Page 22 of The Sister's Curse

“How’s Mason?” I asked. I knew full well, but I wanted to hear his explanation for not being at the hospital.

“I spoke with the doctor this morning. He’s in a coma.” Jeff looked away. “My wife won’t let me stay there, at the hospital. She blames me, and she probably should.”

I lifted a brow. “Pardon?”

“I had that pond put in over her objections. I insisted Mason would get swimming lessons, that he’d be too smart to drown, but…” He rubbed his stubble. “I screwed up, and now Mason’s paying for it.”

“No one ever really expects the worst to happen,” Monica said.

“I should have.” He exhaled.

“May I assume you have…religious objections to medical treatment?”

His mouth twisted. “It’s complicated. But Drema made the right call last night. I just…It’s hard submitting to God’s will in the trenches.”

I flipped open my notebook. “It’s very early in the investigation, and we’re still working on establishing a timeline for last night. I understand you and your wife left Mason with Leah to go out?”

“Yeah. We had reservations at Preston’s Chophouse for a business dinner with the officers at Heartland Community Bank. We left during the dessert course.”

“When were you supposed to return?”

“We told Leah we’d be back by eleven.”

“I wanted to check and see if there was any video available at your house…I noticed a doorbell camera.” I suspected there were other cameras, too.

He nodded. “I’ll have video sent over to you from the security company.”

“Excellent. Thank you. I noticed there was a fault on the alarm panel when we entered the house?”

He leaned back in his chair. “The panel’s been acting wonky. Low battery in a couple of sectors. The company was supposed to come out and replace them on Tuesday.”

“Were any windows or doors habitually left open?”

“No.”

“Who else might have had your access code?”

He screwed up his face. “My wife, of course. The housekeeper, my in-laws, and the landscaper.”

“I’d like to have a list of their names, please.”

His brow furrowed. “I don’t get it. Why do you want to talk to the housekeeper?”

“When a child is hurt, we want to make sure all the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed.”

“Sure.” He wrote down a list of names on a legal pad. “But we’ve been using those services for years, and trust them totally.”

“We found something in your mailbox.” Monica showed Sumner the picture of the skull.

He leaned forward, staring intently. “What the hell is that?”

“We don’t know. Do you have any enemies? We’re aware that Drema reported a stalker in her past.”

His eyes narrowed, but they remained fixed on the picture. “No enemies that I know of. Other than that guy who followed Drema around in college. Um…what was his name?”

“Mike Renfelter.”

“Yeah. That guy. I haven’t seen him since college. I thought he’d fallen off the map. Do you think he might have had something to do with this?”