Chapter 2 - Keep Him Talking
Daniel's hand stopped three inches from my phone.
For one impossible second, nobody moved.
Then Mara laughed nervously.
“It's probably somebody's phone inside.”
Daniel stared at the dirt.
“No.”
He pushed his fingers deeper.
My heartbeat became so loud I was certain he could hear it.
“Daniel,” Evelyn called.
He ignored her.
His fingers swept left.
Then right.
Plastic crackled.
His face changed.
Not dramatically.
Daniel rarely gave people that satisfaction.
His eyes simply sharpened.
“What is this?”
He hooked two fingers beneath the freezer bag.
I pressed the phone's side button.
The screen illuminated beneath the cloudy plastic.
Daniel pulled.
Mud slid from the bag.
Mara stood.
Evelyn's coffee cup struck the porch railing.
Daniel stared at the screen.
“What did you do?”
I didn't answer.
His thumb moved toward the phone.
Then a woman's voice came through the speaker.
Calm.
Professional.
Unmistakable.
“Sheriff's dispatch. We have your location. Keep him talking.”
Daniel went completely still.
So did Evelyn.
Mara whispered, “Oh my God.”
I looked directly at my husband.
For the first time in two days, I wasn't looking down.
Daniel recovered quickly.
He always did.
He lifted the phone closer.
“Hello? There's been a misunderstanding.”
The dispatcher didn't respond immediately.
Daniel smiled toward the device as if she could see him.
“My wife is pregnant and she's having some emotional difficulties.”
There it was.
His emergency exit.
He had been building it for months.
I said, “Tell her why I'm in the yard.”
Daniel looked at me.
“Rachel, don't.”
“Tell her.”
“You're confused.”
“What am I confused about?”
Evelyn came down one porch step.
“Daniel, stop talking.”
The dispatcher said, “Sir, put the phone down where it was.”
Daniel's jaw tightened.
“I'd be happy to explain.”
“Put the phone down.”
“This is my property.”
“Deputies are responding.”
Mara backed toward the door.
Evelyn grabbed her wrist.
“Don't you dare.”
Mara stared at her mother.
“What?”
“We stay together.”
Something about that sentence cut through me.
Not help Rachel.
Not tell the truth.
Stay together.
Daniel placed the phone on the grass, but not beside me.
Ten feet away.
He began wiping mud from his hands.
Then he looked toward the street.
His entire posture changed.
Shoulders relaxed.
Expression softened.
Concerned husband.
Ready.
“Listen to me,” he told Evelyn and Mara. “Nobody says anything stupid.”
Mara's face went pale.
Daniel pointed toward me.
“She did this herself.”
I almost stopped breathing.
Evelyn answered instantly.
“Yes.”
Mara stared at them.
“What?”
Daniel looked at his sister.
“She became hysterical. She went outside. We tried to help.”
Mara's mouth opened.
“You're serious?”
“Mara.”
“You're saying she—”
“Mara.”
His voice sharpened.
She stopped.
I understood then that Mara had never seen this part.
She had participated.
She had laughed.
She had watched.
But she'd still believed there was some invisible line Daniel wouldn't cross.
Now he was asking her to step over it.
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Daniel crouched beside me again.
His face was calm.
His whisper wasn't.
“You need to think very carefully about what happens next.”
I stared at him.
He continued.
“They're going to ask questions. You're exhausted. You're emotional. You're pregnant.”
“Daniel.”
“You don't want strangers deciding you're unstable around a baby.”
The threat was elegant.
That was Daniel's specialty.
He didn't say I'll take your child.
He made you hear it anyway.
I looked past him toward Mara.
She had heard it too.
Something shifted in her expression.
The sirens grew louder.
Daniel stood.
“Remember,” he said. “I love you.”
A sheriff's vehicle stopped outside the fence.
Then another.
Daniel walked toward the gate wearing the face everybody trusted.
And I realized the hardest part might not be getting someone to come.
May you like
It might be getting them to believe what they saw.
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