Chương 10
“I was afraid.”
“You always say being afraid doesn’t mean you get to do stupid things.”
Daniel nodded.
“I say a lot of things better than I do them.”
Sophie looked at him.
It was close to a joke.
Neither of them smiled.
“Are you going to jail?”
“I don’t know.”
“If you do, can I have your watch?”
Daniel blinked.
“Which one?”
“The black one.”
“That’s the cheapest one.”
“I know. The gold one is ugly.”
A small laugh escaped him before he could stop it.
Sophie did not laugh.
Then her mouth moved slightly.
The moment disappeared almost immediately.
Daniel leaned forward, elbows on knees.
“Maya is coming back.”
“You don’t know that.”
“You’re right.”
Sophie seemed satisfied by the correction.
Then she said, “I want to talk to her.”
Daniel glanced toward the detective.
Shaw nodded.
They arranged it.
Maya answered from Rachel’s kitchen.
When Sophie’s face appeared, Maya pressed both hands over her mouth.
Sophie immediately started crying.
It embarrassed her so much that she turned away from the screen.
“You look stupid,” Maya said.
Sophie laughed while crying.
“You cut your hair.”
“Don’t.”
“It’s really bad.”
“I know.”
“Did Aunt Rachel do it?”
“No.”
“That explains it.”
Daniel looked down.
The sisters talked for nine minutes.
Nothing important happened for the first five.
Sophie described the luggage cart.
Maya said she wished there was video.
Sophie told her there definitely was video and Victoria had cameras everywhere because rich people apparently needed more cameras than normal people.
Maya asked if Sophie had missed her birthday gift.
Sophie said the gift had been a book and therefore did not count.
Then Maya became quiet.
“Soph.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For leaving.”
Sophie stared at the screen.
“You could have told me.”
“I was scared you’d tell Mom.”
“I wouldn’t.”
“You tell Mom everything.”
“I’m nine.”
“Exactly.”
Sophie crossed her arms.
“I thought you were dead.”
Maya’s face collapsed.
Daniel turned his chair away.
“I’m sorry.”
“Everybody kept saying you were safe.”
“I was.”
“That doesn’t mean anything if nobody tells you where somebody is.”
Maya nodded.
“I know.”
Sophie wiped her nose with the back of her hand.
“Did Marcus take pictures of you?”
The adults stiffened.
Maya looked toward someone off screen.
Then back.
“I think so.”
“Did he take pictures of me?”
“I don’t know.”
Sophie’s face went pale.
Maya immediately said, “Hey. That doesn’t mean he did.”
“Why did he change my smoke detector?”
Maya stopped.
“What?”
“He changed it after you left.”
Daniel stood.
Detective Shaw raised a hand.
He sat again.
Maya leaned closer to the camera.
“When?”
“I don’t know. Like two days after.”
“What kind?”
“White.”
“They’re all white, genius.”
“The new one has a blue light.”
Maya looked off screen again.
“Mine had a blue light.”
Sophie’s breathing changed.
Shaw ended the conversation gently.
That detail triggered a search process that took hours, not minutes.
Laura gave investigators permission to enter the home.
She did not go with them.
Marcus’s belongings were still there, but Marcus was gone.
He had left the key on the counter as requested.
He had taken two suitcases.
The smoke detector in Sophie’s bedroom was removed for examination.
So was the one from Maya’s room.
One turned out to be an ordinary alarm.
The other did not.
Laura learned this sitting in Victoria’s office at 2:40 that afternoon.
Detective Shaw did not provide elaborate details.
She only said investigators had found a concealed recording device inside the unit from Maya’s room.
The room tilted.
Laura gripped the chair.
“And Sophie’s?”
“Nothing obvious. It will still be examined.”
Laura stared ahead.
“I left him in my house.”
Shaw waited.
“I told Maya she was misunderstanding.”
No one corrected her.
“I made her apologize to him.”
Laura’s voice broke.
“I made my daughter apologize.”
Victoria was at her desk pretending to read an email.
She had learned that sometimes privacy meant remaining in the room without looking.
Laura wiped her eyes.
“Where is Marcus?”
“We’re locating him.”
“Is he being arrested?”
“I can’t promise what happens or when. We are still establishing facts.”
Laura laughed bitterly.
“I hate that answer.”
From the sofa, Sophie said, “See?”
Everyone looked at her.
She was eating crackers.
For one absurd second, Laura started laughing.
Sophie looked offended.
Then Victoria laughed too.
Shaw tried not to.
The laughter lasted perhaps eight seconds.
Then Laura started crying again.
That was how the day went.
Nothing stayed one thing.
Daniel was not arrested at the terminal.
That angered Laura at first.
Then she found herself relieved.
Then angry at herself for being relieved.
Investigators documented his attempt to travel internationally with Sophie and the false manifest information. His attorney arranged for him to surrender Sophie’s passport and his own pending further proceedings. He agreed to no unsupervised contact with Sophie until the family court reviewed what had happened.
He did not argue.
That worried Sophie more than if he had.
Maya’s return required coordination.
Rachel transported the phone to local authorities rather than simply carrying it onto a flight. Arrangements were made for Maya to travel back with her aunt after the relevant interviews and evidence transfer were handled.
It took four days.
Those four days felt longer than the previous forty-three.
Laura did not return to the house.
She and Sophie stayed in a hotel near Coconut Grove, then with Laura’s friend Denise when the hotel room began to feel like a place where bad news waited under doors.
Denise was an orthodontist with two teenage sons and a refrigerator so full nobody could close the vegetable drawer.
Sophie hated sleeping on the pullout couch.
She also slept nine hours the first night.
Laura slept three.
Marcus sent messages.
At first angry.
Then wounded.
Then reasonable.
He said there had been a terrible misunderstanding.
He said he had never harmed either girl.
May you like
He said the device might have been installed before he moved in.
He said Maya had always hated him.
