Chương 5
She explained that there would likely be a specialized interview for Maya rather than multiple adults asking her the same questions.
Ethan nodded.
“I haven’t asked her what she was supposed to keep secret.”
“Good.”
“I asked if Rachel hurt her.”
“That’s understandable.”
“I should not have?”
Priya did not scold him.
“Right now the important thing is not turning Maya into the source of answers for adults.”
He looked toward the living room.
Maya was watching an animated movie with the volume too low.
“She is the source.”
“She may have information. That’s different.”
Ethan rubbed his face.
“I just need to know what happened.”
“I know.”
“No, I mean—”
He stopped.
Priya waited.
He lowered his voice.
“If her mother put her in danger, I need to know before somebody tells me I have to send her back.”
“That’s why there is a process.”
“I don’t have much faith in processes right now.”
Priya gave a tired half smile.
“Most people meet us on their worst day. I’m used to that.”
The detective asked about Rachel’s access to the house, her relationship with Maya, and why she had been babysitting.
Ethan explained.
He and Elise shared parenting time under an arrangement they had reached after the divorce. It was supposed to be Elise’s weekend, but Elise had asked Ethan two days earlier if Maya could stay with him because of a work training. Ethan had a pool-repair appointment Saturday afternoon and had asked Rachel to sit with Maya for two hours while he dealt with the contractor outside.
“Why your sister?” Shaw asked.
“Because she’s my sister.”
The answer sounded stupid now.
“She’s watched Maya before?”
“Lots of times.”
“Any concerns?”
“No.”
That was not entirely true.
Rachel was unreliable with time. She occasionally let Maya eat candy before dinner. Once she had forgotten to pack Maya’s jacket after taking her to a movie and insisted the theater had lost it.
Nothing that looked like danger when placed beside a raised vase.
“Your relationship with Rachel?”
Ethan looked at Priya.
“Complicated.”
Shaw waited.
“She borrows money.”
“From you?”
“Used to.”
“When did that stop?”
“About a year ago.”
“Why?”
“Because it was never borrowing.”
He felt petty saying it.
Shaw wrote something down anyway.
“Did she resent that?”
“Yes.”
“Did she have financial problems currently?”
“I don’t know.”
That was true.
He had stopped asking.
The specialized interview happened Monday afternoon.
Ethan was not in the room.
He sat in a waiting area with a vending machine that hummed too loudly and a stack of magazines no one had opened in years.
Maya went with the interviewer holding Bunny by one arm.
She turned at the door.
“Are you staying?”
“I’m staying.”
“You won’t go get coffee?”
He looked at the vending machine.
“I promise I will not get coffee.”
That promise he could keep.
After she disappeared, Ethan sat down.
Then stood.
Then sat again.
Dana arrived twenty minutes later, not because she needed to be there but because she was nearby and Ethan had sounded, in her words, “like a man about to crawl through drywall.”
She bought pretzels from the vending machine.
“They’re terrible,” she said.
He took one anyway.
“How long does this take?”
“It takes however long it takes.”
“People should be banned from saying that.”
“Agreed.”
He ate another pretzel.
It was terrible.
Maya came out forty-seven minutes later.
She looked tired rather than relieved.
Ethan stood.
He did not ask what she had said.
That may have been the hardest thing he had done all week.
In the truck she asked if they could listen to the song about the dancing banana.
He played it three times.
That evening Detective Shaw called.
She did not give Ethan every detail of the interview.
She gave him enough.
Maya had described repeated arguments at Elise’s house involving Elise’s boyfriend, Owen Price.
Ethan knew Owen existed.
He had met him twice.
Forty years old, clean beard, pleasant handshake, sold medical equipment and had once spent ten minutes explaining an expensive smoker to Ethan at Maya’s school fundraiser.
Ethan had disliked him for no defensible reason.
That memory now felt like evidence even though it was not.
“What did Maya say he did?” Ethan asked.
Shaw paused.
“She described seeing him push her mother during an argument.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
“She also described an incident in which he grabbed Maya by the upper arm when she tried to enter the room.”
The mark.
His fingers tightened around the phone.
“And the cheek?”
“She said Rachel slapped her Saturday morning.”
Ethan walked to the window.
Maya was at the kitchen table coloring.
“What was Rachel trying to stop her from telling me?”
“She described her mother telling her not to talk to you about arguments with Owen. She said Rachel repeated that.”
“Repeated how?”
“I’m not going to walk you through every statement.”
“Why?”
“Because Maya may need to speak about this again in formal settings, and I don’t want you unintentionally shaping her memory.”
He knew she was right.
He hated her for being right.
“What about the money?”
“Maya said Rachel told her that her mother paid her to help Maya ‘stop causing trouble.’”
Ethan stared outside at a delivery driver placing a box on the wrong porch across the street.
The driver checked his phone, picked the box back up, and carried it next door.
The world was unbearably normal.
“Does Elise know we know?”
“I’ve spoken with her.”
“And?”
“I can’t discuss the entire investigation with you.”
“She’s the mother of my child.”
“I’m aware.”
Ethan laughed once.
It sounded mean.
“Sorry.”
Shaw’s voice softened a little.
“Mr. Carter, I know you want a complete answer tonight. You are not going to get one.”
“What am I supposed to do with that?”
“Keep Maya safe. Follow your lawyer’s advice. Don’t confront Owen.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“You paused too long.”
May you like
He almost told her to go to hell.
Instead he said, “Fine.”
