Chapter 5: The Conversation I Was Never Supposed to Survive
Calvin made the call to Atlanta at eleven that night.
He spoke for nine minutes, his voice low and even, and when he hung up he said two things: the preliminary inquiry was open, and we had until six the following evening before the window closed.
Seventeen hours.
He fitted me with a recording device before dawn — a thin adhesive strip no larger than a bandage, placed along my left collarbone beneath my shirt.
He tested the audio twice.
Then he handed me a phone with a number programmed in.
"One press," he said.
"If anything changes, one press and Tobias and I come in."
"Where will you be?"
"Close enough." He looked at me.
"You've had three years of practice being calm around this man.
Use it."
I drove back to the house in Garrett's car — Calvin had retrieved it from a side road near the creek where Garrett had left it after switching to Penelope's vehicle.
The drive took twenty-two minutes.
I used every one of them.
Garrett was in the kitchen when I walked through the door.
He turned around.
For one half-second, something moved across his face that I had never seen there before.
It was gone so fast I might have imagined it.
Then his expression rearranged itself into something that looked almost like relief.
"Rosalind." He crossed the room and put his hands on my arms.
"I've been out of my mind.
The police called — they said the SUV went into the river—"
"I got out," I said.
"There was a gap in the window seal.
I managed to force it."
He searched my face.
"And Tobias?"
"He didn't make it," I said.
The pause before he responded was very small.
Most people would not have noticed it.
"I'm so sorry," he said.
He pulled me into an embrace.
I let him.
Over his shoulder, I watched the kitchen counter.
The small saucepan he used for warm milk was already sitting on the stove.
He had been preparing it before I arrived.
I stepped back and sat down at the kitchen table.
Let my hands tremble slightly.
It required no performance.
"I keep thinking about the barrier," I said.
"It happened so fast.
One moment we were on the road and then—"
"Don't," he said gently.
He sat across from me.
"You don't need to go through it again right now."
"The police are going to want a statement."
"I already spoke to them." He reached across the table and covered my hand with his.
"I told them what I saw.
That the barrier gave way.
That I tried to get back to the car but the current was too strong." His thumb moved across my knuckles.
"They were very understanding."
Three years of that thumb moving across my knuckles.
"Garrett," I said.
"I need to ask you something."
"Of course."
"My liver results from last month." I kept my voice even.
"The doctor said my enzyme levels were elevated.
He wanted to run more tests but I kept putting it off." I looked at him.
"Should I be worried?"
Something shifted behind his eyes.
Very small.
Very controlled.
"Elevated how?" he said.
"He said it was unusual for someone my age with no history of liver problems." I tilted my head slightly.
"He asked if I'd been taking any supplements.
Anything new."
"You haven't been taking anything new," Garrett said.
"That's what I told him." I held his gaze.
"He seemed puzzled."
Garrett leaned back slightly in his chair.
His hand moved off mine.
"I'm sure it's nothing," he said.
"Stress affects liver function.
You've been working too hard."
"That's what I thought." I nodded slowly.
"You've always taken such good care of me.
The warm milk every night.
Making sure I didn't push myself too far." I paused.
"I don't know what I would have done without that."
He was very still.
"I love you," he said.
The words came out practiced and smooth, the way words do when they have been used so many times they have worn grooves.
"I know you do," I said.
I stood up and said I needed to change my clothes.
He watched me leave the kitchen.
I felt his eyes on my back all the way to the hallway.
Upstairs, I sat on the edge of the bed and pressed both hands flat against my thighs.
Twenty seconds.
Then my phone buzzed.
A text from Calvin.
*Audio is clean.
We have everything.
Stay in the house.
Do not go back downstairs alone.*
I looked at the door.
Downstairs, I heard the saucepan click onto the burner.
May you like
He was still making the milk.
Even now.
