Chapter 14: A Voice From Room Six
The radio on Deputy Nolan's belt hissed with static before anyone spoke. We were still in the study. I hadn't moved from where I'd knelt with Lily against the desk, my left hand flat on her back so she couldn't see Vic on the other side of the diamond-pattern doors.
Nolan had one hand on Vic's forearm, not cuffed yet, just held. The screen door was open a few inches and the afternoon air coming through the leaded glass was cold enough that I could feel it on my neck. Vic kept looking at the black SUV like if he stared hard enough it would become irrelevant.
The radio crackled. A woman's voice cut through, thin and clipped.
"Frank, copy on the Desert Pines. Room Six. We have Elena Ruiz. Alive. Locked in the bathroom, door wedged from the outside. She's dehydrated, disoriented, bruise on her left cheek, possible concussion. She's asking for her daughter. Medics en route, ETA four."
I don't remember breathing for a second after that.
Lily's head came up off my shoulder. Her ponytail had come half loose and her white tights were smudged at the knee from the rug. She'd heard her mother's name and it registered before any of the rest did.
"Mommy?" she said, and then louder, like she needed to be sure I'd heard it too. "Mommy alive."
My hand tightened on her back without meaning to. The gold watch caught the lamp light. I felt something loosen in my chest and then immediately pull tight again, because alive didn't mean okay, and dehydrated and locked in a bathroom meant she'd been there a while.
"She's alive, baby," I said quietly. I kept my voice level so Nolan could keep working. "They found your mommy. She's going to the hospital."
Lily pressed her face back into my neck and I felt her start to cry differently this time. Not the silent, held-in tears from when she'd pointed. These were louder, and her little hands gripped my shirt.
Nolan let go of Vic's arm just long enough to key his radio. "Copy that, dispatch. Confirm victim secured and paramedics responding. Hold the room for evidence. I'm still with the possible suspect on location."
Vic saw his opening. He straightened his jacket and tried for a reasonable tone, the one he always used when he wanted me to think he had something handled.
"Listen, boss, this is getting twisted," he said to me, not to Nolan. "Elena called me two nights ago. She was scared of her ex showing up. She asked me to keep her somewhere quiet until he blew through town. I was protecting her. That motel was her idea. I brought her food and water yesterday."
He looked at Nolan then, as if Nolan would understand a man helping a woman. "I didn't hurt her. Ask her. She'll tell you I was trying to help."
Nolan didn't answer right away. He pulled the cuffs from his belt. The metal sound was loud in the quiet study.
"Vic Keller," he said, his voice flat and procedural, "you're being detained for unlawful restraint and related charges regarding Elena Ruiz. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand these rights as I've read them to you?"
Vic stared at the cuffs. His jaw worked. "I was protecting her," he said again, but quieter. "You don't know her ex. I was doing what Julian would have wanted. I work for him."
That landed. My stomach dropped. That's what I'd been afraid of since the lot at the hardware store, that he'd use my name, my SUV, my property as cover. That he'd turned working for me into permission.
Nolan turned Vic around gently and brought his hands behind his back. The click of the cuffs echoed off the wood paneling.
"Vic, do you understand your rights?" Nolan asked again.
"Yeah," Vic said. He looked through the leaded glass at his own SUV one more time. "Yeah, I understand."
The radio crackled again. "Frank, paramedics on scene, Room Six. Female, mid-twenties, alert but weak. IV started. Transport to County General. She keeps saying Lily. Confirm child's status?"
Nolan keyed his mic and glanced at me and Lily on the floor. "Child is secure. In protective care with reporting party at the residence. Unharmed. Advise hospital to expect family reunification pending CPS clearance."
Lily heard Lily and hospital in the same sentence and squirmed to look at the radio. I shifted so she could see Nolan but not Vic being cuffed.
"Your mommy's going to the hospital so the doctors can give her water and make sure she's okay," I told her, low. "She's safe now. You did that. You told us where to look."
She nodded against me, tears still coming, but her breathing had slowed. The terror that had made her point at the doors was still there, but it wasn't the whole thing anymore. There was something else underneath it now.
May you like
Through the arched doors, I could see the black SUV sitting empty on the driveway with a deputy's plain sedan pulling in behind it. Vic was facing the desk, his hands behind him, my employee, my responsibility, and for the first time that afternoon I didn't feel like I had to handle it alone to keep Lily safe.
Nolan kept a hand on Vic's shoulder and spoke into his radio once more. "Dispatch, suspect in custody. Victim en route. Request victim advocate meet at County General for the child."
