Brian thought of the little girl with dark, familiar eyes and the winter dress in the middle of the summer.
“He said I took his daughter?”
“It doesn’t matter what he said. We have to check everybody out. You were the last person other than the family to be in that house. We understand that you and Mr. Robinette didn’t get along so well. So we’re starting with you.”
Brian’s chest felt as though his lungs were filling with wax. They were becoming heavy and hard. Again he thought of the little girl standing precariously at the edge of the safe. It was like she had been waiting there for him.
“Did you check the safe?” he suddenly asked.
“What do you mean?” Rowan asked.
“The safe in the library. When I was there she came in and was standing by the safe. Maybe she…I don’t know, maybe after I left she went back to it. There’s no door, but there was a piece of the flooring that covered it and that I put back in place.”
Rowan glanced at the shape of the safe’s door beneath the blanket. He then glanced at Stephens and another silent communication passed. Stephens turned and walked out of the garage.
Rowan looked back at Brian.
“The safe would be kind of small, wouldn’t it?”
“The box was pretty deep. It went down at least a foot and a half.”
“You said she came into the library?”
“I went out to my van to get the vacuum and when I came back, in she was just standing there.”
“What did she say to you?”
Brian thought for a moment. He tried to remember all the details. He was filling with fear for the little girl.
“She just told me her name and I asked how old she was. I told her she looked older. She said her name was—”
“Why would you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Ask the girl how old she was.”
Brian shrugged.
“I don’t know. I guess because we’re about to have a kid—my wife is eight months along—and, I don’t know, I never really thought about the ages of children before. Now I do.”
Rowan took a few moments to grind over the answer. Brian shifted his weight on the stool and started pumping his knee.
“Mr. Holloway, you seem agitated. Is something wrong?”
“Of course, there’s something wrong. That girl is missing and I just have a bad feeling about it. Look, I had nothing to do with it. You’re wasting your time. So do what you have to do with me and get it over with. I’ll take a lie detector, if you want. You can go search my van, too. Just get past me and go find her. Before it’s too late.”
Rowan seemed to be taken aback.
“What do you mean, ‘before it’s too late’?”
“Isn’t that how these things always end up?”
Before Rowan answered, Stephens came in. He looked at his partner and then at Brian.
“Safe’s empty.”
“Mr. Holloway has volunteered to take a poly,” Rowan said. “We can also take a look in the van.”
Stephens nodded.
“What about your home?” Rowan said. “Can we look around inside?”
Brian flashed on the bag of stale dope in the bedroom dresser. Laura quit smoking when they decided to get pregnant. Out of fairness he had stopped as well and the bag had sat in the drawer with his socks for a year.
“If you’re just going to look around for the girl—closets and stuff—that’s fine. But I don’t want you going through drawers and stuff. Just make it quick. And don’t mess things up or my wife will know.”
“You know what I still don’t understand?” Rowan said. “You’re in there doing a job for Mr. Robinette and you go and ask his daughter how old she is. Why is that?”
“I don’t know. I told you. I wondered how old she was. What else do you ask? She was a cute girl and I wondered how old she was. I’m sort of hoping that we have a girl and so…that’s all.”
“You said
“What?”
“You said she
Brian shook his head.
“Look, you’ve got this wrong and you’re wasting time. Don’t do this. You should be out there looking for —”
“Mr. Holloway,” Rowan said, “I think we are going to take you up on your kind offer to allow us to look around here and maybe bring you down to the station to set up a polygraph. Your offer is still good, right?”
They kept him in a small, windowless, and—it seemed to him—airless room. There was no clock on the wall and he lost track of time. He was thinking about the girl he had seen by the safe. Lucy. They came in from time to time to talk to him, to ask him the same questions over and over. But unsatisfied with his answers, they would leave again. He could tell it was dark outside. He could sense it. It had been at least that long.
Finally, the door came open again and Stephens looked in.
“You have ten minutes,” he said.
“What?”
Stephens backed away from the opening and then Laura appeared. Hesitantly, she stepped into the room and the door was closed behind her.
“Brian? What is going on? I came home and they were in our house. They had a search warrant. What did you do?”
He shook his head.
“I didn’t do anything. Robinette’s daughter is missing and they think I took her. All I did was talk to her.”
“You talked to her? When?”
“That day. I told you at dinner.”
“No, you told me she had the same name we picked. You didn’t say you talked to her.”
“She came in where I was working. I asked her what her name was and how old she was and that was it. I told her I had to get to work. She left and I never saw her again. That’s it.”
She slid into the seat across the table from him. She never took her eyes off him.
“Did you tell them this?”
“Yes, I told them a hundred times. They’re wasting their time with me when they should be out looking for her. If you ask me, they ought to be talking to Robinette instead of me.”
Laura put her hand on her abdomen, as if calming the baby inside. She started rocking in her chair.
“Oh my God, I can’t believe this,” she said.
“Neither can I,” Brian said.
He reached a hand across the table and she put her other hand on top of it.
“Have you asked for a lawyer?”
“No, I don’t need a lawyer. I didn’t do anything.”
“Brian, just tell me. Did you take that girl anywhere?”
He pulled his hand back from her. His mouth came open and it was a moment before he found his voice.
“Laura?”
“Where did you go when you got up last night? You’ve been acting weird all week. What is going on with you?”
“They sent you in here, didn’t they? They convinced you out there and sent you in here to—”
“No, Brian, you’re wrong. You’re being paranoid. I just want to know what is going—”
