“Richard…
where is Emily?”
Daniel’s voice came through the speakerphone so clearly that every person around my daughter’s bed heard it.
Nobody answered immediately.
The deputy’s eyes moved from the phone to me.
Alan stood near Emily’s monitor, motionless.
The trauma nurse had stopped halfway through sealing the evidence bag containing the torn strip of Daniel’s shirt.
I looked at Emily.
Her eyes were closed again, but her breathing had changed.
Even through sedation, she’d recognized his voice.
Her fingers curled against the sheet.
I felt every instinct I had as a father demanding that I tell Daniel exactly where he could go.
Instead, forty years in surgery took over.
When an artery opened unexpectedly on an operating table, panic killed people.
You controlled the bleeding first.
You asked questions later.
So I kept my voice level.
“Why are you looking for her?”
Daniel hesitated.
It lasted perhaps one second.
To everyone else, it might have meant nothing.
To me, it sounded like a man changing answers in his head.
“We had an argument,” he said.
“She left the house upset.
I’m worried about her.”
The deputy quietly pointed toward the phone, then toward himself.
I understood.
Keep him talking.
“What kind of argument?”
“Marriage stuff.
Nothing serious.”
Nothing serious.
I looked at the gauze surrounding the injuries across my daughter’s back.
The nurse looked down.
“When did she leave?” I asked.
“I don’t know.
Maybe an hour ago.”
“And why are you calling me?”
Another pause.
“Because she goes to you when she’s upset.”
That was plausible.
It was also a lie.
Emily and I were close, but she had never once arrived at my house unannounced after a marital argument.
Daniel knew that.
I said nothing.
Silence is uncomfortable for people who are afraid of what you know.
Daniel filled it.
“Richard, did she tell you something?”
The deputy’s eyebrows lifted.
I looked directly at him.
“Tell me what?”
Daniel breathed out too quickly.
“I don’t know.
That’s why I’m asking.”
Then he made his first real mistake.
“Look, if she’s saying I hurt her, she’s confused.
