**Look under the blue folder.**
I folded the note and slipped it into my pocket just as Detective Bell returned.
“Is Elise comfortable?” she asked.
“The nurse gave her something for the pain. She’s resting.”
Bell glanced at the key.
“What did you find?”
I handed her the note.
She read it once, then again.
“Did Elise tell you what the key opens?”
“No. She said it opens the drawer where her father keeps the truth.”
Bell considered the words.
“Children sometimes use dramatic language when they’re frightened.”
“I know.”
“But that doesn’t mean we ignore it.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
She gave me a careful look. “Ryan has agreed to let us search the house.”
“Agreed?”
“He’s also asking for an attorney.”
“That seems wise.”
“He says he didn’t know about the recording until today. He insists his sisters misled him.”
“Do you believe him?”
Bell did not answer immediately.
“I believe people can be both responsible and deceived,” she said. “Those things aren’t mutually exclusive.”
The sentence stayed with me.
Ryan had not struck Elise. He had not been in the room when the injuries occurred. But he had trusted the wrong people, signed papers he had not fully examined, and left our daughter in a situation he had not properly understood.
