Chapter 2 - The Deputy's Notebook
Officer Miller’s heavy boots clicked against the kitchen linoleum, bringing the bitter night air inside with him. He flicked his notepad open, the crisp paper sound cutting through the heavy silence that had settled between the adults. Maya had stopped crying, her wide, tear-rimmed eyes fixed entirely on the floorboards near the pantry.
"Dispatch received a hang-up call from this address ten minutes ago," Miller said, his eyes shifting from Arthur’s tense stance to Clara, who was now standing by the hood of the cruiser outside. "Mrs. Hayes, are you pressing charges for domestic disturbance?"
"No," Clara called out sharply from the driveway, her voice carrying through the screen door. "We’re handling it inside. Tell him to look at the basement wall, Miller. Show him what she did."
Arthur tightened his jaw, stepping protectively over Maya’s tiny frame. "My wife is under a severe psychological strain, Officer. She lost control. There is no domestic abuse here, just a exhausted mother who needs to leave for the night."
Miller frowned, tapping his pen against his thigh. He looked down at Maya, kneeling slightly to meet her eye level. "You okay there, kiddo? Anything you want to tell me?"
Maya didn’t blink. She reached out with a dirt-caked finger and pointed directly at the floor vent near the refrigerator. "The man in the dirt told me not to talk to cops."
Arthur felt a cold sweat break out along his spine. He knew the house was old, built on converted farmland outside Portland, but that kind of morbid imagination didn't come from a five-year-old cartoon.
"She’s tired, Officer. It’s been a long day," Arthur said quickly, easing Miller toward the door. "I’ll handle it. Please, just give us some space."
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As Miller stepped back out onto the porch, muttering about filing a standard welfare check, Arthur locked the front deadbolt with a heavy, final click. He turned around to face his daughter, only to find the floor vent unlatched and the metal grate pushed completely aside.
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