Chapter 16 - THE REASON MRS. ALVAREZ CAME OVER
I had spent weeks wondering why Mrs. Alvarez happened to ring my doorbell at exactly the right moment.
I finally asked her when she visited Caleb.
She smiled sadly.
“It wasn’t luck.”
“What do you mean?”
“I saw Travis leave.”
“So?”
“You were standing in the window.”
I frowned.
“I don’t remember that.”
“You probably don’t.”
“You looked terrible.”
Mrs. Alvarez had been watering plants on her porch when the Morgans drove away.
She saw me standing behind the front window.
One hand was pressed against my stomach.
The other was against the glass.
“I thought you were waving.”
“I wasn’t.”
“I realized that later.”
She had waited five minutes.
Then ten.
Then she heard me scream.
That was when she crossed the street.
“Why didn’t you just walk in?”
“Because the door was locked.”
I looked at her.
“Of course it was locked.”
She shook her head.
“From the outside.”
My breath stopped.
“What?”
“When the firefighters arrived, the deadbolt mechanism had been engaged in a way that prevented the exterior handle from opening.”
“That doesn’t mean I couldn’t leave.”
“No.”
“But then the fire captain found something else.”
She looked uncomfortable.
“What?”
“The interior thumb turn had been damaged.”
I remembered struggling with the door after Travis left.
I had assumed my hands were too weak.
Mrs. Alvarez continued.
“The police initially thought it was old damage.”
“Now they’re not sure.”
I called Detective Ross immediately.
She confirmed it.
Investigators had found tool marks on the lock.
Someone had altered it.
“Are you saying they locked me inside?”
“We’re investigating.”
“Who?”
“We don’t know yet.”
I thought about Travis.
Deborah.
Harold.
Then I remembered something.
The night before labor, Harold had been fixing the front door.
He told me the deadbolt was sticking.
He had spent nearly twenty minutes with a screwdriver.
My skin went cold.
“Detective.”
“Yes?”
“My father-in-law worked on that lock the night before.”
There was silence.
May you like
Then Detective Ross said.
“I need you to tell me everything you remember.”
