Chapter 8 - The Sheriff's Quiet Questions
The deputy arrived at four thirty on Thursday in a county cruiser that didn't use the siren. I heard the tires on our gravel first, then the soft thud of a car door. I was at the kitchen table trying to finish math homework and my shoes were still on because Daniel had said to keep them on.
Mom stood at the front window and smoothed her sweater with both hands. She wasn't wearing the magenta dress anymore. That dress had been hanging on the back of her bedroom door for three days and I hadn't seen her touch it.
Daniel walked to the door before the deputy knocked. He opened it and I heard him say, "Deputy Miller."
The man who stepped in was not tall and not in a rush. He had a brown uniform and a radio that crackled low. He took off his hat when he came into the living room and I saw my mom notice it. She offered him the couch. He said the couch was fine and asked if he could sit near me instead.
He sat in Dad's old chair across from the coffee table. He didn't open a notebook right away. He looked at my wet sneakers from the party that were still drying by the heat vent, then at me.
"Ethan Cole?" he said. "I'm Deputy Miller. Your school asked us to check in after what happened at the lake. Is it all right if I ask you a few questions? Your mom and brother can stay right here."
I nodded. My mouth was dry. Mom sat on the edge of the couch with her hands together so tight her knuckles went white. Daniel stood behind the couch, his hands on the back of it, not touching her.
The deputy smiled a little and it wasn't a big smile. "Can you tell me how you ended up in the water Saturday?"
I had practiced an answer in my head on the bus ride home. Not the whole truth. Just the piece I thought would make Mom stop looking scared.
I swallowed and said, "I went to get something near the edge and I slipped."
The deputy nodded slowly. He didn't write that down yet. "What did you go to get?"
I felt Mom go still. I didn't look at her but I could see Daniel's fingers tighten on the couch from the corner of my eye.
"Just... something that was on the grass," I said. "Near the water. I leaned and my shoes slipped."
I kept my voice even. That was what Daniel always told me to do when I was nervous, to breathe before I answered. I breathed but my chest felt tight anyway.
Deputy Miller glanced at Mom, then back at me. "Were you alone by the water?"
I thought about Richard's voice before the fall, low and kind of sharp, telling me the little box was important and Mom would be upset if it blew into the lake and I was the only one small enough to grab it quickly. I thought about how Mom had laughed later and said it was an accident and how Richard had put his arm around her.
"Yeah," I said. "I was alone. I just slipped."
Mom let out a breath she had been holding. I heard it. It was quiet but it was there, like relief leaking out. Her shoulders dropped an inch.
Daniel didn't move. He was watching me, not Mom. His jaw was tight and I could see he realized something. He knew I was leaving Richard out on purpose. I wasn't protecting Richard. I was protecting Mom's face when she looked at Richard, the way she had looked at him when he held that little box.
The deputy finally opened his notebook. He wrote for a few seconds. The pen scratched. "And your brother pulled you out, right? Daniel?"
I nodded. "He ran and got me."
"Did anyone tell you to go near the water, Ethan?" the deputy asked. His voice stayed soft, the same level it had been the whole time.
My eyes flicked to Mom before I could stop them. She was looking at the floor now, at the rug, not at me. I wanted her to not have to choose.
"No," I said. "Nobody told me. I just went."
Daniel shifted behind the couch. I heard his knuckles pop where he gripped it. He didn't say anything to correct me. He didn't look at Mom either. He just looked down at me and I knew he was frustrated, but not with me exactly, with the fact that I'd learned how to lie to keep the house quiet.
Deputy Miller wrote again. He closed the notebook slowly. "All right," he said. "Sounds like a scary slip. These lake edges get slick, especially at sunset. We get a call like this every summer."
He stood and put his hat back on. He looked at Mom. "Ma'am, I'm going to log this as an accidental slip with family rescue. No further action unless something new comes up. But the grass right at that edge was dry that evening. Just for the record, that's a little inconsistent with a slip. If Ethan remembers more later, you can call the station."
Mom nodded fast. "Of course. Thank you. He just lost his footing, that's all. We're watching him closer now."
She stood and walked the deputy to the door. Her hand was light on the doorframe, like she needed to hold something. I heard the cruiser door again and the gravel again and then it was quiet.
Daniel hadn't moved from behind the couch. When Mom turned around, she looked relieved, almost like she might cry. Daniel looked at me and then at her and he didn't say anything at first.
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After a second he said, very low, "Ethan."
I looked down at my math paper where the numbers had blurred. I didn't answer because I didn't know how to say I lied so Mom wouldn't lose the engagement, and saying it out loud would make it true in a different way.
