Chapter 5: She Ran
He reached the window at the end of the corridor in time to see Valerie crossing the parking lot.
She was not walking like someone who needed air.
She was moving fast, her heels clicking against the asphalt, her phone already at her ear.
He called her number.
She looked down at her phone.
Looked up.
Kept walking.
He called again.
This time she declined it.
He turned and ran for the stairwell.
By the time he reached the ground floor and pushed through the main entrance, Valerie was already pulling out of the parking lot in her white SUV.
He stood on the sidewalk and watched the taillights disappear around the corner.
He stood there for a moment.
Then he called Dr.
Harris.
"She left," he said.
"She saw something.
Or heard something.
She ran."
"I'm calling the officer now," Dr.
Harris said.
"Go back upstairs.
Stay with Sophie."
He went back upstairs.
Rosa was still in the chair beside Sophie's bed.
Sophie had fallen asleep again, her small chest rising and falling steadily.
The pink blanket was pulled up to her chin.
"She's gone," Alejandro said.
Rosa looked at him.
"Then she knew," she said.
"She knew we found out."
He sat down heavily in the chair across from his mother.
"Where would she go?"
"I don't know.
But I know she won't go far.
She'll want to know what we have.
She'll want to know how much."
His phone buzzed.
A text from a number he didn't recognize.
*You don't know the whole story.
Don't do something you can't take back.
Call me.*
He showed it to Rosa.
She read it twice.
"Don't call," she said.
"She wants to negotiate."
"She wants to know what you have.
Don't give her that."
He set the phone face-down on his knee.
Twenty minutes later, Detective Renee Okafor arrived.
She was in her forties, calm, and carried a small notebook rather than a tablet.
She introduced herself to Alejandro and Rosa, looked through the glass at Sophie sleeping, and then asked them to step into the family consultation room down the hall.
She listened without interrupting while Alejandro described the past six weeks.
Rosa showed her the photographs on her phone — the sealed antibiotic bottle, the tablet with the search history, the amber bottle.
Detective Okafor wrote everything down.
"Dr.
Harris has already filed the report," she said.
"We've issued a request to locate the vehicle.
She hasn't left the city yet, as far as we know." She looked at Alejandro.
"Was there anything else in the house?
Anything you noticed that seemed wrong but didn't act on?"
He reached into his jacket pocket.
He had almost forgotten it was there.
He set the sewing pin on the table.
"I found this in Sophie's pillowcase two nights ago," he said.
"Hidden in the seam."
Detective Okafor looked at it without touching it.
Then she looked at him.
"Mr.
Rivers," she said carefully, "has Sophie ever mentioned anything else?
Anything Valerie said or did when you weren't home?"
He thought of the ambulance.
Sophie's voice barely above a whisper.
*Valerie said if I cried, it was only because I wanted to take you away from her.*
He told the detective exactly what Sophie had said.
Detective Okafor wrote it down slowly, pressing the pen firmly into the page.
"We're going to need to speak with Sophie," she said.
"When she's stronger.
We'll have a specialist do it — someone trained to talk with children.
It won't be frightening for her."
"Whatever she needs," Alejandro said.
The detective closed her notebook and stood.
"We'll find Valerie," she said.
"People who run usually go somewhere familiar.
A friend, a family member, somewhere they feel safe." She paused at the door.
"Does she have family in Dallas?"
"A sister," Alejandro said.
"In Fort Worth."
Detective Okafor nodded.
"Get some rest if you can," she said.
"I'll be in touch before morning."
She left.
Rosa reached across the table and put her hand over Alejandro's.
Neither of them spoke.
Down the hall, behind the glass, Sophie slept.
The pink blanket rose and fell.
May you like
Rose and fell.
And in Fort Worth, forty minutes away, Valerie's white SUV turned onto a quiet residential street — and the lights inside a small house came on.
