Chapter 8

Luke went down the hall first. I followed, holding my belly, the two blue capsules still tucked in my cheek. Walter was sitting up in bed, his pendant clutched in his fist. Rhonda stood beside him, trying to take it.

“Give me that,” she said.

“No.” Walter’s voice was thin but stubborn. “Cora.”

“Walter, please.”

“Blue pills.”

Luke pushed past Rhonda and grabbed the pendant. Walter held on. For a second, they were locked in a tug-of-war, an old man and his son. Then Luke wrenched it away.

“What the hell is this?” he said.

“His emergency button,” I said. “Give it back.”

Luke turned it over in his hand. The silver disk gleamed. He didn’t unscrew the back. He didn’t see the card. He just saw an old man’s panic button.

“You think the cops care about this?” he said. “They’re coming anyway.”

He threw the pendant on the bed. It bounced once and landed near Walter’s hand. Walter grabbed it and held it to his chest.

“Get out,” I said. “Both of you.”

Maribel appeared in the doorway. “The trooper is here.”

Everything stopped. Luke’s face went slack. Rhonda’s hand froze on her tablet. I heard the crunch of tires on ice, the slam of a door.

“Nobody says anything,” Maribel said. “I’ll handle it.”

She went to the front door. Luke followed her. Rhonda looked at me, then at Walter, then left. I stayed with Walter.

“Did you press it?” I whispered.

He nodded. “When Rhonda came in.”

I kissed his hand. “Good.”

The trooper’s voice boomed in the kitchen. “State Police. We got a pendant call from this address.”

“That was my father-in-law,” Maribel said. “He has Parkinson’s. He gets confused.”

“I need to see him.”

I walked out of the sickroom. The trooper was a tall man in a wet parka, snow melting on his shoulders. His name tag said T. Gagnon. He looked at me, at my bruised cheek, at my pregnant belly.

“Ma’am,” he said. “Are you Cora Danforth?”

“Yes.”

“Your father-in-law called about blue pills.”

Maribel stepped in. “She’s confused. She’s been having delusions. I have the paperwork for an emergency hold.”

The trooper took the folder. He glanced at it, then at me. “Is that true?”

“No,” I said. “They’ve been sedating me. They swapped my prenatal vitamins for temazepam. They staged a fall in the sugarhouse and tried to have me committed so they can take my baby and sell the farm.”

Luke laughed. It was a ugly, nervous sound. “She’s crazy.”

The trooper didn’t smile. “Do you have proof?”

I turned and walked back into the sickroom. Walter was holding the pendant. I lifted it from his hands and unscrewed the battery compartment. The card fell into my palm.

I walked back to the kitchen and held it up.

“Baby monitor SD card,” I said. “Timestamped audio. It caught Luke backhanding me into the evaporator. It caught Maribel telling him to make sure I take the blue ones. It caught them planning the welfare check.”

Maribel’s face went white. “That’s not possible. The monitor was smashed.”

“The card wasn’t.”

Luke took a step toward me. The trooper put a hand on his chest.

“Don’t,” Gagnon said.

I held out the card. Then I took the two blue capsules from my mouth and put them on the table beside it.

“Those are the sedatives,” I said. “I didn’t swallow them.”

The trooper looked at the capsules. He looked at Maribel’s tote. He looked at Luke’s fists.

“I’m going to need everyone to stay right here,” he said.