Chapter 4 - What Sophie Saw
I called Nolan at 10:43 p.m.
He answered on the second ring.
“Daniel? Everything okay?”
“Did your wife serve on Lakeview's scholarship board?”
Silence.
Then, “For a while. Why?”
“Did you know Maya Bennett?”
Another silence.
“No. Should I?”
He lied smoothly.
That frightened me more than a clumsy lie would have.
“Come to my office at seven tomorrow.”
“Sure. Daniel, what is this about?”
“I'll tell you when you get here.”
I ended the call.
Behind me, Sophie spoke from the doorway.
“Mom didn't like Mr. Price.”
I turned. “Why are you still awake?”
“She called him a polished snake once.”
Despite everything, I almost smiled. That sounded exactly like Claire.
Sophie entered the room in her pajamas and climbed onto the couch.
“Dad, Maya didn't steal.”
“You don't know that.”
“I saw something.”
Every muscle in my body tightened.
“Tell me.”
Maya was there.
She had been pulling her own old textbooks from the trash.
“A guard yelled at her,” Sophie said. “He said if she came back, he'd call the police. Maya said the books were hers. Then he pushed her.”
“He pushed her?”
Sophie nodded. “Not hard. But enough. Her bag ripped. Papers fell out.”
“What papers?”
“I don't know. She grabbed them really fast.”
“And you went to her?”
“I helped pick up the books.”
My voice rose before I could stop it. “Sophie, you cannot leave school property and approach people you don't know.”
Her face closed instantly.
There it was. The wall.
I had built it one rule at a time.
“I was trying to help,” she whispered.
I lowered my voice. “I know.”
“No, you don't. You think helping means paying someone.”
The words landed cleanly.
Claire again.
Sophie wiped her eyes angrily. “Maya was crying, but not because the guard pushed her. She said those books were the last things she had from when her life was normal.”
I sat beside her.
“What did you say?”
“I asked if she wanted my snack.”
I laughed once, quietly.
Sophie leaned against me for the first time in weeks.
Then she said, “She sleeps under the Brown Line some nights.”
I went still.
“How do you know?”
“She told me yesterday because it was supposed to freeze.”
I stood immediately and called Marcus.
Twenty minutes later, we were driving north through cold rain.
Sophie insisted on coming.
May you like
When we reached the underpass, three police cars were already there.
An officer was handcuffing Maya.
