Page 39 of The Hanging Dolls
The man’s car screeched to a halt, his tires sliding on the wet asphalt as he tried to avoid a head-on collision. Zoe jumped out of her car and yanked the driver’s door open before he had a chance to react.
The middle-aged man looked up at her, his face pale. His receding hairline glistened with sweat, and he fumbled with the seatbelt, his hands shaking. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” he babbled, his voice high-pitched and panicked.
Zoe didn’t wait for him to finish. She grabbed him by the collar and hauled him out of the car in one swift move, twisting him around and slamming him against the side of the vehicle. “You’re under arrest,” she snapped, as she cuffed his wrists.
The man didn’t resist, his body trembling as he kept repeating, “I didn’t mean to—please, I’m sorry.”
Zoe tightened the cuffs, her breath still coming in short, angry bursts. “Save it,” she said, her voice low and dangerous. “You have a lot of explaining to do.”
TWENTY-TWO
“His name’s Phil Malone,” Scott read out from a file. He stood with Zoe and Aiden just outside the interrogation room, the mirrored glass separating them from the man on the other side. Phil Malone sat at the table, his fingers twitching nervously as they fiddled with his collar. Sweat beaded on his forehead, his eyes darting around the sterile room like a trapped animal.
Zoe crossed her arms, her gaze locked on Phil. “A bank manager, right? Doesn’t exactly fit the profile we were expecting. What do you think, Aiden?”
“If I could detect psychopathy just by looking, I’d be charging a lot more for my services, Storm,” Aiden replied with a trace of humor. “Does he have any priors?”
Scott flipped through the pages. “Nope. Other than a couple of DUIs a few years back, he’s clean. No history of violence, no record of anything that would suggest he’s a danger to kids.”
Zoe frowned, her mind racing. “But he’s been watching the kids. Does he have a family?”
“Divorced,” Scott replied, his tone flat. “Wife left him about two years ago. She got full custody of their son. No visitation rights.”
Zoe’s eyes narrowed as she watched Phil through the glass. The man was clearly scared, his hands trembling as he fidgeted with the collar of his shirt. “So, what’s he doing hanging around an elementary school?”
Scott shrugged, a slight tension in his shoulders. “That’s what we’re about to find out.”
“He looks too nervous, so this should be easy. Unless this is an act in which case I’ll jump in. I can hang back here and observe,” Aiden said.
Zoe and Scott exchanged a look, before entering the interrogation room. It was stark and utilitarian, designed to strip away any sense of comfort. The walls were painted a dull, institutional gray, and the fluorescent lights above cast a harsh, almost clinical glow over everything. A single metal table sat in the center of the room, its surface cold and uninviting, with two rigid chairs on either side.
Phil looked up sharply as the door opened, his eyes wide with fear. He swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing nervously as they took their seats across from him.
“I’m really sorry,” Phil blurted out, his voice shaky. “I didn’t mean to cause any trouble. I—I’ll stop going to the school, I swear.”
Zoe glared at the sweaty man, twitching uncontrollably across from her. His right hand had a noticeable tremor as he pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and began dabbing his forehead with it. Instead of stuffing it back in his pocket, he kept dropping it on the floor.
He was too sloppy. And something told Zoe that the tremor in his hand didn’t stem from anxiety.
She leaned forward, her gaze steady, but her tone softened slightly. “Phil, we need to know why you’ve been hanging around the school. Who are you watching? And why?”
Phil hesitated, his hands wringing together on the table. He opened his mouth, closed it again. “My son… Caleb. I’m just… I’m just trying to see my kid.”
Scott and Zoe exchanged a glance, the pieces beginning to fall into place. Zoe remembered how quiet Caleb had been when Mona mentioned the man in the gray car. It was as if he had been hiding something, something that now seemed all too clear.
Her shoulders slumped in defeat. They had just walked into a custody situation.
“Your son goes to Harborwood Elementary?” Zoe asked.
Phil nodded, a tear slipping down his cheek. “My ex… she doesn’t let me see him. She got full custody after the divorce, and she cut me off. No visitation, nothing. I just… I just want to see my boy, make sure he’s okay.”
Scott leaned back in his chair, the tension releasing from him like a hiss. “So you’ve been driving by the school, just to catch a glimpse of him?”
Phil nodded again, his hands shaking as he wiped his face. “I know it’s wrong, I know. But it’s the only way I can see him. I just park there for a few minutes, watch him during recess. I don’t go near him. I don’t talk to him. I just… I just want to know he’s safe.”
Zoe’s mind flashed back to the way Caleb had sat quietly while Mona spoke, the way he hadn’t said a word about the man in the car. “Caleb knows, doesn’t he? He knows you’re there.”
Phil’s face crumpled, and he nodded, tears flowing freely now. “He saw me once, a few months back. I waved, and he… he smiled. But he never said anything. I don’t want to scare him. I just want to be close to him. Please, I’m begging you, don’t take that away from me.”
