Chapter 10 - The Fire Escape
Owen had gone back for Hannah’s clothes.
He wanted her to have something that didn’t smell like a hospital.
Such a small, ordinary kindness.
Mark had been waiting in the garage.
According to the call Owen managed to make, Mark forced him into the kitchen and demanded the storage key.
He didn’t know police had already opened the unit.
Ruiz listened through an earpiece while I stood in the hospital hall.
“Is Owen hurt?”
She lifted a finger.
Wait.
I hated that finger.
I hated the calm face she wore while somebody I loved was trapped with a man I had invited to every Thanksgiving for fifteen years.
Then she said, “He’s out.”
My knees nearly gave.
“Owen?”
“He got through the back door.”
“How?”
“Your brother threw a kitchen chair through the glass.”
For the first time in two days, I almost laughed.
Then Ruiz said, “Mark stayed inside.”
The house was cleared room by room.
They found him in my office, feeding papers into the fireplace.
He had not expected the flue to be closed.
Smoke filled the room.
He tried to leave through a side door and ran straight into two officers.
When Ruiz told me he was in custody, I sat down on the floor.
Not in a chair.
Not gracefully.
Just down.
Owen arrived an hour later with a bandage across his palm and a duffel bag over his shoulder.
“You look terrible,” he told me.
“You broke my kitchen door.”
“Put it on my tab.”
I stood and hugged him.
He made a sound like he was annoyed.
Then his good hand tightened against my back.
Hannah cried when he handed her the bag.
It held sweatpants, socks, her favorite sweater, and a hairbrush.
“I didn’t know what still fit,” he said.
She pressed the sweater to her face.
“It smells like home.”
Owen looked toward me.
Neither of us knew what that meant anymore.
Later, Ruiz brought another development.
Mark wanted to talk.
“He says Vanessa planned Hannah’s disappearance,” she told us. “He says he only helped after the fact.”
Hannah gave a bitter smile.
“Of course he does.”
“He also says she’s been preparing to blame you.”
“Me?” I asked.
Ruiz nodded.
“The false messages were part of it.”
“What else?”
She set a printed photograph on the table.
A life insurance application.
My name.
My signature.
Vanessa listed as beneficiary.
I had never seen it.
Hannah read the page.
May you like
Then she looked at me.
“She wasn’t planning to keep you either.”
