Chapter 7 - The Blue Dinosaur
A child-development specialist interviewed Sophie.
Not a detective at the kitchen table.
Not Daniel asking questions over and over.
Deputy Reyes insisted on a trained forensic interviewer because Sophie was three.
Daniel agreed.
He hated every second.
Sophie entered the child-friendly room carrying the blue dinosaur.
She came out forty minutes later asking for apple juice.
The interviewer gave Daniel very little detail because she did not want him influencing later statements.
But she confirmed one important fact.
Sophie had seen Rachel at the house.
Later than Vanessa claimed Rachel left.
“She said Aunt Rachel was sleeping,” the interviewer explained.
“Where?”
“She described seeing legs near the hallway.”
Daniel’s stomach tightened.
“Did she see Vanessa hurt her?”
“No clear disclosure.”
“Then the scratches?”
The interviewer smiled slightly.
“Sophie said she crawled under the long cabinet because she heard ‘Aunt Rachel sound.’”
Daniel pictured the low console near the floor seam.
The scratches likely came from squeezing beneath its rough wooden edge.
“She was trying to find Rachel.”
“That is consistent with what she described.”
Daniel looked at his daughter through the observation window.
She was making the dinosaur walk along the chairs.
“When did she first tell Vanessa?”
“We don’t know exactly. Sophie said Vanessa told her it was pipes.”
Then later:
She’s lying.
Daniel felt anger return.
The interviewer warned him.
“Do not praise her for giving specific answers.”
“What?”
“You can tell her you’re glad she told an adult when she was scared. Don’t tell her she was ‘right’ about details repeatedly. Memory in young children can be influenced.”
Daniel nodded.
He appreciated how careful truth had to be.
At home Sophie climbed onto his lap.
“Did I do good?”
Daniel remembered the warning.
“You did a good job telling people when you were scared.”
“Because Rachel was under us.”
Daniel swallowed.
“Yes.”
She hugged the dinosaur.
“Vanessa put her there.”
Daniel froze.
He resisted every instinct to ask questions.
Instead:
“You already talked to the lady about what you remember.”
Sophie nodded.
“Can I watch Bluey?”
“Yes.”
That was parenting now.
Major felony disclosure.
Cartoon.
Snack.
Bath.
The ordinary and terrible living beside each other.
That night Daniel examined the plush dinosaur.
A blue body.
Green spikes.
One ear was slightly torn.
Rachel had given it to Sophie the evening before she was trapped.
Daniel remembered Rachel arriving with it.
Vanessa had looked annoyed.
“Another giant toy?”
Rachel laughed.
“You have a giant house.”
Daniel had missed the edge in their voices.
He missed so much.
Carol arrived with dinner.
Daniel’s mother disliked Vanessa from the beginning, though she had been polite.
He knew what was coming.
“I told you.”
“Don’t.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were about to.”
Carol sat.
After a moment she said, “I’m sorry.”
“For?”
“For wanting to be right.”
Daniel looked at her.
“That’s unusually self-aware.”
“Age.”
She pointed toward the temporarily sealed floor.
“Are you selling the house?”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“No.”
Hawthorne held Emily.
Sophie’s first steps.
Christmases.
Vanessa too.
And now Rachel beneath the floor.
Could a home absorb too much?
Carol touched his arm.
“A house is not what happened inside it.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Sometimes you and Rachel sound coordinated.”
“We are women over forty. We have access to the same database.”
He laughed despite himself.
Then his phone rang.
Grace.
The external drive had been imaged.
“We found accounting backups.”
“How old?”
“Four years.”
“Vanessa?”
“She appears in them.”
Daniel’s hand tightened.
“How much?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“Give me something.”
Grace hesitated.
“Daniel, there are vendor payments to Northline Supply totaling more than two hundred thousand dollars.”
“That does not mean fraud.”
“No.”
“And?”
“Northline’s registered mailing address belonged to Vanessa’s father.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
“What was her father’s name?”
“Owen Vale Senior.”
Daniel knew the answer before Grace gave it.
“And who owned Northline?”
Grace said, “We are checking.”
Daniel looked toward Sophie.
The dinosaur fell from the couch.
May you like
For the first time he wondered whether Rachel had given Sophie the toy simply because she loved her.
Or because coming to Hawthorne that night had been more deliberate than anyone admitted.
