Chapter 4

I waited until Luke went out to the generator shed. The freezing rain had turned to sleet, and the lights flickered once, then died again. Maribel was in Walter’s room, checking his blood pressure by lantern light. I heard her calm nurse’s voice through the wall, and Walter’s slow answers.

I took the SD card out of the monitor with my thumbnail. It was smaller than a stamp, black and silver, and it held every word they’d said. I’d already listened to enough. I didn’t need to hear the rest. I needed to hide it somewhere they’d never think to look.

Walter’s medication dispenser sat on his bedside table, a plastic weekly organizer with Sunday through Saturday compartments. I’d filled it that morning. I knew Maribel had been swapping my blue vitamins for temazepam, but she hadn’t touched Walter’s pills. She needed him alive, at least until the commitment papers were signed.

I waited until Maribel went to the kitchen to make tea. Then I slipped into Walter’s room.

He was awake, propped on his pillows, his hands trembling on the blanket. His eyes found me and then the card in my fingers.

“Cora,” he whispered.

“I need to hide this,” I said. “Under the lid. Can you keep it secret?”

Walter’s mouth worked. He’d been a sugarmaker all his life, a man who read weather and wood and people. He knew something was wrong in the house. He’d known before I did.

“Blue pills,” he said.

“Yes.”

“Make you sleep.”

I nodded. My throat closed. I lifted the dispenser lid and pressed the card flat against the underside with a strip of duct tape from my apron. Then I snapped the lid back on and set it on the table.

“Don’t tell them,” I said. “Please.”

Walter’s hand found mine. His grip was weak, but his eyes were steady. “Go,” he said. “Get the trooper.”

I didn’t ask how he knew. Maybe he’d heard more than anyone thought. Maybe he’d been listening through the floor vent, too.

I went back to my room. Luke came in ten minutes later. He didn’t knock. He never knocked.

“Where is it?” he said.

“Where’s what?”

“The monitor.”

“You took it,” I said. “It was in your pocket.”

His face darkened. He started pulling open drawers, tossing my clothes onto the floor. He upended my overnight bag and shook it. He searched under the mattress, behind the dresser, in the closet. I sat on the bed with my arms wrapped around my belly and let him tear the room apart.

“I know you’re hiding something,” he said.

“I’m not hiding anything.”

He grabbed my chin and forced my face up. “You think I’m stupid?”

“No,” I said. “I think you’re scared.”

He let go. For a second, something flickered in his eyes. Then he turned and walked out.

I heard him go into Walter’s room. My heart stopped. I heard the squeak of the bedside table drawer, the rattle of the pill bottles. Then his boots came back down the hall, heavier now.

He appeared in the doorway holding the medication dispenser.

“What’s this doing in here?” he said.

“It’s Walter’s. He needs it.”

“He doesn’t need it tonight.”

He carried the dispenser toward the kitchen. I followed him, my hands cold, my belly tight. He opened the woodstove door. The fire inside was orange and hungry.

“Luke, don’t.”

He didn’t even look at me. He popped the lid and dumped the pills into the flames. Blue, white, yellow, they all went in. The plastic compartments cracked and melted. The lid fell to the floor.

The card was still taped to the underside, hidden in the curl of plastic.

Luke kicked the lid toward the stove, but it slid under the radiator instead. He didn’t notice. He slammed the stove door and stood there breathing hard.

“There,” he said. “No more pills.”

I stared at the lid under the radiator. The card was safe. For now.

Maribel came into the kitchen with the commitment folder under her arm. Her eyes went from the stove to Luke to me.

“What happened?” she said.

“Nothing,” Luke said. “Just cleaning house.”

Maribel looked at me. I looked back at her. The lid was six feet away, under the radiator, still holding everything.