When Love Walked Away novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Story Brodie Told

They let me sit with her at six, in a small quiet room with a quilt folded on the table.

She had been washed and wrapped in a clean white sheet, and her curls had dried.

She looked smaller than she had that morning.

I held two fingers against her palm and waited for the counting to start.

It did not.

I stayed until a nurse touched my shoulder and said there were people asking for me.

"Mrs. Dalton?"

A plainclothes detective stood there, with a woman from the county social services office beside him.

"I'm sorry to ask this now," the detective said. "A child's death goes to the medical examiner, and we need statements while they are fresh."

I followed them into the corridor.

Brodie was already there, in a chair against the wall.

Gladys sat beside him, and Lacey stood a little way down the hall with her son asleep against her hip.

The detective turned to Brodie first.

"Mr. Dalton, tell me what happened."

Brodie stood and buttoned his cuffs.

He looked like a man preparing for a board meeting.

"I picked up my daughter from daycare at eleven-forty because I had a lunch with a client at the club," he said.

"She was sleeping."

"I left her in the car with the air conditioning running and the windows cracked."

"For how long?"

"Ten minutes, maybe. I had to check in at the desk."

"And then?"

"I gave my keys to the valet, and I told him she was in there, and I went in."

"He must have moved the car without checking."

"You said you were having lunch."

"A working lunch, with Lacey, who sits on the committee."

I turned my head and looked at him.

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