“I’m right here, sweetheart.”
“I waited for you.”
“I know. I’m sorry it took me so long.”
Noah climbed onto the chair next to the bed.
“I called him, Clara.”
She turned her head toward her brother.
“I heard you talking. I just couldn’t open my eyes.”
Noah started crying, and Caleb wrapped one arm around him while continuing to hold Clara’s hand with the other.
A few moments later, Clara whispered, “The man with the shiny shoes came to our house.”
Detective Sloan, waiting beside the doorway, moved closer.
“What man, honey?”
“He yelled at Mommy. He said she took something from him.”
Caleb felt the room close around him.
“What did your mother say?”
Clara’s eyelids flickered.
“She said she gave it to the one person he would never search.”
Then she drifted back to sleep.
The White Rabbit
The statement awakened a memory Caleb had brushed aside months before.
During Clara’s previous visit to his condominium, she had accidentally left behind a worn white stuffed rabbit with one missing eye and a faded blue ribbon. Meredith had demanded that Caleb return it immediately. He had assumed she was inventing another excuse to prolong an argument, so he put the toy inside a storage container and forgot about it.
He was still trying to understand the connection when Noah reached inside his pocket and placed a tiny silver charm into his father’s palm. It was shaped like a key surrounded by small leaves.
“This fell off Clara’s rabbit,” he explained. “Mom told me to hide it if the shiny-shoe man came.”
Caleb crouched down before him.
“Did she tell you anything else?”
Noah nodded, his eyes becoming watery again.
