Chapter 5

Rhonda arrived at 7:15 with her agency tablet and a thermos of coffee. She stamped her boots on the mat and smiled at me like we were old friends.

“Cora,” she said. “How are you feeling?”

I was sitting at the kitchen table with my hands folded. Maribel stood by the stove with her arms crossed. Luke was in the barn, checking the generator again. I had the monitor hidden in the bathroom hamper, turned off, but the card was still under the radiator lid. I could feel it like a splinter in my mind.

“I’m okay,” I said. “Tired.”

Rhonda sat across from me and opened her tablet. “Maribel says you’ve been a little confused. Forgetting things.”

“I haven’t.”

“She says you left the stove on.”

“I didn’t.”

Rhonda’s smile stayed fixed. She typed something. I leaned forward and saw the screen. Patient reports paranoia. Accuses husband of poisoning.

My blood went cold. I hadn’t said any of that. Not yet.

“Rhonda,” I said, keeping my voice low. “You know me. You’ve been coming here for two years. You know I take care of Walter.”

“I know you’re under a lot of stress.”

“Luke hit me. In the sugarhouse. He knocked me into the evaporator.”

Rhonda’s pen stopped. She looked up at me, and for a second I thought I saw doubt. Then her phone buzzed on the table. The screen lit up. Maribel (cuz).

She turned the phone face down, but I’d already seen it.

Cuz.

Rhonda was Maribel’s cousin. The only outsider. The one I’d hoped would help.

“I think you need to rest,” Rhonda said. “Your blood pressure is probably elevated. Have you taken your vitamins?”

“The blue ones?”

“Yes.”

Maribel moved from the stove. “She’s been refusing them.”

“I’ll take them,” I said. “I just want to lie down first.”

Rhonda typed something else. I didn’t need to see it. I could hear Maribel’s voice from the monitor clip in my head. You’re family, Rhonda. Write what I told you.

“The welfare check is approved,” Maribel said. “They’ll be here by nine.”

Rhonda nodded. “Good. I’ll stay until then.”

I stood up. The kitchen tilted. I put my hand on the table to steady myself. Maribel watched me with her sharp, satisfied eyes.

“You look pale,” she said. “Why don’t you take your vitamins now?”

“I will,” I said. “In a minute.”

I walked out of the kitchen and down the hall. In the bathroom, I locked the door and leaned over the sink. I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t. Walter was in his room. Luke was outside. Maribel and Rhonda were in the kitchen, writing my future on a tablet.

I opened the hamper and pulled out the monitor. The card was under the radiator, but the monitor was still a camera. I turned it on and tucked it behind the toilet tank, lens facing the bathroom door. It wouldn’t record to a card, but it might still stream to the backup Wi-Fi. I didn’t know if anyone was watching. I didn’t care. I just needed them to think I was in here, compliant, taking my pills.

I took the two blue capsules out of my jeans pocket. I’d carried them since I’d found the temazepam. I held them under the tap, wet them, then stuck them to the underside of the soap dish. Later, I’d put them in a tissue and keep them as evidence.

Then I opened the door and went back to the kitchen.

“I took them,” I said.

Maribel smiled. “Good girl.”

Rhonda didn’t look up from her tablet. I sat down and folded my hands. The welfare check was coming. The card was hidden. Walter’s pendant was on his blanket. I had one chance left, and it was still under the radiator.