Chapter 4
Alessandro started the car, but he didn't pull away from the curb.
He looked at me through the rearview mirror. His brown eyes were steady, though one hand stayed on the steering wheel and the other rested near his phone.
“Are you hurt?” he asked.
I shook my head.
“Are you scared?”
I looked down at Rabbit's bent ear. “A little.”
He nodded as if that was an answer he could use. “Then we'll go somewhere with people.”
The car moved away from the house. I watched it disappear behind us through the back window. The dining room windows flashed between the trees, bright and square. I kept expecting the woman to come outside, but no one came.
Alessandro drove past the usual turn.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“An ordinary place.”
That meant he didn't want me to know yet. I pressed my cheek against Rabbit's head and watched the road. He took two turns he normally didn't take, then passed a gas station without stopping. After that, he slowed near a church parking lot.
There were only three cars there. A white van sat beside the building, and a man in a blue shirt carried boxes through a side door.
Alessandro pulled into a space facing the street. He didn't turn off the engine.
“Is this the ordinary place?” I asked.
“No. This is a check.”
He looked at the mirror, then the side mirror, then the street behind us. I tried to look too, but all I saw were cars and a row of low bushes.
“What are we checking?”
“Whether anyone changed direction when we did.”
He waited.
A gray sedan passed the church, continued to the corner, and turned away. A dark pickup came from the other side and stopped at the light. Neither car entered the lot.
Alessandro took a slow breath. “No one obvious.”
“Does that mean we're safe?”
“It means I won't pretend I know more than I do.”
That answer made my stomach feel tight, but I liked it better than a lie.
He drove to a diner on the main road. The parking lot was busy with delivery trucks and families. A woman in a red apron held the door open for an older couple. Inside, plates clattered, and the windows were fogged near the kitchen.
Alessandro chose a booth where he could see both entrances. I sat beside the wall with Rabbit on my lap. He ordered toast for me, then paused before saying anything else.
“No butter,” he told the waitress.
She looked at him, then at me. “Sure, honey.”
When she walked away, Alessandro placed his phone face down on the table.
“I need help from someone who knows how to keep records,” he said. “Not someone who will make you repeat everything to strangers.”
“Will she find us here?”
“I don't know.”
The waitress brought water. I held the glass with both hands.
Alessandro called a number and spoke quietly. He gave the name of the diner, but not mine. He said the words “possible tampering,” “written message,” and “a child witness.” Then he listened for a long time.
When he hung up, he didn't put the phone away.
“Who was that?” I asked.
“Ms. Bell. She handles private security and documentation for the household. She can help preserve what we have without deciding the story for us.”
“Will she tell the woman?”
“Not before we decide what must be reported.”
The toast arrived. I stared at it until the steam stopped.
Alessandro noticed. “You don't have to eat.”
“I know.”
He didn't push the plate closer.
A few minutes later, a woman with short gray hair entered the diner carrying a plain canvas folder. She spotted Alessandro and came to our booth. She didn't sit until he asked her to.
Her eyes moved to me, then to Rabbit, then back to Alessandro.
“Tell me only what you know,” she said.
He slid the wrapped paper across the table but didn't open it. He showed her the message on his phone. Then he described the plate, the bread, and the money in my pocket.
Ms. Bell didn't ask me to speak.
She took out a pen and wrote the time on a clean sheet. “Was the food touched after Emma warned you?”
“No,” Alessandro said.
“Was the plate moved?”
“Only when I isolated it.”
She nodded. “Good. Don't return to the house until we know who has access to the room.”
The waitress came by with the check. Alessandro paid in cash and kept the receipt.
Ms. Bell folded her notes into the folder. “I can create a formal incident record today. It won't prove what was in the bread. It will prove when the concern was raised, what was preserved, and who was notified.”
Alessandro looked at me before answering.
“Do it.”
The words were quiet. They made the diner seem smaller.
Ms. Bell wrote his name. Then she looked at me.
“Emma doesn't need to sign anything.”
I held Rabbit tighter.
“No,” Alessandro said. “She doesn't.”
When we left through the side door, the alley smelled like wet pavement and coffee grounds. Ms. Bell walked behind us, not close enough to crowd me. At the end of the alley, she stopped.
A police cruiser rolled slowly along the street.
I grabbed Alessandro's sleeve.
He bent toward me. “It's only passing.”
“How do you know?”
“I don't. But we don't have to run from every car.”
I looked at him. He had told me the truth again.
We walked to the car. Before getting in, he checked both sidewalks and the diner windows. Ms. Bell stayed beneath the side-door light while he opened the back door for me.
I climbed in with Rabbit.
For the first time since the dining room, I felt that the secret was no longer sitting only inside my chest. It had a time, a place, a folder, and a grown-up who had written it down.
Alessandro closed my door gently.
Then Ms. Bell said, “There is one more thing. Someone from the house has been calling.”
May you like
Alessandro's face became still.
He looked at his phone.
