Chương 2
They arrived in pieces: Dr. Ruiz saying Ethan’s name too loudly; a bag of Adrian’s blood turning slowly on the collection scale; a hospital administrator in a gray suit appearing at the glass doors and being physically prevented from entering by a security officer who was not one of Adrian’s; Maya asking Claire when Ethan had last eaten; Claire failing to remember whether he had finished his juice at breakfast; Adrian’s silver watch resting on the counter because the nurse had ordered him to remove it.
Claire kept looking at the watch.
Seven years earlier, that watch had lain on a hotel nightstand while Adrian slept beside her, his hand open on the pillow between them. She had watched the second hand move and wondered whether it was possible to love a man and fear what he did when he left the room.
At four that morning, she had dressed without turning on a light.
She had been eleven weeks pregnant.
Now the same watch lay beside a tray of sealed syringes while their son bled beneath hospital lights.
“Ms. Bennett?”
A woman in a navy jacket stood near her shoulder. She had a badge clipped at her waist and rain darkening one sleeve. Her hair was braided close to her head, and there was a coffee stain on the paper cup in her hand.
“Detective Simone Alvarez,” she said. “Major Crimes.”
Claire looked at the badge, then at Adrian.
He remained seated beside the donor equipment. His arm was connected to the bag. His expression gave nothing away, but Gavin had entered the room and now stood behind him, close enough to hear every word.
Alvarez noticed the arrangement.
“Mr. Blackwood,” she said.
“Detective.”
“I’d ask whether you had permission to lock down a city hospital, but I already know the answer.”
“I came to donate blood.”
“You came with four armed employees and an unauthorized override code.”
Gavin stepped forward. “We received a credible threat against Mr. Blackwood and the child.”
Alvarez turned toward him. “I wasn’t speaking to you.”
Gavin’s face did not change. He was somewhere in his late forties, solidly built, with skin weathered around the eyes. He wore a black compression glove on his left hand beneath the cuff of his suit. Claire noticed it only because he used that hand to adjust his tie.
Alvarez looked back at Claire. “I need to ask you questions.”
“Not here,” Adrian said.
Claire’s exhaustion sharpened into anger. “You don’t get to decide that.”
His eyes came to her.
There were entire years inside that look. None of them gave him permission.
Dr. Ruiz moved between the bed and the detective. “You have three minutes before we take Ethan upstairs. Ask only what affects treatment.”
Alvarez opened a small notebook.
“When did he become ill?”
“At school.” Claire swallowed. Her throat felt lined with dust. “He called from the nurse’s office yesterday afternoon. Stomach pain, dizziness. I picked him up. He slept most of the evening.”
“You didn’t bring him in then?”
“I called the pediatric line. He was awake. He drank water. They told me to watch for worsening symptoms.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
Claire turned on him. “Do not.”
He did not ask what she meant.
Alvarez kept her tone neutral. “What happened this morning?”
“He tried to get out of bed and fell. He said his side hurt. Then he threw up and there was…” She looked at the stained shirt. “I called 911.”
“What had he eaten or taken in the previous forty-eight hours?”
“Normal food.”
“Medication?”
“Children’s fever medicine last night. The bottle is in my apartment.”
“Anything delivered to your home? Gifts, food, packages?”
Claire started to say no.
Then she remembered the cardboard box on the kitchen counter.
It had arrived Tuesday evening, two days earlier. A plain brown parcel with Ethan’s name printed in green marker. Inside were dinosaur-shaped fruit chews and a folded card that said, GREAT WORK, JUNIOR PALEONTOLOGIST.
She had assumed it came from school. Ethan’s class had been studying fossils. He had eaten two while doing math homework and complained that one tasted “like old pennies.”
Claire’s grip loosened around his fingers.
“A package,” she said.
Every person near her went still.
“What kind?” Alvarez asked.
“Candy. Dinosaur fruit chews.”
“Where is it?”
“At my apartment.”
“Did he eat them?”
“Yes.”
“How many?”
“I don’t know. Two. Maybe three.”
Adrian’s face changed.
It was not louder than anger. It was worse. His attention sharpened around Claire as if the room had narrowed to one question he could not ask without blaming her.
She heard it anyway.
“How was I supposed to know?” she said.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Alvarez interrupted. “Who else knew the package arrived?”
“My building manager may have seen it. It was left inside the lobby.”
“Was there a return address?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Did you keep the card?”
“It might still be on the counter.”
Gavin touched his earpiece.
Alvarez snapped her notebook shut. “Mr. Rusk, remove your hand.”
He lowered it.
“If anyone connected to Mr. Blackwood enters Ms. Bennett’s apartment, touches the package, speaks to the building manager, accesses security footage, or interferes with the scene, I will charge that person with obstruction.”
Gavin glanced at Adrian.
Adrian did not look at him. “No one goes near it.”
Alvarez studied the two men for a moment. “Good.”
Hospital staff began moving Ethan’s bed. The wheels clicked over the seams in the floor. Claire walked beside him until Maya stopped her at the elevator.
“We need to take him directly to surgery,” the nurse said. “Dr. Ruiz will update you as soon as she can.”
“I’m his mother.”
“I know.”
“I go with him.”
“You can ride to the surgical floor, but you can’t go past the doors.”
May you like
Claire looked through the elevator at Ethan’s pale face.
Adrian stood as the needle was removed from his arm. His blood filled the collection bag, dark and impossibly ordinary. Maya pressed gauze over the puncture and told him to hold it.
