Chapter 9 - The Witness in the Kitchen
Ethan found Lucille Marsh, the family cook, packing her apron into a grocery bag.
"Where are you going?"
"Home, Mr. Whitlock. Mrs. Whitlock says I stole from the pantry."
"Did you?"
Lucille looked insulted. "I've cooked for your family eleven years."
He sat down beside her. "Then don't leave until you tell me what you've seen."
Lucille's eyes filled. "I heard him cry. I knocked on that blue door once. Mrs. Whitlock told me the boy needed discipline and I needed my job. My husband had just started chemotherapy. I was frightened."
Ethan took a long breath. "I was his father. I wasn't listening either."
"That's the worst part," Lucille whispered. "He kept asking me to get you."
She reached into her bag and brought out a narrow strip of paper. It was a courier receipt, torn from a packet Sloane had ordered her to shred.
The destination was Haven Ridge Behavioral Center.
"I saved it because the courier came at two in the morning," Lucille said. "And because the envelope had Caleb's name on it."
Ethan called Haven Ridge. The director refused to discuss patient records over the phone, but she confirmed that his signature appeared on an authorization designating Sloane as Caleb's primary medical decision-maker.
"I never signed that," he said.
"Then you need to put your concern in writing," the director replied.
After he hung up, Caleb appeared in the doorway, clutching a stuffed gray seal.
"Daddy, are you sending Lucille away?"
"No. She can stay if she wants."
Caleb looked up at Lucille. "Then can she tell you what happens when the music turns on?"
Lucille covered her mouth.
"What music, buddy?" Ethan asked.
May you like
Caleb squeezed the seal so hard its stuffing shifted.
"The music from the blue room. When it stops, she comes back with the camera."
