’t know.”
That afternoon, Daniel discovered they did.
Not in the ordinary activity screen.
He found it through the system’s account history on the website after resetting a password Claire knew.
There were administrative actions.
BACK PATIO CAMERA PAUSED.
User: C. Hayes.
Four dates over the previous six weeks.
Daniel wrote them on a legal pad.
He called Laura.
“Can you ask Maya something without making it feel like an interview?”
Laura sighed. “What?”
“I have dates when Claire shut off the patio camera.”
Silence.
“Daniel.”
“I’m not saying it proves anything.”
“Good.”
“I just want to know if any of those days mean something.”
“You need to give this to the detective.”
“I am.”
“And let her ask.”
He wanted to argue.
Instead he looked at the list.
“You’re right.”
“I know you want to fix this.”
He did not answer.
Laura’s voice changed slightly.
“You can’t fix it by making them perform the right answers for you.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Daniel stared at the legal pad.
“No,” he said. “Probably not yet.”
Detective Brooks asked him to email the screenshots.
The security company could provide records if investigators needed them through the appropriate process, she said. Daniel did not ask how long that would take because he already disliked the answer.
Claire returned to the house that evening.
Daniel was not prepared.
He heard a car, then the front door unlocking.
He stood from the couch.
Claire walked in carrying an overnight bag and stopped when she saw him.
For a second, they looked like a couple who had come home from separate errands.
Then Daniel noticed she had been crying.
May you like
Not dramatically. Her eyes were swollen. Her hair was pulled back badly, one side coming loose.
“I need clothes,” she said.
