Aaron appeared behind us.
“I was trying to help her.”
Elena
looked at him.
“Please wait until I ask you.”
He closed his mouth.
Douglas stood in the hallway with his hands at his sides.
Elena pointed toward the bedroom.
“Who lives here?”
“I do.”
“Who has access to this room?”
I looked at Aaron.
Then at Douglas.
“Both of them.”
Elena wrote their names beneath the location.
I saw the smoke detector above my bookshelf.
For three weeks, I had kept my eyes away from it whenever anyone entered my room.
Now Elena was standing directly beneath it.
“Officer?”
She turned.
“Yes?”
I rubbed the edge of my phone case with my thumb.
“Please look above the bookshelf.”
Elena followed my gaze.
Aaron said, “What is she talking about?”
Douglas took one step forward.
“Madison, there is no reason to involve that.”
Elena looked at him.
“Why not?”
Douglas opened his mouth.
Then he stopped.
Elena reached toward the smoke
detector.
Douglas stopped talking.
Elena lowered her hand, and the room seemed to wait for the answer she had not yet asked.
“Why did you put it there?”
