Chapter 2 - DON'T LET HIM KNOW

Detective Collins raised one finger.

Keep him talking.

"What second injector?" I asked.

Silence.

Only half a second, but I had known Michael my entire life. Half a second was enough.

"The other one you always carry," he said. "You carry two, right?"

"Usually."

He tried to laugh.

"Where are you?" I asked.

"Home."

Michael had lived in my guest room since my wife Anna died two years earlier. He picked Lily up from school, cooked dinner, borrowed my truck, knew every drawer in the house.

"Why?"

"No reason."

I heard a cabinet close.

Then another.

"Mike, what are you doing?"

"Nothing."

"Are you in my room?"

"No."

Collins silently wrote: KEEP HIM THERE.

"Stay home," I said. "I'll come back later."

"Maybe don't. Hospital probably needs you."

His voice lowered.

"Did they check your jacket?"

I let two seconds pass.

"No. Why?"

"No reason."

"Mike, you keep saying that."

"I just know how hospitals are. Things get lost."

Behind Collins, a nurse quietly closed Lily's door. The detective wrote one more line on her pad: HE KNOWS THE JACKET MATTERS.

I tried another question.

"Did Evelyn call you?"

"Earlier."

"Before or after Lily got sick?"

The silence was longer this time.

"Daniel, I'm trying to help you."

"Then answer me."

"I don't remember."

Michael had always remembered everything when it benefited him: birthdays, passwords, grudges, old favors. Suddenly he couldn't remember whether our mother-in-law called before my daughter nearly died.

Then he asked, "Are police there?"

Collins shook her head sharply.

"Why would police be here?"

"No reason."

"Mike, what happened today?"

His breathing changed.

"Nothing happened that can't be fixed."

That sentence scared me more than shouting would have.

"Stay on the phone."

"I can't."

"Mike-"

The call ended.

Collins was already ordering officers to my house.

Lily lifted her head from the pillow.

"Dad?"

I went to her.

She whispered, "Uncle Michael was at Grandma's lunch before you came."

I frowned.

"He told me he had work."

"I saw him near the coat room."

My stomach tightened.

"Are you sure?"

Lily nodded.

"He had your jacket."

Collins stopped speaking.

Lily looked between us.

"He opened the inside pocket."

That was where I kept the injectors.

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And suddenly Michael's question was no longer strange.

It was evidence.