Chapter 6 - Rachel's Bad Feeling)
Rachel Carter had not planned to come.
At five forty that afternoon, she was standing in line at a grocery store twelve miles away buying cat food and toothpaste when she noticed Claire had stopped answering messages.
That was not unusual.
Claire was eight months pregnant and preparing for a large Christmas party.
Rachel almost put the phone away.
Then she reread their morning conversation.
Rachel: How's the dictatorship?
Claire: Margaret moved the tree.
Rachel: The whole tree?
Claire: Three feet to the left because the original spot apparently looked poor.
Rachel: Call the police.
Claire: Tempting.
Rachel: Want me to come rescue you later?
Claire: Maybe.
At two forty eight, Claire had sent one more message.
Daniel and Margaret are both in moods. I swear this party is going to kill me.
Rachel had replied with a laughing face.
No answer.
At four twelve, she sent:
Still alive?
No answer.
At five seventeen:
Claire?
Nothing.
Then, at five thirty two, Rachel saw something strange.
Three messages in the thread disappeared.
Rachel knew because she had been looking at them less than an hour earlier.
She frowned.
Maybe Claire had deleted them.
But Claire almost never deleted anything.
Rachel called.
The phone rang twice.
Then went to voicemail.
She called again.
Immediately to voicemail.
Her stomach tightened.
Rachel had no proof anything was wrong.
Only history.
Two years earlier, Claire had called after midnight because Daniel had taken her car keys during an argument.
He insisted she was too upset to drive.
Claire later defended him.
Last spring, Margaret had entered Claire's house while she was showering and reorganized the nursery closet.
Claire laughed it off.
Three months ago, Rachel watched Daniel answer a question directed at Claire about whether she planned to return to work after maternity leave.
"We've decided she'll stay home."
Claire had said nothing.
Later Rachel asked, "Did you decide that?"
Claire replied, "We're discussing it."
That meant no.
Rachel knew her sister's language.
She also knew Daniel's.
At five forty five, Rachel left the grocery store.
She placed the bags in her trunk.
Then she stood beside the driver's door, thinking.
Calling Daniel would warn him.
Calling Margaret would be worse.
Calling Claire had already failed.
Rachel got into her car.
She drove toward the Bennett house.
Traffic was heavy.
Christmas lights glowed along suburban streets.
Families carried gifts from cars.
Children ran through yards.
Everything looked ordinary.
Rachel felt ridiculous.
Maybe Claire was busy.
Maybe the phone had died.
Maybe the deleted messages meant nothing.
Then she remembered one message that vanished.
Claire had sent it three days earlier.
Daniel says I embarrass him when I disagree with his mom in front of people.
Why delete that?
Rachel pressed harder on the accelerator.
At six twenty, she turned onto Claire's street.
Cars lined both sides.
The Christmas party was clearly underway.
Rachel almost parked in front.
Then she changed her mind.
The Bennett house had a garage side entrance facing the driveway.
When they were younger, Claire always used side entrances.
She hated formal entrances.
Rachel smiled faintly at the memory.
Then her headlights swept across the garage.
Something moved behind the narrow window beside the door.
Rachel slowed.
A shape.
Maybe a person.
Then gone.
She parked halfway up the driveway.
As she stepped out, the garage stayed dark except for cold fluorescent light visible around the doorframe.
The house itself glowed warmly.
Music.
Laughter.
Perfect Christmas.
Rachel walked toward the side door.
Locked.
She frowned.
The Bennetts almost never locked it during parties because guests sometimes stored coats in the garage.
Rachel knocked.
No answer.
She knocked harder.
"Claire?"
Inside, something crashed.
Metal against metal.
Rachel grabbed the handle.
"Claire? Why the hell is this door locked?"
Silence.
Then voices.
Daniel.
Margaret.
Too quiet to understand.
Rachel's pulse quickened.
She pulled out her keys.
Claire had given her an emergency house key two years earlier.
Daniel hated that.
Rachel had kept it anyway.
She tried it.
The deadbolt turned.
Inside, she heard Margaret say, "She has a key."
Daniel swore.
Rachel pushed the door.
Something blocked it.
She shoved harder.
The door opened six inches.
Daniel appeared.
"Rachel."
He smiled.
The smile was wrong.
"What are you doing here?"
Rachel pushed again.
Daniel kept his hand on the door.
"Claire invited me."
"No, she didn't."
"Move."
"She's resting."
"Move, Daniel."
He lowered his voice.
"She's had a difficult day."
Rachel stared through the opening.
Behind him she saw a white sheet move.
Then Claire screamed.
"RACHEL. I'M IN HERE."
Rachel drove her shoulder into the door.
Daniel stumbled backward.
The door flew open.
And Rachel saw the laundry cart.
For the rest of her life, Rachel would remember that second in fragments.
Claire's face.
Her belly.
The bandage.
Margaret's hand gripping the cart.
Daniel's panic.
Rachel reached into her coat.
Daniel recoiled.
She pulled out her emergency window breaker.
It was the first metal object her hand found.
Daniel recognized it.
Perhaps he thought she intended to use it on him.
Rachel didn't.
She walked to the laundry cart.
"Claire."
Claire grabbed her wrist.
"I need a hospital."
Rachel nodded.
"You're going."
Margaret stepped forward.
"This is being exaggerated."
Rachel turned.
"Not another word."
"You don't understand."
"I understand my pregnant sister is injured and sitting in a laundry cart."
"She chose to sit there."
Claire said, "No, I didn't."
Rachel looked at Margaret.
Then at Daniel.
"Who took her phone?"
Neither answered.
Claire said, "Daniel."
Rachel reached for her own phone.
Daniel grabbed her wrist.
It was instinctive.
A mistake.
Rachel stared down at his hand.
Daniel released her immediately.
"Don't call anyone yet."
Rachel's expression changed.
"Yet?"
"We can explain."
Claire laughed bitterly.
Rachel dialed emergency services.
Margaret panicked.
"Think about what you're doing."
Rachel lifted the phone to her ear.
"I am."
Daniel moved toward her.
Nathan stepped into the garage.
He had heard Claire scream.
Then Dr. Ellen Price appeared behind him.
Then Susan.
Within seconds, the secret Daniel and Margaret had worked so hard to hide became impossible to contain.
Guests gathered at the mudroom entrance.
Someone turned down the music.
Another person whispered, "Oh my God."
Margaret looked around at the faces.
Her perfect Christmas was collapsing.
Rachel watched her.
And for the first time, Margaret seemed more frightened than Claire.
The emergency dispatcher answered.
Rachel gave the address.
Then Claire grabbed her sleeve.
"Rachel."
"What?"
Claire looked toward Daniel.
"Tell them I don't want him coming with me."
Daniel stared.
Claire repeated it louder.
"I don't want my husband in the ambulance."
Every person near the doorway heard.
Daniel's face hardened.
"Claire, don't do this."
May you like
She looked at him.
"You already did."
