Chương 12
Daniel nodded.
"You were mad."
"I was terrified."
"You called him an asshole."
Megan covered her mouth.
A laugh came out, but her eyes filled.
"That does sound like me."
Daniel looked at Claire.
"Then the elevator opened."
"Who came out?"
"Grandpa."
Claire felt the booth press against the backs of her knees.
"What did he say?"
Daniel's face tightened.
"He asked Dad where it was."
"The laptop?"
"I don't know."
"Did your father answer?"
"He said, 'You already have what you wanted.'"
Samir spoke through the phone.
"Daniel, did Richard touch Evan?"
Claire almost stopped him.
Daniel answered first.
"He hugged him."
Megan frowned.
"Hugged him?"
Daniel nodded.
"Grandpa walked over and hugged Dad."
The memory seemed to disturb him more than violence would have.
Claire understood why.
Richard and Evan had never been men who hugged.
Even at funerals they shook hands.
"Then what?"
Daniel asked.
"He said something in Dad's ear."
"Could you hear it?"
"No."
"Did Dad say anything?"
"Yes."
Daniel looked down at the syrup soaking into his plate.
"He said, 'You brought him here?'"
Claire stopped breathing for a second.
Megan said, "Brought who?"
Daniel shook his head.
"I don't know."
"Was someone else there?"
"I didn't see."
Claire turned the photograph over again.
Six children.
Three initials.
One false date.
"Daniel, when your grandfather came out of the elevator, was there already blood on your father's hand?"
"Yes."
"So whatever injured Evan happened before Richard reached him."
"I think."
Claire caught herself before pushing harder.
Across the phone, Samir exhaled.
"That changes something."
"What?"
"The argument I had with Evan."
Claire looked at the clock above the diner's register.
"Tell me."
"He wasn't accusing me only of telling Richard."
"What else?"
"He kept asking who I'd told."
"You said Richard."
"I did."
"He didn't believe you?"
"No."
Samir's voice became quieter.
"He said Richard wasn't the person he was afraid of."
Megan put down her coffee.
"Then why have you never mentioned that?"
"Because I thought he was paranoid."
"Convenient."
"I had just betrayed him, Megan."
His voice sharpened.
"I needed to believe the problem was his state of mind rather than what I'd done."
Nobody answered that.
Claire looked through the window.
A man outside was scraping something from his windshield with a credit card.
His ordinary irritation seemed almost luxurious.
"What exactly did Evan say?"
she asked.
Samir took several seconds.
"He said, 'You don't understand who owns Richard.'"
Claire felt Megan's shoe touch hers beneath the table.
Neither moved away.
Samir continued.
"Then he said, 'If they know Daniel is one of them, they'll never let this end.'"
Daniel's fork slipped from his hand and struck the plate.
Claire covered his wrist with her palm.
"One of what?"
"I asked him."
"And?"
"He looked at me like I was the stupidest man alive."
Megan said, "Again, credible."
Samir ignored her.
"He said, 'The children.'"
Claire looked at the photograph.
The boy in the center had Daniel's eyes, Daniel's crooked front tooth, Daniel's stubborn refusal to smile when somebody told him to.
But the photograph had not been taken when Claire believed it had.
Maybe the children had not been gathered for the reason she believed either.
"Samir," she said, "what was Evan researching?"
"Officially?"
"I am done with officially."
Silence came through the phone.
Then Samir said, "He was studying why a gene therapy trial that supposedly failed had produced six children with the same impossible immune response."
Claire's fingers went cold against Daniel's wrist.
Daniel stared at the photograph.
"Six?"
Megan whispered.
Claire counted the children again, though she already knew the number.
"Samir, who ran the trial?"
"I don't know."
"Who funded it?"
Another silence.
This one was different.
Claire heard fear before he spoke.
"Vale Biomedical."
Claire looked at Daniel before she answered.
The diner’s neon sign blinked blue across his face, on and off, making him look younger every few seconds.
"Was Daniel in the trial?"
Samir did not answer quickly enough.
Megan pushed her coffee away.
"Samir."
"I don't know."
"That is becoming a very unpopular phrase tonight."
"I mean it."
His voice had lost its defensiveness.
"Evan never gave me the names."
Claire looked at the six children again.
"He gave you enough to know there were six."
"Yes."
"And enough to know Vale funded it."
"Yes."
"But somehow you never asked whether my son was one of them?"
"I asked."
Claire's hand went still.
"What did Evan say?"
"He said the records were wrong."
"That's not an answer."
"It was the only one he gave me."
Daniel pulled the photograph toward himself.
"Mom."
Claire turned.
"Am I sick?"
"No."
The answer came too fast.
Daniel noticed.
"So you don't know."
"I know you're not sick."
"That's different."
Megan stared down at the table.
Claire hated that he was right.
She hated more that Evan would have been proud of him for being right.
Samir said, "Daniel, an unusual immune response isn't necessarily an illness."
Claire closed her eyes.
"Please don't practice medicine through my phone."
"Fair."
Daniel traced one child in the photograph with his fingertip.
"Which one is me?"
Claire opened her eyes.
"The middle."
"No."
He turned the photograph around.
"That's not me."
Megan leaned closer.
"Daniel."
"Look."
He pointed to the boy's left eyebrow.
"I have the scar."
Claire stared at him.
A pale notch interrupted Daniel's eyebrow where he had fallen against the radiator when he was three.
The boy in the photograph had no scar.
"How old were you when this was taken?"
Megan asked.
"Supposedly five."
Daniel tapped the picture.
"Then I should have it."
Claire felt the first clean piece of certainty arrive all night.
The photograph had not merely been falsely dated.
The child was not Daniel.
Megan whispered, "Jesus."
Claire turned the photograph over.
R.M.
E.V.
L.H.
"Samir, find out who L.H. is."
"I can try."
"No."
Claire picked up the canvas bag.
"We're done trying."
She stood.
May you like
Megan looked up.
"Where are you going?"
