Chapter 4 - THE RED SCARF
Detective Dana Price arrived at 6:10 p.m.
By then, Caleb was sleeping under warmed blankets with an IV taped to his tiny arm.
Mia refused to leave the doorway.
Dana spoke to Leah first, then to Travis.
Travis repeated the same story.
Erin was grieving.
Erin was unstable.
Erin had disappeared before.
“Before?” Dana asked.
“For a night. Maybe two.”
“When?”
Travis hesitated. “Last year.”
Mia spoke from the hallway.
“She went to Grandma’s because you broke the kitchen chair.”
Travis’s eyes flashed.
Dana turned toward him.
“Broken chair?”
“Family argument.”
“Police report?”
“No.”
“Of course not,” Leah murmured.
Dana sent an officer to the neighborhood pharmacy and another to the Bennett house.
Forty minutes later, her phone rang.
The officer at the pharmacy had found Erin’s car in the back lot.
Unlocked.
Her purse was under the driver’s seat.
Her wallet was inside.
So were her keys.
And hanging from the passenger-side mirror was a red wool scarf.
Travis stared at the floor.
Dana watched him.
“You said she took off voluntarily.”
“That’s what it looked like.”
“Leaving her wallet, keys, and car?”
“I didn’t know the car was there.”
Mia suddenly stood.
“My mom wouldn’t leave Caleb’s blue medicine bag.”
Dana looked at her. “What bag?”
“The one with the thermometer and his papers.”
“Was it in the car?”
Dana checked with the officer.
No.
It wasn’t.
Travis rubbed the back of his neck.
“Maybe she took it with her.”
Mia’s eyes narrowed.
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
She pointed at Travis’s truck keys on the table.
“It’s in his truck.”
Travis went pale.
Dana didn’t move.
May you like
“How do you know that, Mia?”
“Because I saw him put it there after Mommy left.”
