Chương 5
“The preliminary safety plan is that she sleeps and nobody posts her address on the internet.”
Elaine rubbed her forehead. “We’ll return at two.”
“Make it four.”
“Three.”
“Three thirty.”
Elaine almost smiled. “Fine.”
When they left, Marcus remained near the door.
“I work for Mr. Mercer,” he told Ruth. “There may be security concerns because of the media attention.”
“There may be security concerns because somebody working for Mr. Mercer leaked a child’s face.”
Marcus accepted that. “Yes.”
“Are you the somebody?”
“No.”
“Do you know who is?”
“Not yet.”
Ruth glanced at Lily. “Then find out somewhere else.”
Marcus reached into his pocket and placed a card on the entry table.
“My personal number is on the back.”
Lily said, “I don’t have a phone.”
He looked at the landline mounted on the kitchen wall. “That antique works.”
After he left, Ruth’s foster son, Milo, stood in the hallway staring at Lily.
“What?” she asked.
He held up the dinosaur. “This is Henry.”
“It’s a stegosaurus.”
“Henry is a stegosaurus.”
“Okay.”
“He bites people who steal waffles.”
“I don’t like waffles.”
Milo considered that. “Then you’re safe.”
Ruth made scrambled eggs. Lily ate standing at the counter because sitting felt like accepting hospitality. Ruth did not comment.
At eight twenty, a morning news program showed Daniel Mercer entering the hospital. The lower-third banner identified him as the founder and chief executive of Mercer Vale Holdings. Beside his photograph appeared an image of Lily in the silver blanket.
Ruth turned off the television.
“They said my name?”
“No.”
“They will.”
“Probably.”
“You’re bad at making people feel better.”
“I’m excellent at it. I just don’t use lying.”
Lily put down her fork.
“Can I call the hospital?”
Ruth handed her the cordless phone.
A hospital operator transferred the call three times. At last Marcus answered.
“Is he awake?” Lily asked.
“He’s in surgery.”
Her stomach tightened.
“For what?”
“They’re stabilizing his pelvis. The doctors say his spinal injury may improve as the swelling goes down.”
“May.”
“Yes.”
“Is his dad there?”
“He hasn’t moved.”
Lily stared at the steam rising from the eggs.
“Tell Ethan I didn’t leave him outside.”
“I will.”
“And don’t tell his dad where I am.”
There was a pause.
“I won’t.”
She hung up before she could ask whether Daniel had tried.
Lily slept for three hours and woke because someone was knocking on the front door.
Ruth told Milo to stay in the kitchen. She looked through the peephole, then cursed softly.
“What?”
“News.”
Lily crossed the room.
A woman’s voice called from outside. “Ms. Bennett, we only want to speak with Lily Parker about her heroic actions.”
Ruth turned toward Lily.
“How do they know?”
Lily’s heartbeat moved into her throat.
Another knock.
“We have information about a reward from the Mercer family.”
Ruth went to the upstairs window and pulled the curtain aside one inch. Two reporters stood near the steps. A camera operator waited by the curb. Across the street, a man held up his phone.
“Go to the back bedroom,” Ruth said.
“No.”
“Lily.”
“I’m not hiding in a closet because they broke the rules.”
“It’s not surrender. It’s privacy.”
“They’ll stay if they think I’m scared.”
“They’ll stay if they think they can get a picture.”
The doorbell rang again.
Milo began to cry in the kitchen.
That decided it.
Lily went to him and crouched.
“They’re not here for you.”
“They know the goose.”
“They don’t care about the goose.”
“He’s outside alone.”
Lily looked at Ruth.
Ruth opened the front door just far enough to step onto the landing and shut it behind her.
The reporter began speaking at once.
“Ms. Bennett, can you confirm Lily Parker is inside?”
“No.”
“Is she receiving the one-million-dollar reward reportedly offered by Daniel Mercer?”
“No.”
“Did child services place her here?”
“No.”
“Do you deny she’s in the house?”
“I deny that your parents raised you correctly.”
Lily heard the camera operator laugh.
Ruth came back inside and locked the door.
“One million dollars?” Lily asked.
“News people add zeros when facts are boring.”
The phone rang.
It was Elaine.
Ruth listened, said, “Your confidential placement lasted under four hours,” and then carried the phone into the living room, where her voice became low and angry.
Lily stood beside the window.
Across the street, the man with the phone was still watching the house.
He did not look like a reporter. His jacket was too thin, his posture too still. When a bus passed, he turned his face away.
Lily knew that movement.
Ray had done the same thing near the Greenridge fence whenever staff cars arrived.
She dropped below the window.
“What is it?” Ruth asked.
“The man across the street.”
Ruth looked through the curtain.
“He’s gone.”
“He was there.”
“I believe you.”
The answer came without delay.
Lily almost hated Ruth for making belief feel so simple.
Marcus arrived twelve minutes later with two private security officers. Elaine objected by phone. Ruth objected in person. Milo asked whether they had guns. Nobody answered him.
Marcus reviewed the doorbell camera footage.
The reporters were clear. The man across the street appeared only at the edge of the frame, partly hidden by a parked van.
Lily pointed. “That’s him.”
“Ray?” Marcus asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You said—”
“I said he moved like him.”
Marcus replayed the footage.
The man wore a dark knit cap and kept his hands in his pockets. His face never turned fully toward the camera.
“Could be anybody,” one security officer said.
Lily stepped away from the screen.
Marcus looked at the officer. “That wasn’t useful.”
“It’s true.”
“So is the fact that she noticed him before any of us.”
The officer fell silent.
Marcus called Daniel. He stood near the kitchen, speaking quietly, but Lily heard her name and the word relocation.
“No,” she said.
Marcus covered the phone. “What?”
“I’m not relocating.”
May you like
“There’s a potential threat.”
“There’s a man in a hat.”
