Chapter 2 - The Call From St. Mary’s
Natalie had received the call six hours earlier.
A nurse from St. Mary’s Children’s Hospital told her Eli had been brought into the emergency department unconscious.
He had a fractured wrist, bruising along his shoulders, and signs of exposure to extreme heat inside an enclosed space.
Natalie nearly dropped the phone.
Eli was supposed to be spending the weekend with Linda at her suburban Dallas home.
Rachel had promised to help.
When Natalie arrived at the hospital, Linda was already there.
She stood beside Eli’s bed, dry-eyed and composed.
“He wandered into the backyard shed,” Linda said. “We found him after he fainted.”
Rachel stood behind her in blue medical scrubs from the private clinic where she worked.
“It was an accident,” she added.
Natalie looked at Eli’s bandaged hands.
“Why are his wrists injured?”
“He panicked,” Linda answered. “He probably hit the door.”
The explanation sounded rehearsed.
Detective Harris entered twenty minutes later.
A neighbor had called police after hearing a child screaming behind Linda’s fence.
Harris asked whether the shed had been locked.
Linda said no.
Rachel said she did not know.
Then a patrol officer reported that the latch was secured from the outside when firefighters arrived.
Linda’s expression did not change.
Rachel’s did.
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Before Eli woke, both women claimed they had been inside the kitchen.
But neither could explain why Rachel’s shoes were covered in the same red dust found inside the shed.
