Page 71 of Not a Word

Brent grabbed her arm and made her stop. “Why?”

Her eyebrows tilted in the direction of the upstairs window. “He saw.”

Brent had no words.

She shook off his arm. Once they were in the kitchen, she found her purse, brought out her wallet, and found a yellow Post-it note tucked inside. On it was written a phone number with no name attached. She handed it to her husband.

“Tell him exactly what happened. He’ll know what to do.”

Catherine left him standing there, stunned, as she headed upstairs. She went straight to Holden’s room, found the door closed, and rapped softly on it.

There was no sound from inside. She quietly turned the knob, entered the room, and closed the door behind her. Holden was under the covers, the blanket pulled up far enough to cover the lower half of his head.

“I know you’re awake,” his mother said, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

Holden didn’t move.

“Stop pretending. I saw you at the window.”

Holden pushed down the covers with his arm and rolled over to look at his mother.

“What did you see?” she asked him.

“Nothing,” he whispered.

“Don’t lie to me.”

Holden was silent. “It’s okay,” she said soothingly. “It’s okay to tell me what you saw.”

“The lady was running.”

“And what else?”

“And you were running after her, and then I heard something, and then she fell down.”

“Okay,” she said, worry creeping into her voice. “That’s what you saw. What is it you think actually happened?”

“You shot that lady.”

Catherine nodded slowly. “Did you tell your brother what you saw?”

His head moved back and forth on the pillow.

“Are you sure?”

A nod.

Catherine was inclined to believe him. Reece was a sound sleeper. One night, when the smoke alarms went off by accident, everyone woke up and leapt out of bed, except for Reece.

“You must never tell him what you saw.”

“Okay.”

“And not just your brother. If anyone were to find out what happened here tonight, it would destroy this family. You wouldn’t have a home anymore. You’d lose your father, you’d lose me, you and your brother would be sent to live with different families.”

Holden, tears forming in his eyes, said nothing.

“That woman was a very bad person. She came to hurt us. She was going to hurt me and your father and Reece and you. So she had to be stopped. Whatever you think you saw me do, it was done to save this family.”