Chương 6
He looked away.
“I should’ve believed her.”
“Yes.”
The agreement hurt.
Carol reached across the table but did not touch him.
“And you should be careful not to make your guilt another thing Maya has to take care of.”
Daniel looked back.
“What does that mean?”
“It means don’t kneel in front of her and cry until she tells you you’re a good dad.”
“I wouldn’t.”
Carol raised an eyebrow.
He thought about it.
“Okay.”
On Friday, Laura agreed to let him see the girls at a park near her house.
Not at Daniel’s home.
Not yet.
Maya spent the first ten minutes on the swings.
Sophie talked enough for both of them.
She told Daniel about a worm she had found near the school garden, a substitute teacher with “weird shiny shoes,” and a girl named Paige who had stolen one of her crackers and then claimed crackers were communal.
“Were they communal?” Daniel asked.
“No.”
“Then this is serious.”
Sophie nodded gravely.
Maya smiled despite herself.
It vanished quickly.
Daniel did not ask about Claire.
He had promised Laura he would not.
They walked toward the duck pond.
After a while Maya said, “Is Claire in jail?”
Daniel nearly tripped over a tree root.
“No.”
“Is she coming back?”
“Not while you’re there.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
The sentence sounded so much like Laura that he almost smiled.
He did not.
“I don’t know what will happen with Claire long-term.”
Maya kicked at a pinecone.
“She says you’ll forgive her.”
Daniel stopped walking.
“When did she say that?”
Maya’s shoulders lifted.
“Before.”
“How long before?”
“I don’t know.”
Sophie had gone ahead to watch ducks.
Daniel crouched.
Maya immediately stiffened.
He stood again.
“All right.”
She looked at him.
He kept his voice ordinary.
“You don’t have to tell me anything right now.”
“She said grown-ups always forgive each other.”
Daniel felt sick.
Maya continued looking at the pond.
“And kids get over things.”
He did not know what to say.
So he said, “I heard you.”
Maya nodded once.
That was all.
The first real break in the investigation came from something Sophie said about popsicles.
Not to Daniel.
To Laura.
Sophie wanted an orange popsicle after dinner and Laura said they were out.
Sophie replied, “Claire kept the good ones in the garage freezer because we weren’t allowed in there when we were outside.”
Laura called Daniel.
He drove over, but stayed in the driveway because that was what they had agreed.
“What garage freezer?” Laura asked through the open passenger window.
“We have one.”
“Can you reach the garage from the backyard?”
“Through the side gate.”
“Is the gate locked?”
Daniel thought.
“Usually.”
“From which side?”
He stared at her.
The gate had a latch high enough that the girls could not reach it from the yard.
If they were locked out of the house, they could not simply leave the property.
He drove home and stood in the backyard.
The pool was covered now.
The patio door reflected him.
From the outside, the yard had always seemed safe: six-foot fence, locked gate, no street access, motion lights, pool alarm.
Safe was not the same as free.
He walked to the side gate and reached up to the latch.
Too high for Maya.
Impossible for Sophie.
There was a plastic storage bench near the fence.
Daniel dragged it over.
Standing on it, Maya might reach.
Maybe.
Then he saw scratches in the painted wood beneath the latch.
Small marks.
He photographed them.
He hated himself for doing it.
Not because photographs were wrong.
Because his daughter might have stood on a storage bench trying to escape his backyard while he was congratulating himself on providing a secure home.
He called Brooks.
She came the next morning.
The scratches alone proved nothing.
Brooks said that twice.
Daniel nodded.
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
She studied him.
“You’re doing something a lot of parents do after they think they missed something.”
“What?”
“Trying to turn every object into evidence.”
Daniel looked at the gate.
“It isn’t?”
“It might be. But a scratch can also be a scratch.”
He shoved his hands into his hoodie pockets.
Brooks softened.
“Give us the facts. Let us work out what they mean.”
Daniel almost said, You’re taking too long.
He stopped.
Instead he asked, “Have you talked to the girls?”
“Yes.”
“What did they say?”
“I can’t walk you through their interviews.”
“They’re my daughters.”
“I know.”
He laughed sharply.
Brooks waited.
Daniel looked away.
“Sorry.”
“You don’t need to apologize for being frustrated.”
“I do if I act like an ass.”
“That helps.”
She closed her notebook.
Then she said, “For what it’s worth, neither child gave us a neat story.”
Daniel looked at her.
Brooks continued, “That’s not unusual.”
“Did they contradict each other?”
“I’m not going to characterize their statements.”
“You just did.”
“Only enough to tell you not to expect this to feel clean.”
Daniel thought about that all day.
That evening, Laura called.
“Maya wants to tell you something.”
He sat down.
“Put her on.”
There was muffled movement.
Then Maya’s voice.
“Dad?”
“Hey.”
A pause.
“Mom says I don’t have to say it.”
“She’s right.”
Another pause.
“Sophie said Claire locked us outside six times.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Okay.”
“It wasn’t six.”
He waited.
Maya whispered, “It was four.”
For some reason, that nearly broke him.
Not because four was better.
Because Maya cared about the number being correct.
“What happened the other two times Sophie counted?”
“One time the door got stuck for real.”
Daniel pressed his knuckles against his mouth.
“And the other?”
“I don’t know. She counts weird.”
From somewhere near Maya, Sophie shouted, “I do not!”
Maya gave a tiny laugh.
Daniel stared at the kitchen wall.
Four.
Not every day.
Not constant torture.
Four afternoons over several weeks.
That specificity made the story more believable and more terrible.
“Do you remember when?”
“No.”
May you like
“That’s okay.”
“One was when you went to Akron.”
