Chapter 2
“Yes.”
Hannah looked across Long Island Sound.
“The tide’s going out. The water is gray today. Not pretty blue-gray. More like polished steel.”
Grant said nothing.
“There’s a red sailboat maybe half a mile out. A white fishing boat farther east. The clouds are moving fast, but there’s a break where the sunlight comes through.”
She paused.
“The sun is touching the red sailboat now.”
Grant’s hand remained around the warm porcelain cup.
“Continue.”
So she did.
The next day she described three gulls fighting over something near the rocks.
The day after that, a storm building over Connecticut.
Within a week, Grant began arriving on the terrace before four.
Hannah noticed.
She never mentioned it.
Then Lucy noticed something else.
Thursday morning, Dr. Hale arrived precisely at seven.
His black leather medical case entered with him.
Lucy was supposed to remain near the kitchen.
Instead, she followed a butterfly-shaped reflection from a serving tray into the main hallway and stopped outside the examination room.
The door was cracked.
Through the opening, she saw Dr. Hale standing over the sink.
He removed the amber medicine bottle he always used on Grant.
Then he poured half its contents down the drain.
Lucy watched him reach inside his jacket and remove a second bottle.
Clear glass.
No label.
He poured that liquid into the medicine bottle, replaced the cap and shook it.
Lucy thought this was strange.
Adults constantly told her never to mix things that did not belong together.
That evening, while Hannah washed shampoo from her hair, Lucy announced, “Dr. Vernon put secret water in Mr. Grant’s eye medicine.”
May you like
Hannah’s hands stopped.
“What?”
