Locust Lane(36)

Having settled on a course of action, she closed her eyes, plummeting into a deep, dreamless sleep that ended with the sound of someone speaking her name. It was Hannah, standing in the doorway. She was terrified, even more so than last night. As Alice struggled to consciousness, she realized that there’d been another sound as well, just before her stepdaughter spoke. A hammer-rap that had echoed through the house’s vast empty spaces.

“Okay, I’m awake,” she said as she swam to the sitting position. “Wait, is there someone at the door?”

As if in response, there was another thundering knock, followed immediately by the doorbell.

“What is it, Hanns? Who’s at the door?”

“The police.”

“What do they want?”

But she just stood there, catatonic with fear. Alice leapt to her feet and walked to the alarm pad. It took her a moment to figure out which button to push to make the front porch come up on the screen. The policeman’s fish-eye face was young and grave. Her first thought was Geoff. He’d Allmaned himself on 128. She pressed the speaker button.

“Be right there.”

The man said something she couldn’t make out. But it didn’t sound like he was telling her to take her time.

“Hannah, what’s going on? Do you know what this is about?”

She shook her head, though the look in her eyes argued that she had a strong suspicion.

“Where’s your father?”

“He’s not answering.”

Alice was tempted to question her further, but there was a cop at the front door who didn’t look like he was going to wait much longer before doing something besides wait.

“Stay here,” Alice said as she passed her stepdaughter.

The policeman was tall and muscular and dead-eyed. He skipped the pleasantries.

“I need to speak with Hannah Holt.”

“Okay, why’s that?” Alice answered, her voice sounding like she’d just been awakened from a two-hour wine-fueled midday nap.

“Is she here?”

“Can I ask what this is about?”

“Are you the mother?”

“The stepmother.”

“You’re going to need to get her for me. Right now.”

For an Emerson cop to be speaking to an Emerson homeowner like this was extraordinary, and not in a good way. Everything was happening far too fast.

“I should really speak to her father first.”

“Ma’am, she needs to come immediately.”

“I mean, are we going to need a lawyer?”

“You can clear all that up at the station. But right now you need to get her.”

“I don’t suppose saying no is an option.”

“It is. But it’s not a good one.”

It was a nice line. In any other context, she’d have enjoyed it.

“Okay. Wait here.”

She started to shut the door but something stopped it. His hand. She looked into his eyes and he looked back at her. She imagined that at some distant time, in some unknown courtroom, a judge would determine that the officer had not been entitled to do this. But for now, he was.

Hannah was on the stairs, just out of view but well within earshot. She looked exactly like she had when Alice had let her watch The Exorcist a tad too early in her development.

“You’re going to need to talk with this guy.”

“You gotta get Dad,” she whispered.

“I will. But for now we need to do what he says.”

Hannah descended. At the door, she remained standing directly behind Alice, letting her stepmother do the talking. After a short, robust conversation, it was decided that Alice would accompany Hannah to the station. And so off they went, into the unknown. It was Alice’s fourth ride in the back of a patrol car. The first had been for possession of a bottle of Oxy with somebody else’s name on the label, which she didn’t even know was a crime. The second was for simple battery, which apparently was what they called defending yourself against an abusive asshole in Key West. And then there was the DUI—no excuses on that one.

She called Geoff once they were moving. He usually didn’t pick up when he was at the lab, wandering those neural highways and byways. To her immense surprise, he answered on the third ring.

“What the fuck, Geoff, we’ve been trying to call you.”

“No, yeah, my phone was off. What’s going on?”

“Well, I’m sitting in the back of a police car with your daughter.”

“Why are you doing that?”

“Because they urgently want to interview her at the station.”

“And you let them put her in a car? Who said you could do that?”

“The guy with the gun.”

“You should have waited for me.”

“Well, you know what, Geoff? I couldn’t.”

“What is this about?”

“I have no idea.”

“Well, what does Hannah say?”

“Nothing,” she said, staring at the back of the cop’s thick neck. “What, you want me to put her on the phone, given our current location?”

There was a brief pause as he understood what she was saying.

“I’ll be at the station in twenty minutes. Do not let them talk to her until I’m there.”