Chapter NINE #3
"We can take a full statement tomorrow," she said. "Tonight I only need immediate safety facts."
Mei nodded.
"Did you see the knife before he entered?"
"No."
"Did you hear him threaten anyone specifically?"
"He said I ruined everything. He told Grandma it was her fault."
"Did he try to enter the room where you were hiding?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"He hit the door. The lock started breaking."
Ruiz wrote. "Anything else you are certain of right now?"
Mei looked toward the entryway.
"He knew the police were coming and still came inside." Ruiz paused her pen.
"Yes," she said. "That's clear from the 911 timeline and officers' arrival."
For some reason that fact frightened Mei more after the danger was over.
Daniel had heard the sirens.
He had continued. All the stories he had told about misunderstanding, confusion, family loyalty, and being provoked looked different beside that choice.
Alex arrived twenty minutes later despite Mei telling him not to come during the emergency.
By then police had the scene secure. He took one look at the broken door and swore.
"You okay?" he asked Mei.
She nodded.
He asked again.
"You okay?"
"I said yes."
"I know."
Mei stood and hugged him.
He held her too tightly, then apologized for that. Grandma came over with an ice pack balanced on her shoulder.
"Nobody is sleeping here tonight," Ruiz said. "The door cannot be secured, and the scene may remain active. Do you have somewhere else to stay?"
Mrs. Brooks answered before anyone else could. She had arrived with Tiana after Grandma finally called. "They are coming with us." Tiana stood behind her mother wearing pajama pants under a winter coat.
"I brought chargers," she announced.
Mei laughed, then cried at the same time.
"Why are you crying?" Tiana asked softly.
"I don't know."
"Okay."
No demand for a reason.
At the Brooks house, Mrs. Brooks put clean towels on the guest bed, made tea nobody drank, and set a bowl of cereal on the counter at two in the morning because Mei said she was not hungry and then ate two bowls.
Tiana sat with her on the floor.
"I saw him," Mei said.
"I know."
"He had a knife."
Tiana's face tightened. "I know."
"I thought he was going to kill Grandma."
"But he didn't."
"Because police came."
"Yes."
Mei looked down at the cereal bowl.
"I used to think telling would make him dangerous."
Tiana waited.
"He was already dangerous. Telling just made other people see it."
Tiana nodded. "Yeah."
It was the least dramatic thing she had said in weeks and exactly right.
Mei slept for ninety minutes. She woke from a dream in which she was behind the bedroom door again, except this time the door opened and nobody was there.
At sunrise, Grandma received a call from the jail.
Not Daniel directly. An automated notification saying he had been booked and was being held pending a hearing.
Grandma put the phone on speaker. Charges were read in flat computerized language.
Burglary. Violation of order of protection.
Assault. Unlawful use of a weapon. Witness intimidation.
Additional charges pending. Mei listened from the kitchen table.
Tiana's mother set a plate of toast in front of her.
"Eat one piece."
"I'm not hungry."
"I heard you the first time. Eat one piece."
Mei obeyed.
By midmorning, the story had reached local news websites.
A MAN was arrested after allegedly forcing entry into a relative's home while armed with a knife.
The report did not name Mei. It did name Daniel.
For years, news stories about Grace had called him grieving husband.
Now he was defendant. Mei hated how satisfying the word felt. Dr. Sato called that afternoon.
"I heard there was an emergency," she said.
"That's one word for it."
"Do you want an appointment today?"
"No."
"Okay. Tomorrow?"
"Maybe."
"Also okay. Do you know what your body is doing right now?"
"Being annoying."
"Specific."
Mei looked around Tiana's bedroom. "I'm tired but I can't sleep. Hungry but food tastes weird. Every noise is too loud."
"Expected after acute danger. Drink water. Eat what you can. Stay near people you trust. Don't make yourself process the entire event today."
"What if my brain does it anyway?"
"Then notice that it is a memory, not the current emergency."
Mei glanced at Tiana, who was painting her nails badly on purpose to make her laugh.
"Tiana's room. Saturday. Twelve years old. Safe right now."
"Good."
Later, police allowed Grandma to return home briefly with an officer. Mei refused to go.
Alex went instead.
He returned with her sketchbook, the jade pendant she had left on the dresser, and the ceramic cat.
"You remembered the cat again," Mei said.
"I understand priorities."
He also brought a small object police had found beneath the broken entry table after processing the scene.
A brass key.
Not Grandma's. Not Alex's. Ruiz had photographed it and released it after determining it belonged to no lock in the house.
"Dad dropped it," Alex said. "Officer thinks it was on his key ring and broke loose during the arrest."
Mei turned it over.
A white plastic tag was attached. 17B.
"What's 17B?"
Alex shook his head.
Grandma looked at the key.
"Storage unit?"
The possibility tightened the room again.
Ruiz took the key back for follow-up. Two days later, they learned 17B belonged to a rented locker at a twenty-four-hour storage facility on the edge of town.
The account was not in Daniel's name. It was in the name of a small repair business he had closed years earlier.
Police requested a warrant.
The break-in case had just opened another door into the murder investigation.