Chương 10
“Do the police have the videos?” she asked.
“Brittany deleted them.”
“That doesn’t mean they’re gone.”
“No.”
“What was I doing?”
“She said most of it was ordinary.”
“That isn’t what she was trying to record.”
“No.”
Hannah stood carefully. “I need air.”
“You can’t leave Noah.”
“You’re here.”
“The safety plan—”
“Says you can supervise.”
She put on the sweatshirt Gail had brought from the hospital donation closet.
Ethan watched her tie the sleeves around her waist because the room was warmer than the hallway.
“Where are you going?”
“Outside.”
“I’ll come.”
“No.”
“Hannah.”
“I need ten minutes in a place where nobody is watching to decide whether I look dangerous.”
He did not follow her.
Through the window, he watched her walk to the edge of the parking lot. She stood near a patch of grass between the hotel and the tire store, arms wrapped around herself, looking at the freeway.
He almost checked the time.
Instead, he sat beside Noah.
Hannah returned after seven minutes.
Neither of them mentioned it.
The home assessment took place two days later. Gail attended with a county investigator named Tasha Bell. A police officer came because Diane still had keys, though she had agreed through her lawyer not to appear.
The house looked almost normal.
Dirty bottles remained in the sink. A muslin cloth lay beneath the dining table. Groceries Diane had purchased were lined neatly on the counter. Someone had cleaned the living room.
Hannah stopped in the doorway.
“The rug was crooked,” she said.
Gail waited.
“It was folded under the couch when the paramedics came. From my feet.”
Tasha photographed the floor.
The robe belt was gone. Police had already collected it from the laundry room after Diane told them she had placed it there. The couch cushions had been cleaned. A damp line remained where upholstery had dried unevenly.
Ethan went upstairs to the nursery.
The baby monitor faced the wall.
He photographed it before touching anything.
In the kitchen, Hannah opened the drawer where they kept spare keys. Empty.
“She took them,” Hannah said.
“Maybe police collected them,” Ethan answered.
“They didn’t.”
Gail looked at him.
He heard himself minimizing uncertainty in Diane’s favor and felt sick.
“I’ll change the locks,” he said.
The company housing agreement arrived by email while they were still inside the house. It gave Ethan seven days to vacate following suspension or termination of employment. The document carried his electronic signature from two years earlier.
He did not remember signing it.
The signature was probably genuine. Diane often presented stacks of forms at work, tapping where he should sign.
Seven days.
Every solution now came with a clock attached.
They returned to the hotel with two suitcases, Noah’s bassinet, the unopened blue blanket, and a cardboard box of documents. Gail advised them not to stay in the house while Diane retained legal access.
Hannah carried the blue blanket into the room.
“I hate this thing,” she said.
Ethan looked at the sealed package. “Why?”
“You bought it while I was downstairs being photographed.”
“I bought it before.”
“I know.”
She placed it on top of the dresser.
“It looks like a present for a different family.”
On Friday, Carter Electric terminated Ethan for “failure to comply with project supervision responsibilities and unauthorized removal of confidential records.” His insurance would continue through the end of the month.
Ray resigned the same afternoon.
“You didn’t have to do that,” Ethan told him.
“I didn’t do it for you.”
“Why then?”
“Your mother asked me to alter the Fulton time sheet.”
“To show what?”
“That you left the site at ten forty instead of ten.”
Ethan gripped the phone. “Why?”
“So she could say you couldn’t have reached the house before the ambulance, even if someone claimed they called you earlier.”
“She wanted proof I wasn’t there.”
“She wanted proof she had a reason to handle the situation without you.”
“Did you change it?”
“No.”
“Will you tell the police?”
“I already did.”
Ethan sat on the edge of the hotel bed.
Ray continued. “I should’ve stopped covering for her years ago.”
“Don’t make me feel better.”
“I’m not. I’m trying to feel better.”
The detective obtained the Carter Electric messages through Ray and a company records request. Diane’s attorney argued that the messages reflected concern about Hannah’s mental health, not a plan to isolate her.
The baby monitor clips became part of the investigation. So did the draft statement Leonard Shaw had written, though the attorney threatened action over its disclosure.
Brittany did not return for a second interview.
For eleven days, she stopped answering messages.
During those days, Noah gained nine ounces. His fever did not return. Hannah’s bruises changed from purple to green, then yellow at the edges. Ethan submitted applications to twelve electrical contractors and received three polite rejections before learning Diane had called at least two company owners.
“She says you stole client documents,” Ray told him.
“I photographed a statement about my wife.”
“She’s calling it proprietary legal material.”
“That doesn’t even make sense.”
“It doesn’t need to. It only needs to make people nervous.”
They moved from the hotel into a small furnished apartment offered through a church program Gail knew. The apartment had one bedroom, a couch that folded out badly, and a refrigerator that made a rattling sound every nineteen minutes.
Hannah counted.
“It’s not nineteen every time,” Ethan said.
“It is.”
“Sometimes it’s eighteen.”
“You’re trying to defend the refrigerator.”
“I’m trying to be accurate.”
She stared at him.
Then, unexpectedly, she laughed.
The sound startled Noah in his bassinet.
Hannah covered her mouth. Ethan laughed too, quietly, and for several seconds they stood in the cramped kitchen listening to their son complain about being awakened.
It was the first good moment since the hospital.
May you like
They were both afraid to name it.
A week later, CPS ended the supervision requirement but kept the case open pending the police investigation. Tasha told them the available evidence supported Hannah’s account that she had sought medical help. She also told Hannah that her threat to break a window had raised concern.
