Chapter 6 - THE QUESTIONS MICHAEL FORGOT
Michael had asked questions.
He had forgotten because Vanessa answered them quickly.
Five months after Natalie disappeared, Michael received a voicemail from an unknown number.
A woman saying:
“Tell Natalie I found her blue coat.”
Wrong number, he assumed.
Vanessa deleted it.
Then a letter arrived from a recovery clinic addressed to Natalie at the Carter house.
Vanessa said it was old mail.
She threw it away.
Michael asked:
“Why would they have our address?”
Vanessa answered:
“Natalie used us as emergency contact years ago.”
Reasonable.
Then one night Michael heard movement under the living room.
A scraping sound.
He joked about mice.
Vanessa said the old ductwork shifted.
Two days later she scheduled a pest-control visit.
The technician found no rodents.
Michael forgot.
Each question had an answer.
Not always a good one.
Just good enough to stop the next question.
Natalie said Vanessa panicked after the clinic letter.
“She thought you were noticing.”
So she moved Natalie from the motel back beneath the house for what was supposed to be three nights.
Then something changed.
Natalie became sick.
A stomach infection.
Weakness.
Dehydration.
Vanessa delayed medical care because she feared exposure.
Natalie said:
“I begged her.”
“Did she refuse?”
“At first.”
Then Vanessa brought antibiotics.
From where?
No prescription in Natalie’s name.
Laura checked pharmacy records.
A course of antibiotics had been prescribed to Vanessa for a sinus infection around the same time.
She never took them.
Natalie did.
Improper.
Potentially dangerous.
Then Natalie said:
“She stopped opening the hatch every night.”
Michael felt rage rising.
“Why?”
“She said I was getting loud.”
The house had a toddler.
Vanessa feared Emily would hear.
May you like
And apparently—
Emily did.
