Chapter 5
As if summoned by the thought, Thomas appeared at the end of the hallway forty minutes later.
He was not brought in by police.
He came alone.
His hair was windblown. His jacket was half-zipped. One side of his face looked raw, as if he had scraped it against pavement or a wall. His eyes found mine first.
Then he saw Mason.
His face collapsed.
“Don’t come closer,” the officer outside the room said.
Thomas froze.
“I’m his father.”
“Stay where you are.”
Detective Delaney stepped in front of him.
“Thomas Russell, we need to talk.”
Thomas looked past him at me.
“Mom, I was going to fix it.”
The words were so absurd, so painfully Thomas, that I almost laughed.
Fix it.
As if Mason were a broken cabinet.
As if bruises on a baby could be handled privately.
“How?” I asked.
Thomas’s eyes filled.
“I was trying to get Ellie help.”
“You left him with me and told me not to take off his clothes.”
Shame moved across his face.
“I panicked.”
“No,” I said, standing. My legs trembled but held. “Panic is forgetting a bottle. Panic is locking your keys in the car. This was hiding what happened to your son.”
He flinched like I had slapped him.
Detective Delaney turned to him.
“Where is Ellie?”
Thomas wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
“I found her car at home. She took my emergency cash. Her overnight bag is gone.”
“Where would she go?”
“I don’t know.”
The detective waited.
Thomas looked down.
“There’s a cabin.”
“What cabin?”
“Her grandfather’s old place. Near Hocking Hills. She used to go there when she wanted to disappear.”
Detective Delaney’s expression sharpened.
“Address.”
“I don’t know the exact address. I can show you.”
“You can write it down.”
Thomas shook his head. “You won’t find it without me. It’s off an old service road.”
The detective studied him.
“You understand you’re not free to leave.”
“I don’t care,” Thomas said. “Just find her before she comes back.”
“Why do you think she’ll come back?”
Thomas’s gaze flicked to Mason.
Then to me.
For the first time in my life, I saw my son look afraid of a woman who was not in the room.
“Because she thinks Mason belongs to her,” he said. “Not like a child. Like evidence.”
No one spoke.
Then Thomas lowered his voice.
“She thinks if anyone examines him, they’ll find out what he really is.”
Dana, the social worker, stepped back slowly.
Detective Delaney’s jaw tightened.
“Thomas, has Ellie been diagnosed with any psychiatric condition?”
“No.”
“Has she ever hurt herself?”
“No.”
“Has she ever hurt anyone else?”
May you like
Thomas’s silence was answer enough.
I gripped the bed rail.
