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She noticed that the boyish policeman sat near the door. She gave him a lift of her hand and he returned the gesture.
“We were hoping you could walk us through everything you can remember.”
“You’re sure he won’t come back? For my daughter?”
The sergeant rubbed his temple as if the question pained him. “Okay, ma’am. How about you explain why you’re so focused on that.”
A man like the sergeant whose first thought is that a mother buried murdered children in her walls? He must already have some dark ideas about motive.
“The Cor—this man, broke in because of my daughter.”
“Can you explain why you believe that?”
“He was strange toward her. At the sandwich shop. And he mentioned her specifically when we were hidden.”
“What exactly did he say that night?”
“He kind of—called to her? ‘Little girl, come out,’ that kind of thing. And he—” Her voice wavered, she tried to keep it under control, forced a cough to regain her composure. “He said he was a wolf. He called her a—” She swallowed deeply, then was able to choke out, “Called her a little pig. Said she’d be…delicious.”
The sergeant didn’t respond, which made her keep talking despite herself.
“It sounds, I don’t know, silly, saying it now?”
“Silly?” The sergeant scribbled something in a small notebook.
“I just mean…it sounds silly, but it was scary. Even for me, an adult, you know?”
Again the sergeant stayed silent, but this time she did, too. At last he asked, “And how did this man behave strangely at the sandwich place where you first saw him?”
She shifted uncomfortably. The memories made her skin itch.
“He was…inappropriate. He called my daughter princess, sweetheart. Kept staring at her. She had on a tank top. He—the strap of the shirt had slipped down, and he put it back.” She mimed the motion. “It was the—the,” she stuttered, “way he did it? I dunno. It bothered me.”
“You said this was back in August.”
“Yes.”
“And your husband?”
“Yeah, he was there.”
“And what did he think?”
She looked down at her hands. Made herself release the edge of the blanket she was twisting.
The sergeant already thought you were capable of killing your children and walling them up. Don’t let him know your husband thought you were overreacting.
“He agreed the guy was creepy.”
“Did this man seem threatening?”
“When he moved that strap? He did. To me he did.”
“How’d your husband react to that?”
“He didn’t notice.”
The sergeant’s face and tone flattened. “Didn’t notice?”
