Chapter 9: Diane Comes Knocking
I told Kayla to lock her bedroom door and stay on the phone with me.
Daniel was already calling Garrett before I finished the sentence.
"Don't open the door," I said.
"Don't let your mother send you out there.
If Diane asks to speak to you, tell your mom you're not feeling well."
"She's going to know something's wrong," Kayla whispered.
"She already knows something's wrong.
That's why she's there." I kept my voice steady.
"Kayla, listen to me.
You haven't done anything wrong.
You told the truth.
Whatever Diane says to your mother, whatever your mother says to you afterward — none of it changes what you saw and what you heard."
Muffled voices through the door.
I couldn't make out words.
Then Kayla: "My mom's knocking.
She wants me to come out."
"You don't have to."
A pause.
"She sounds upset."
"I know.
You still don't have to."
A longer pause.
I heard Kayla's mother's voice, higher now, more insistent.
Then a silence.
Then footsteps.
"She's leaving," Kayla said.
"Diane's leaving."
"Okay.
Stay where you are.
Is your door locked?"
"Yes."
"Good.
Garrett is aware.
He may send someone to check on you — just a patrol car, nothing dramatic.
Don't be scared if you see it."
"Okay." A breath.
"Aunt Rachel — what did Diane say to my mom?"
"I don't know yet."
"My mom sounded really upset.
Like — like she was crying."
I thought about Kayla's mother.
My mother's sister.
A woman who had been at every holiday, every birthday, every family gathering for thirty years.
A woman who had, until two days ago, probably believed she knew exactly who her sister was.
"Kayla, I need you to do one more thing.
As soon as Diane is gone — wait ten minutes to be sure — I need you to write down everything you just heard through that door.
Every word you could make out.
Time, date, who said what.
Can you do that?"
"Yes."
"Send it to this number when you're done."
After I hung up, Daniel looked at me.
"Garrett's sending a car," he said.
"And he wants to know if we want him to bring Diane in for questioning now or wait."
"Wait," I said immediately.
Daniel raised an eyebrow.
"If they bring her in now, she'll lawyer up and say nothing.
She came to Kayla's house for a reason.
She's scared and she's moving.
Scared people who are moving make mistakes." I looked at him.
"Let her make one."
He relayed the message to Garrett.
Twenty minutes later, Kayla's notes came through.
Three paragraphs, written in the careful, slightly formal way of someone who understood that what they were writing might matter.
I read them twice.
Then I called Patricia.
"Diane told Kayla's mother that Kayla had been manipulated by me.
That I'd been jealous of Diane for years and was using the pregnancy to punish the family.
That the video was taken out of context." I paused.
"And she told Kayla's mother that if Kayla kept talking to police, the family would make sure everyone knew Kayla had a history of lying."
Silence on Patricia's end.
"She threatened a seventeen-year-old witness," Patricia said.
"Through her mother.
Yes."
"That's witness tampering, Rachel."
"I know."
Another silence.
"Send me Kayla's notes," Patricia said.
"I'm calling Garrett."
I sent the notes.
Then I sat back against the pillow and looked at the ceiling.
My sister had walked into a house to silence a teenager who had done nothing except tell the truth.
She had threatened her through her own mother.
She had done it within forty-eight hours of a criminal investigation beginning, which meant she was frightened enough to move recklessly and not frightened enough to stop.
That combination, I was learning, was the most dangerous kind.
My door opened.
Not my mother this time.
Not Diane.
A nurse I hadn't seen before.
Young, dark-haired, carrying a small tray.
"Mrs.
Calloway?
Your mother asked me to bring this up.
She said it was something you liked."
On the tray was a cup of tea.
I looked at it.
The nurse looked at me.
"I didn't ask for anything," I said quietly.
"She was quite insistent.
She said—"
"Take it back," Daniel said from across the room.
His voice was very calm.
"Don't let her send anything else up.
And please let the charge nurse know that no one from my wife's family is authorized to send food, drink, or any item to this room."
The nurse looked between us, confused and slightly alarmed.
"Of course," she said.
She picked up the tray and left.
Daniel and I looked at each other.
May you like
Neither of us said anything.
There was nothing left to say.
