Chapter 2: When He Stepped Inside
I didn't let go of her.
Lily had both arms locked around my neck and her face pressed so hard against my collar I could feel her breath coming in short, hot bursts against my skin. My left hand was flat on her back, the gold of my watch catching the light from the tall window. Outside, beyond the diamond-pattern glass of the arched double doors, Vic was still standing by the black SUV with his hands in his pockets like he had all the time in the world.
He'd said "Come in" was my line. I'd said it. He'd answered "Afternoon, boss." And now the air in the study had gone still again. The decanter on the desk threw a little amber reflection onto the open book. Lily trembled.
I had to open the door. If I didn't, he'd know something was wrong before I did.
I shifted Lily's weight onto my left side and stood. She made a small noise and clung tighter, her white tights kicking once against my leg. I kept my hand on her back and walked the three steps to the doors. Up close I could see the lead lines in the glass, the dark wood frames, the brass handle that always stuck a little in the humidity.
"Easy," I whispered to her. It wasn't for Vic.
I turned the lock. It clicked loud. I pulled the right door inward. The hinges gave that low creak I'd heard a thousand times, and the cooler outside air cut into the warm lamp light of the study.
Vic Keller stepped inside.
He was in his dark suit, the one he wore when he drove, white shirt open at the collar, no tie. He was maybe fifty, clean-shaven, hair cut short and gray at the temples. He smiled the way he always did, easy, a little tired, like he'd just finished a long drive up the county road. He didn't look at Lily first. He looked at me.
"Didn't mean to interrupt," he said, and slipped his hands out of his pockets. "Gate was open. Thought I'd drop the dry cleaning you left in the SUV last week. It's been in the back."
He held up a plastic-wrapped bundle I hadn't even seen him carrying. That was his tell, I realized later. He'd planned the prop.
Lily buried her face deeper into my neck. I felt her whole body go rigid and then start shaking harder. She wouldn't look at him. Her ponytail had come half loose and her blonde hair stuck to her damp cheek. She turned her head so far away from Vic that her forehead pressed against my jaw.
"It's alright," I murmured to her, and my hand tightened a fraction on her back. I could feel every shiver through her thin dress. My neck tattoo pulled when I tilted my head down toward her, but I kept my eyes on Vic.
Vic's smile thinned just a little as he took in the way she was hiding. He glanced at the desk, the decanter, the window, anywhere but directly at the kid clinging to me.
"She okay?" he asked, casual. "Didn't know you had company."
"Neighbor's kid," I said. My voice came out even. I was surprised at how even it sounded. "Elena Ruiz's girl. Elena hasn't been around. You remember Elena."
It wasn't a question. Elena had cleaned the downstairs twice a week for almost a year. Vic had driven her home more than once when her car wouldn't start. He knew her name.
"Sure," Vic said. He set the dry cleaning over the arm of the leather chair by the door like he belonged there. "Haven't seen her in a couple days. Figured she took time off."
He was good at casual. Too good. He didn't fidget. He didn't look at Lily again. Most people would have stared at a crying three-year-old in a white dress wrapped around a man in a black suit. He acted like she wasn't there.
Lily's fingers twisted into the collar of my shirt. Her breathing was shallow and fast against my neck. I adjusted my hold so she could keep her face hidden completely, and I rested my tattooed left hand squarely between her shoulder blades, my watch pressing lightly against her back. I wanted her to feel covered.
"She was upset about something outside," I said, keeping it light. I nodded toward the glass doors behind him, where the black SUV was still visible through the leaded panes. "You see anyone on the driveway coming in?"
Vic glanced back over his shoulder through the glass, as if checking. "No. Just me. Road was empty. Why, she see something?"
He said it with a little chuckle, like kids imagine things.
I didn't answer right away. I let a beat pass. Lily's trembling hadn't stopped. I could feel the heat of her tears where her cheek met my skin.
"She's been through a rough couple days," I said. "Her mom hasn't been home. She got scared."
Vic nodded slowly. He slipped his hands back into his pockets and leaned a shoulder against the wood panel beside the doors, settling in. He wasn't leaving.
"Yeah, that'll do it," he said. "Kids get worked up. You want me to wait outside while you call her mom? Or I can give you some space."
He offered to leave the way a man offers to stay.
I held Lily tighter and didn't step back from him. The study felt smaller with the doors closed again, the warm lamp light holding us all in the same wood-paneled box. I kept my expression neutral, the way you do when you don't want someone to know you're watching their hands, their eyes, the way they breathe.
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"Stay a minute," I said. "I might need you to run an errand."
Lily didn't lift her head. She didn't make a sound. She just held on and shook, and I stood there with my back to the window, holding her, with Vic inside now and the locked doors behind him.
