Chương 5
Sarah nodded.
The nurse waited, perhaps expecting a question. Sarah could not produce one. She sat and held Maisie’s hand while the fluorescent lights hummed and the monitor counted seconds none of them could retrieve.
Near midnight, Ruby began to stir.
Her eyelids fluttered. Her wrapped fingers moved against the blanket. A soft, unhappy sound came from her throat.
Sarah stood so quickly that the chair legs scraped the floor.
“Ruby?”
The nurse leaned over the bed. “Hi, sweetheart. Can you hear me?”
Ruby turned her face toward Sarah’s voice without opening her eyes.
“Mama.”
Sarah bent down until her forehead nearly touched Ruby’s.
“I’m here.”
“Cold.”
“I know.”
“Bunny.”
The gray rabbit was still sealed in evidence plastic on the counter.
Sarah looked at Mercer, who had returned after taking Eleanor’s statement status and speaking with detectives at the house.
“Can she have it?”
“Not yet.”
“It’s a stuffed animal.”
“It may contain trace evidence.”
Ruby whimpered again. “Bunny.”
Sarah picked up the bag and held it where Ruby could see through half-open eyes.
“He’s right here.”
“Wet.”
“He got wet too.”
“Blanket.”
Sarah found a clean washcloth, folded it into a small square, and tucked it against the outside of the evidence bag as though covering the rabbit. Ruby watched for a few seconds and then let her eyes close.
Maisie whispered, “She thinks that works.”
“Maybe it does.”
“No. I mean she thinks Bunny can feel it.”
Sarah sat between the beds.
“When you were four, you thought the moon followed our car because it liked you.”
“It does follow the car.”
“I stand corrected.”
A tiny smile appeared at the corner of Maisie’s mouth and vanished.
The ordinary exchange hurt more than the accusations had. Sarah looked down at their joined hands and saw dirt still embedded near Maisie’s cuticles despite the nurses’ careful cleaning.
“How did you get away from the house?” she asked.
Maisie’s fingers stiffened.
“You don’t have to answer now.”
“I climbed the fence.”
“The back gate?”
“Grandma locked it.”
“With a key?”
Maisie nodded.
Sarah thought of Eleanor’s palm.
“What happened to Grandma’s hand?”
“She tried to grab my coat.”
“You were climbing?”
“I pushed the metal thing up. The top part. It was stuck because of ice.”
“The latch.”
“Ruby kept falling down.”
Maisie stared toward the dark window. Snow struck the glass in small, dry taps.
“I told her we were playing explorer,” she said. “She cried anyway.”
“You got her over the gate?”
“I climbed first. Then I pulled her. Her shoe came off.”
The red velvet shoe sat sealed on the counter.
“Did Grandma come outside?”
“She opened the door when I was on the fence. She said to come back.”
“But the gate was locked.”
“She said Grandpa was almost done.”
“With what?”
Maisie looked at Sarah.
“I don’t know.”
It was the first lie she had told.
Sarah recognized it because Maisie’s voice became too careful, the way Sarah’s own voice had sounded with Officer Mercer.
“You heard something,” Sarah said.
Maisie’s eyes filled.
“Daddy was yelling.”
“What did he say?”
“He said Grandpa couldn’t use us.”
“Anything else?”
“He said, ‘She’s your daughter.’”
Sarah felt a pressure beneath her ribs.
“Grandpa said you always came back.”
“Back where?”
“I don’t know.”
Maisie turned her face toward the pillow.
The nurse with the clipboard intervened gently. “That’s enough for tonight.”
Sarah wanted to ask one more question, then another, until every minute in the snow had been accounted for. Instead she pulled the blanket higher over Maisie’s shoulder.
“You did everything right,” she said.
“I left Ruby’s shoe.”
“You got Ruby over the fence.”
“I dropped Bunny.”
“You went back for him?”
Maisie nodded.
Sarah closed her eyes.
“Next time, leave the bunny.”
Ruby made a sleepy protesting sound.
Maisie almost smiled again. “Don’t say that where she can hear.”
At two in the morning, a hospital social worker named Denise brought Sarah sweatpants, a long-sleeved shirt, and a charger for a loaned phone. Denise was in her fifties, with silver braids pinned at the back of her head and the unsentimental kindness of someone who had learned that frightened people did not need to be admired.
“You need to change,” she said.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re leaving puddles.”
Sarah looked beneath the chair. Water had gathered under her coat and spread toward the wall.
“Right.”
In the restroom, she peeled away her wet clothes. Her light-gray shirt clung to her back. Melted snow had carried mascara down beneath her eyes, leaving shadows like bruises. She cleaned her face with brown paper towels that scratched her skin.
Her body looked unharmed.
The fact offended her.
When she returned, Denise had found a plastic bag for the wet clothes and placed a cup of coffee on the windowsill.
“It’s terrible,” Denise said. “But it’s hot.”
Sarah drank it anyway.
Officer Mercer sat near the door, speaking quietly with a detective named Lena Brooks. Brooks wore plain clothes and carried two phones. She had a narrow face, tired eyes, and the focused patience of someone willing to wait longer than a lie.
“We obtained the first search warrant,” Brooks told Sarah. “The house and garage are being processed. Another team is at the office.”
“Is my father free to leave?”
“At the moment, yes. He’s with counsel.”
“My mother?”
“Also with counsel.”
“They admitted enough to arrest them.”
“Your mother made statements in a hospital corridor under complicated circumstances. We need physical evidence, interviews, records. We need the case to hold after tonight.”
Sarah hated the calmness of this. She wanted doors broken, handcuffs, public certainty. She wanted someone else to be as reckless as her father had been.
Brooks placed a yellow legal pad on her knee.
“I need you to tell me about the firm.”
“I don’t work there.”
“But you know the people.”
“Some.”
May you like
“Start with David’s firing.”
Sarah looked at the girls. Maisie appeared asleep, though her breathing changed whenever someone spoke her father’s name.
