Chapter 2 - What Leo Remembered
Julian ordered the security man to close the gates, but I heard the click of a radio before the guard disappeared toward the terrace.
The house suddenly seemed much larger than it had when I was simply getting a child ready for bed.
Julian held out his hand.
"Give me the drawing."
I shook my head.
"It's Leo's."
"He's my son."
"Then ask him."
He turned toward Leo, who was still holding onto my sleeve.
"Give it to me, buddy."
Leo said nothing.
Julian's expression softened in a way that might have convinced someone who hadn't watched him threaten us seconds earlier.
"I'll put it somewhere safe," he said.
Leo looked up at me.
"Safe like the jewelry?"
Julian stepped back as if the words had struck him.
I used that moment to collect my phone and keys.
I took a photograph of the drawing in full view of the room.
"I'm leaving with the things that belong to me," I told Julian. "I will be reachable through my attorney or the police."
I didn't have an attorney then.
I had no idea how I would pay one.
But I needed Julian to understand that the conversation was no longer a private performance inside his house.
Leo began to cry as I moved toward the entrance.
"Please don't go."
I knelt beside him, making sure my voice stayed calm.
"I'm not choosing to leave you. I need to make sure the grown-ups are keeping you safe."
"Daddy said I wasn't supposed to tell what I saw."
Julian said his son's name sharply.
I looked toward him.
"Do not coach him, Lila."
"I'm not asking him questions."
I wanted desperately to ask Leo everything.
I also knew that pressing a frightened child could damage both his trust and the reliability of anything he later told an investigator.
His mother had taught me that much during the months before she died of cancer.
Andrea Merrick had been a family-court mediator who believed children needed adults capable of hearing an answer they didn't like.
Leo hugged me once, fiercely, before Julian's sister Camille appeared in the foyer.
She had arrived for her regular Thursday dinner and took one look at our faces.
"What happened?"
Julian opened his mouth.
I answered first.
"I've been dismissed after being accused of stealing jewelry. Leo has a drawing about a night that's relevant to a missing-person investigation. I think someone should speak to the appropriate authorities."
Camille's eyes moved toward the paper.
"Nadia Voss?"
Julian said nothing.
That was answer enough for her to take Leo gently into the sitting room.
I walked out to my cottage to pack a bag.
The cottage was provided as part of my employment, and I understood that my right to remain there could become a separate issue.
For tonight, I took only medication, clothes, my documents, and the small scrapbook Andrea had asked me to make for Leo.
I left the toys and his favorite blanket where he could find them.
Before I drove away, Camille came down the path.
"You can stay with me tonight," she said.
"Won't Julian object?"
"He objects to everything he can't arrange."
She looked toward the house.
"I need to tell you something."
Andrea, she said, had asked Camille to check on Leo if Julian ever dismissed a caregiver without explanation.
It was not a secret guardianship plan or a hidden will.
It was a worried mother's request to her sister-in-law, made during an illness that left her little control over the household.
Camille had promised to listen.
"And I am listening now," she said.
As we reached her car, Leo called from an upstairs window.
"Lila!"
He held up a second drawing.
This one showed two boats.
May you like
Beside the smaller boat, he had written three words in the careful spelling we'd practiced together.
SHE WAS ALIVE.
