Chương 3
“This room is already part of the matter,” Ortiz said. “We can move you after the premises are secured, but I need to know whether the materials were collected by you, placed in your study by you, and maintained under your control.”
“Yes.”
“Has anyone else accessed them?”
“No.”
Margaret touched her brooch again.
Daniel looked directly at her. “Apparently.”
Margaret’s expression changed. Not much. The corners of her mouth tightened, and the composure she had worn for decades became an effort visible to everyone.
Ortiz passed the evidence sleeve to Harris. “Agent, photograph the study before anything else moves. Colonel, you’ll come with us once we complete the initial inventory. Commander Reynolds, you and the children may remain or leave. I recommend the children leave.”
Kesha had known that recommendation would come. She had agreed with it before stepping from the helicopter. Yet leaving now felt like repeating the old pattern—Margaret controlling the room while Kesha disappeared from it.
Then Ethan whispered, “Mom, my stomach hurts.”
The decision became simple.
Kesha stood. “We’re leaving.”
Daniel’s face tightened. “Where?”
Her eyes met his. “Somewhere they can breathe.”
“Can I see them again?”
The question came too quickly. Kesha saw Noah hear it. Sophia pretended not to. Olivia stared openly at Daniel. Ethan’s hand remained pressed to his abdomen.
“You’ll speak to investigators first,” Kesha said. “Then you’ll speak to an attorney. After that, we decide what is safe for them.”
“They’re my children.”
Kesha’s restraint thinned. “Biology did not keep them alive.”
Daniel recoiled as if she had struck him.
She hated herself for the satisfaction that followed. It lasted less than a second, but she felt it. Six years of surgeries, fevers, school forms, nightmares, rent payments before her reinstatement, and birthdays where one chair remained absent had left an ugly corner in her. She had believed she had mastered it. The corner had merely been waiting for his face.
Claire looked from Kesha to Daniel.
“You should let them go,” she said.
Daniel’s eyes closed briefly. When he opened them, he stepped aside.
Kesha guided the children toward the doorway. Olivia kept looking back. Noah did not. Ethan shuffled carefully, guarding his stomach. Sophia paused beside the fallen ring box.
She looked down at the diamond.
Then she looked at Claire.
“I’m sorry,” Sophia said.
Claire’s face crumpled for the first time. She pressed her lips together and nodded.
Sophia hurried after her family.
Snow had begun to collect on the stone steps. A military driver waited beside a dark SUV, the helicopter having moved to the landing area beyond the residence after delivering them. Wind lifted the edge of Kesha’s coat as she helped the children inside. Olivia climbed to the far seat. Ethan sat beside her. Sophia took the middle row. Noah remained on the sidewalk.
“Mom.”
“Get in.”
“Did he know?”
Kesha looked back at the open doorway. Daniel stood inside beneath the garland, surrounded by relatives who no longer seemed to know where to put their hands. Harris moved behind him toward the study. Margaret had seated herself near the fireplace, one hand at her brooch, her silver gown arranged around her like armor.
“I don’t know,” Kesha said.
Noah’s face tightened. “You always know.”
“No. I usually tell you what I’ve decided. That’s different.”
He considered this.
“Do you think he’s lying?”
“I don’t know that either.”
Noah glanced at Daniel again. “He looked like Ethan when the hospital called.”
Kesha remembered that day. Ethan had been waiting for test results after a mass appeared on his kidney. It was benign, but for three hours they had lived in another world. When the phone rang, Ethan had stood completely still, unable to reach for it.
“Get in the car,” she said more softly.
Noah obeyed.
As the SUV pulled away, Kesha did not look back. She watched the children in the rearview mirror instead. Olivia had unfastened her cape and wrapped it around Ethan’s shoulders. Sophia stared at the dark windows of the residence until the house disappeared behind snow-covered pines. Noah held his hands flat on his knees.
Nobody spoke for five minutes.
Then Ethan said, “I think I’m hungry.”
Sophia turned toward him. “You said your stomach hurt.”
“It hurts because I’m hungry.”
“You ate crackers on the helicopter.”
“That was aviation food.”
“They were normal crackers.”
“They tasted like aviation.”
The driver made a small sound that might have been a laugh. Kesha looked out the window so the children would not see her smile. It felt wrong to smile, which made the impulse stronger. Her body was searching for any door out of the moment.
They were taken to temporary quarters on the southern edge of Fort Carson, a furnished townhouse usually reserved for visiting officers. A small artificial tree stood in the living room with plastic ornaments and a timer-controlled string of white lights. Someone from Ortiz’s team had stocked the refrigerator with sandwiches, fruit, milk, and a grocery-store cake decorated with a crooked green wreath.
The children removed their formal clothes in stages, leaving navy and gold pieces across the furniture despite Kesha asking twice that they keep everything together. Olivia wore thermal leggings beneath her cape. Ethan’s ceremonial trousers had left a red mark at his waist. Sophia folded her uniform carefully, then abandoned one glove on the kitchen counter. Noah remained dressed until Kesha told him to change.
“Are investigators coming here?” he asked.
“Not tonight.”
“Will they arrest Grandma?”
“I don’t know.”
“Will they arrest Dad?”
Kesha paused beside the refrigerator.
“No one has told me that.”
“But could they?”
“Anyone can be investigated. That is not the same as being guilty.”
Noah frowned. “That sounds like something you say at work.”
“It is.”
“Does it mean you don’t know?”
“Yes.”
May you like
He accepted this with visible disappointment.
Kesha cut the sandwiches into halves because Ethan claimed whole sandwiches tasted different. She had once argued with him about it for ten minutes before deciding that parenthood contained enough battles without recruiting bread. Olivia ate only the cheese from hers. Sophia carried a plate to the couch and sat with her feet tucked beneath her. Noah did not eat.
