Chương 9
A door opened somewhere on Noah’s end.
Mara could hear her own pulse.
Then a woman’s voice said, “Noah?”
Evan sagged against the wall.
His mother.
Noah answered, “Grandma?”
“What on earth are you doing in my closet?”
Evan nearly shouted into the phone.
“Mom, who is at the house?”
His mother took the phone.
“The neighbor.”
“What neighbor?”
“Mr. Keating.”
“Why?”
“He saw someone by the side gate.”
Patel held out her hand.
“Speaker.”
Evan switched it on.
Mrs. Rourke sounded offended by the entire situation.
“He came to make sure we were all right.”
Patel asked, “Ma’am, are your doors locked now?”
“Who is this?”
“Officer Patel with county police.”
A pause.
“Oh.”
The indignation drained from Mrs. Rourke’s voice.
Patel continued.
“Is Mr. Keating still inside?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know him well?”
“He’s lived next door for fourteen years.”
“Keep the doors locked and remain together until officers arrive.”
“I’m not leaving Noah alone.”
“Good.”
Mara watched Evan grip the edge of the entry table.
The relief in his face was real but incomplete.
The message containing his mother’s address had arrived before Noah called.
Someone knew exactly where fear would travel fastest.
Patel ended the call after confirming that units were less than two minutes away.
Evan immediately called his mother back.
She answered with, “I am capable of surviving two minutes without supervision.”
“Humor me.”
“I’ve been humoring men since 1978.”
Mara heard Noah laugh faintly in the background.
The sound did something unexpected to the room.
It made Lucy real again.
Not a clue.
Not a child in a pharmacy saying Mommy.
Just a frightened kid somewhere inside an adult disaster.
Mara turned to Rebecca.
“Where is Lucy tonight?”
Rebecca blinked.
“I don’t know.”
“Find out.”
“I don’t have her mother’s number.”
“You knew her name.”
“I knew the case.”
“What case?”
Rebecca glanced at Patel.
Mara caught it.
“No more waiting for privacy.”
Rebecca rubbed her cheek where Mara had slapped her earlier.
“Lucy’s mother is named Erin Vale.”
“E. Vale.”
“Yes.”
The billing record seemed suddenly heavier in Mara’s mind.
Evan stopped talking to his mother long enough to look over.
“Guardian authorization.”
Rebecca nodded.
Mara said, “You knew that.”
“I suspected it.”
“You said you didn’t know who E. Vale was.”
“I said we didn’t know.”
“That was a lie.”
“It was caution.”
“Lawyers should have a swear jar for that word.”
Daniel made a quiet sound that might have been a laugh if anyone had been in the mood to acknowledge it.
Rebecca ignored him.
“Caleb found three versions of the Bellweather intake record.”
“Three?”
“One named you as the patient.”
Mara felt the room narrow again.
“One named Erin Vale.”
“And the third?”
“No patient name at all.”
Patel said, “Do you have copies?”
“Not with me.”
“Where?”
“My office.”
“Can someone access them?”
Rebecca hesitated.
“Caleb could.”
“Anyone else?”
“My assistant.”
“Name?”
Rebecca gave it.
Patel wrote it down.
Mara looked at Rebecca.
“Why would a clinic have three versions?”
“That’s what Caleb was trying to determine.”
“And Lucy?”
“Her birth certificate lists Erin as her mother.”
Mara swallowed.
“That doesn’t answer me.”
“No.”
“Was she born at Bellweather?”
“Bellweather wasn’t a maternity hospital.”
“Then where?”
Rebecca’s silence answered before she did.
“The original birth record is missing.”
Evan muttered, “Of course it is.”
“No,” Patel said.
Everyone looked at her.
She capped her pen.
“Stop doing that.”
“Doing what?” Evan asked.
“Treating every missing document as proof of the same theory.”
He stared at her.
“My brother is missing.”
“I understand.”
“No, you don’t.”
“You’re right.”
The simplicity of her answer took some of the fight out of him.
Patel continued.
“But right now you have anonymous messages, a delayed audio file, records you haven’t authenticated, a photograph with unknown provenance, and a missing adult who may or may not have sent any of it.”
Evan’s jaw flexed.
“So what do you suggest?”
“I suggest we stop letting whoever is sending these messages choose where you go next.”
Mara looked at the blue crayon on the floor.
That was exactly what they had been doing.
Every message had moved them.
Every clue had pointed their attention somewhere.
The backyard.
The blue room.
Evan’s mother.
Even Daniel had been summoned.
Someone was arranging people.
Mara said, “The address wasn’t a threat.”
Evan turned.
“What?”
“It was bait.”
“My mother was there.”
“I know.”
“You don’t get to call my mother bait.”
“That isn’t what I meant.”
“It sounded exactly like what you meant.”
Mara started to answer, then stopped.
He was frightened and she had made it clinical because clinical was easier.
“You’re right.”
Evan looked surprised.
Mara hated apologizing quickly enough that Daniel actually glanced at her.
She ignored him.
“Whoever sent the address knew you’d leave immediately.”
Rebecca said, “And take the drive with us.”
Mara touched her pocket.
Patel noticed.
“What drive?”
Nobody answered.
Patel’s expression hardened.
“Mara.”
Rebecca said, “It may contain privileged material.”
“You’re no longer her attorney.”
Rebecca looked at Mara.
Mara said, “It belongs to Caleb.”
Evan shook his head.
“We don’t know that.”
“He brought it.”
“He may have copied it.”
Patel held out her hand.
“I need to see it.”
Mara did not move.
“Can you compel me?”
Daniel whispered, “Jesus Christ.”
Patel looked at Mara for several seconds.
“Not standing here, no.”
“Then I’m keeping it.”
“If it contains evidence connected to a missing-person investigation, withholding it can become a much more complicated decision.”
“Is that legal advice?”
“No.”
Rebecca said, “Good, because it was vague.”
Patel gave her a look that suggested she had encountered Rebecca’s species before.
Mara pulled the drive from her pocket.
She did not hand it over.
Instead she held it between two fingers.
“Caleb wanted someone to find this.”
Evan said, “Maybe.”
“He also recorded that message before he disappeared.”
“Maybe.”
Mara looked at him.
“You don’t believe it was him?”
May you like
“I believe the voice was him.”
That distinction settled unpleasantly between them.
