Chương 3
At 2:15, Daniel stepped into the hallway and called Detective Rachel Soto.
He did not know her. Her number was on the card a city patrol officer had left at the nurses’ station. She answered on the fourth ring with traffic noise behind her.
“This is Soto.”
“My name is Daniel Mercer. I’m Lily Mercer’s father.”
“I was about to come upstairs.”
“I need you to know a campus security supervisor named Wade Rusk may have witnessed the attack.”
The traffic noise disappeared as a car door closed.
“What makes you say that?”
“My daughter identified him.”
“Your daughter is able to speak?”
“No.”
“Then tell me exactly what happened. Not what you concluded.”
Daniel disliked her immediately.
He told her anyway.
Soto arrived ten minutes later wearing dark slacks, a rain jacket, and a tired expression that became more alert as he described Lily’s reaction. She was in her mid-thirties, small enough that people probably underestimated her and composed enough that they did so only once.
“You asked whether Rusk assaulted her,” Soto said.
“I asked whether he was the man who had been in the room.”
“That is not the same question.”
“I know.”
“You asked whether he saw it happen.”
“She answered yes.”
“Maybe she answered yes to your voice. Maybe she was frightened. Maybe medication affected her response.”
“She reacted when he entered.”
“I believe she reacted. I’m not saying it’s meaningless.”
“It means he was there.”
“It means I need to interview him.”
“He’s finishing a report.”
“He told you that?”
“He said Officer Dodd was.”
Soto wrote the name down. Her pen left a tiny ink mark on the side of her finger.
“Did Rusk explain how he knew about the stairwell?”
“He claimed he’d read a preliminary report.”
“Did he say east stairwell before you did?”
“Yes.”
“Did anyone at the hospital tell you that location?”
“No.”
“All right.”
Daniel pointed to the evidence bin. “Her phone is missing. There’s something in the hoodie pocket.”
Soto crossed the room and examined the sealed bag without touching it. She crouched slightly, studying the pocket through the plastic.
“I see it.”
“Rusk stared at the bag.”
“That could mean something. It could also mean he saw his institution’s student’s bloody clothing.”
“There’s hardly any blood.”
Soto looked at him. “That wasn’t my point.”
Daniel folded his arms. He had commanded people older than her and briefed people with stars on their shoulders. None of that mattered here, which irritated him more than it should have.
“You were military,” Soto said.
“Still am. Army Reserve.”
“What did you do?”
“Logistics command.”
“That’s not the answer people give when they want you to know they’ve been in combat.”
“I’ve been in combat.”
“I figured.”
She stood. “Then you know the difference between information and intelligence. Right now, we have information.”
“My daughter knows who attacked her.”
“And when her doctors say it’s safe, we’ll get her statement in a way that doesn’t put words in her mouth.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
Soto noticed. “You can dislike me. That’s fine. But don’t question her again tonight. Every answer needs to survive defense attorneys, medication records, trauma experts, and people who will claim you influenced her. Protecting the case is part of protecting her.”
He looked back at Lily.
The phrase defense attorneys made the room feel colder. It moved the attack out of the night and into a future of fluorescent hearing rooms, paperwork, strangers discussing his daughter’s pain as evidence.
“What are you doing now?” he asked.
“Collecting the clothing, confirming the scene, interviewing security staff, checking ambulance records, and locating her phone.”
“Camera footage?”
“City investigators requested it.”
“Requested?”
“Bradley is turning it over voluntarily.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“Then we obtain what we need another way.”
“That takes time.”
“Yes.”
“Time for someone to erase it.”
Soto capped her pen. “Which is why I’m leaving now.”
At the door, she looked back.
“Colonel Mercer, do not confront Wade Rusk.”
Daniel said nothing.
“That wasn’t a suggestion.”
“I heard you.”
“I didn’t ask whether you heard me.”
She waited until he said, “I won’t confront him.”
After she left, Daniel sat in the vinyl chair and watched rain crawl down the window. A maintenance worker entered with a mop, saw Lily, and backed out without touching the floor. A few minutes later he returned with a yellow sign and set it near the sink, though nothing had spilled.
At four in the morning, Daniel found a vending machine that sold coffee labeled FRENCH ROAST. The liquid tasted like warm cardboard. He drank it anyway.
His former wife, Karen, called while he stood beside the machine.
They had been divorced for eight years. She lived in Oregon now, where she managed a dental practice and raised two stepchildren with a man who owned a kayak store. Daniel had not yet told her because Lily had insisted years earlier that her medical information was hers to share.
The hospital had called Karen after finding her listed as an emergency contact.
“What happened?” she asked.
Daniel closed his eyes.
“She was attacked on campus.”
Karen made a sound he had never heard from her. “Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
“Daniel.”
“She’s alive.”
“What does that mean?”
He told her about the fractures. He left out the bruising until she asked. He left out the defensive wounds until she asked again. Each omitted detail became an accusation.
“I’m booking a flight.”
“Portland airport won’t have anything until morning.”
“I know how airports work.”
“I can send a car.”
“I don’t need you to arrange my life.”
“I’m trying to help.”
“No, you’re trying to have something to do.”
The words struck because they were true.
Karen began crying, not loudly. “Was she alone?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did she call you?”
“No.”
“Why didn’t she call either of us?”
“She couldn’t.”
“Before.”
Daniel looked at the coffee in his hand. “We’ll find out.”
Karen was silent.
May you like
“What?” he asked.
“She called me Tuesday.”
