Chapter 2 - The man at the door
The door opened three inches.
Stopped.
Then a man’s face appeared.
Cole Maddox.
Rachel’s older brother.
Forty-two.
Six feet tall.
Unshaven.
Gray T-shirt.
He looked at me.
Then at Emily.
Then at the broken kennel.
His expression did not become surprised.
It became calculating.
That frightened me more.
“Michael.”
I stepped backward.
“What the hell did you do?”
Cole’s eyes went to Mrs. Harris.
“You called him?”
She said nothing.
Emily buried her face against my chest.
Cole opened the door farther.
“Put her down.”
That sentence almost made me laugh.
Not because it was funny.
Because he had somehow decided he still had authority over the situation.
“Stay inside.”
“Michael, you don’t know what happened.”
“I know my daughter was locked in a dog cage.”
“She was not—”
Emily whimpered.
Cole stopped.
Then:
“She was supposed to stay there until Rachel got back.”
Mrs. Harris whispered:
“Oh my God.”
I said:
“Where is Rachel?”
“Out.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re in her dead uncle’s house with my daughter locked outside and you don’t know where my wife is?”
Cole stepped onto the patio.
I moved backward.
“Stay there.”
“I’m not fighting you.”
“Then stay there.”
Sirens sounded somewhere beyond the houses.
Cole heard them too.
His jaw tightened.
“You called cops?”
Mrs. Harris said:
“I did.”
Cole looked at the pool.
Emily felt him look.
She started crying again.
That was the first time I understood that the pool was not simply disgusting.
She was afraid of him noticing it.
He said:
“Michael, none of those bags have anything to do with Emily.”
I had not asked.
That sentence mattered.
Then he turned.
Went back inside.
Closed the door.
I did not follow.
Every instinct in me wanted to.
May you like
My daughter was in my arms.
So I stayed with her.
