Chương 3
"Sometimes."
"What did you see?"
Lily's fingers squeezed the rabbit until its head bent sideways.
"Gary had a shovel."
Daniel felt something cold move through his stomach.
Cole asked, "Did you see him hurt your mom?"
"No."
"Did you see your mother after she got out of the car?"
Lily nodded.
"Was she standing?"
"At first."
"And later?"
Lily's chin trembled.
"I don't know."
That mattered.
Daniel could feel Cole holding onto it.
"What did you see Gary do with the shovel?"
"Dig."
"Did you see what he put in the hole?"
Lily's eyes opened.
"No."
Daniel almost spoke.
Cole stopped him with a glance.
Lily said, "But Mom wasn't there anymore."
It was not proof of murder.
It was enough to make the room feel smaller.
At 3:18 a.m., Bellweather police reached 814 Juniper Lane.
The house was locked.
Claire's vehicle was gone.
Her purse was gone too, according to Lily, though a seven-year-old's inventory of her mother's belongings could not establish much. Claire had not reported for her scheduled hospital shift that evening. A supervisor had called twice. Claire had missed work before when Lily was sick, but according to the supervisor she always called.
Cole requested Claire's phone location through emergency procedures.
The last network activity put it near a highway corridor west of Bellweather at 8:53 p.m.
After that, nothing.
Gary acquired a last name before dawn.
Gary Rusk.
Claire's neighbor identified him from a DMV photograph. She had seen his pickup outside Claire's house several times during the previous month and had heard an argument in the driveway three nights earlier.
The neighbor had not called police.
"I didn't think it was that kind of argument," she said.
Daniel heard about it at 5:06 a.m. while drinking vending-machine coffee at the sheriff's office.
He stared at the cup.
"What kind did she think it was?"
Cole sat across from him with three case folders open.
"The kind people don't want to become involved in."
Daniel pushed the coffee away.
Lily was two rooms down with a child-services worker named Naomi Price.
They had located Lily's father in Arizona.
Evan Mercer had not seen his daughter in eleven months.
He and Claire were divorced. Claire had primary custody. Evan paid support irregularly and had an old DUI but no violent history. He was trying to get the first flight east.
Until then, Lily was going into emergency foster placement.
When Daniel told her, she asked, "Am I arrested?"
"No."
"Then why can't I go home?"
"Because your mom isn't there."
"I can wait."
"You can't stay by yourself."
"I know how."
He believed she probably did.
That made it worse.
She looked down at her motel slippers.
"Can you stay?"
Daniel should have said no.
He had already been on duty nine hours. Cole had the investigation. Child services had Lily. His responsibility had edges, and he'd spent enough of his career learning that pretending otherwise did not make anyone safer.
He said, "For a little while."
Naomi looked at him but did not object.
Lily sat at a plastic table coloring a photocopied cartoon dinosaur somebody had found in a cabinet.
She colored it brown.
Daniel sat opposite her.
After a while she said, "Dinosaurs probably didn't know what color they were."
"No."
"So people are guessing."
"Pretty much."
"That's dumb."
"Science involves some guessing."
She frowned. "Mom says guessing and science aren't the same."
"Your mom sounds smarter than me."
"She's a nurse."
"That explains it."
Lily colored one claw purple.
Daniel watched without commenting.
After another minute she said, "Gary didn't like Mom's job."
"Why?"
"He said she thought she was better than him."
"Did she?"
"No."
The purple crayon snapped.
Lily stared at the broken halves.
Daniel expected her to ask for another.
Instead she kept coloring with the shorter piece.
At 6:12, Cole came in.
"We found Claire's car."
Lily looked up.
Daniel stood.
"Where?"
"Abandoned service road off County Eight. About twenty-six miles from here."
"Blood?"
Cole looked at Lily.
Daniel understood.
He stepped into the hall.
Cole followed.
"Small amount on the front passenger door and center console. Could be anything. Vehicle's being processed."
"Shovel?"
"None."
"Rusk?"
"His pickup was seen on a traffic camera heading west at 9:31."
"Toward here."
"Yes."
"The service road?"
"We're searching."
Daniel looked through the narrow window in the door.
Lily had gone back to the dinosaur.
"Anything on 317?"
Cole's jaw shifted.
That was something.
"What?"
"The Briarwood doesn't have a Room 317."
"I know."
"Bus station has lockers numbered into the two hundreds. Train depot doesn't use public lockers anymore. County courthouse evidence lockers aren't numbered that way."
"So?"
"So maybe it's not a locker."
"Lily called it a locker key?"
"No. You called it a motel locker key in your initial radio note."
Daniel thought back.
He had seen the motel-style tag and made an assumption.
"Right."
Cole tapped her folder against her leg.
"We need to stop telling ourselves what things are before we know."
He did not enjoy hearing it.
He enjoyed less that she was right.
The key went to evidence.
So did the rabbit, eventually.
That became a problem.
When the technician explained that the rabbit might contain fibers, fingerprints or other evidence, Lily wrapped both arms around it and refused.
Naomi tried first.
Then Cole.
Then Daniel.
"No."
"Lily—"
"No."
"We'll give him back."
"You don't know that."
Daniel crouched.
She backed her chair away.
"You said nobody would take him."
"I said nobody would take him without telling you."
"That's cheating."
It was.
He could have defended the wording.
Instead he said, "Yeah."
Lily's eyes filled.
"You lied."
"I should've explained better."
"You lied."
Daniel sat on the floor.
Naomi gave him a look that said he had chosen an unnecessarily difficult method of having this conversation.
May you like
Maybe he had.
"The key was sewn inside Bunny," he said. "That means your mom may have put something else on him that can help us find her."
