Chương 6
"I think so."
"How?"
Daniel swallowed.
"He asked what I found in his office."
"Tonight?"
"Before the speech."
Claire crouched.
"You told me you went in there because you were looking for a charger."
"I was."
"And then?"
"The drawer was open."
"What drawer?"
"The desk one."
"I saw the envelope and my name."
Claire tried not to let her frustration become accusation.
"Why didn't you bring it to me immediately?"
Daniel looked embarrassed.
"Because I thought it was about rehab."
The answer made painful sense.
His recovery had been discussed by adults as if his body were a public project.
Richard paid for specialists, transportation, equipment, and the private rehabilitation program Daniel had begun after hip surgery.
A photograph could have been another progress report.
"Then I saw the writing."
Daniel looked toward her purse.
Claire took out the envelope but not the photograph.
"What writing?"
"The back."
She froze.
There had been no writing on the front of the photograph.
She had never turned it over.
Samir closed his eyes.
That was answer enough.
Claire pulled the photograph free.
"Mom, don't."
She flipped it.
Three lines had been written in black ink.
MERCER BOY RETURNED.
PATEL CONTACT CONFIRMED.
ASK R.V. WHETHER WE INTERVENE.
Claire read it twice.
The handwriting was unfamiliar.
Samir looked as if someone had pressed a hand against his chest.
"R.V.," Claire said.
"Richard Vale?"
"I don't know."
"Try again."
"I don't know who wrote it."
"That's not what I asked."
Samir took one step closer.
"Put it away."
Claire did.
Daniel watched him.
"You had one like it."
Samir stopped.
"What?"
"That night."
Daniel's breathing had changed.
Shorter now.
Uneven.
Claire moved beside him.
"You don't have to remember."
"I do."
"No, sweetheart."
"I do because everybody keeps lying."
The last word broke.
Claire put her hand behind his neck.
He was fourteen, too old to be held the way she had held him at six and young enough that she did it anyway.
For several seconds, he pressed his forehead against her shoulder.
Then he spoke into the fabric of her dress.
"Dad gave him a folder."
Samir sat down again.
Claire looked over Daniel's head.
"Did he?"
Samir's mouth moved before sound came.
"Yes."
"What was in it?"
"Copies of lab reports."
"From the study?"
"Some."
"Why did Evan have them?"
"I never found out."
Daniel lifted his head.
"You told Dad they changed the numbers."
Samir stared at him.
A knock came at the door.
Everyone flinched.
The nurse entered carrying a wrist brace.
"Good news."
She smiled at Daniel, then seemed to notice the room.
"No fracture."
Claire let out air she had not known she was holding.
The nurse explained that the wrist was sprained and the hip films showed no acute injury.
Daniel would be sore, should limit activity, and needed follow-up with his orthopedist if pain increased.
Ordinary instructions filled the room.
Ice.
Elevation.
Ibuprofen if permitted by his physician.
Daniel asked whether he could still go to school Monday.
The nurse said that depended on how he felt.
For one absurd moment, Claire wanted to laugh.
Her father might have been surveilling her son, her dead husband had apparently uncovered altered medical data, and Daniel was worried about missing a geometry quiz.
The nurse fastened the brace.
"Any questions?"
"Can we leave through another door?" Claire asked.
The nurse looked puzzled.
Samir answered before Claire could explain.
The nurse's expression changed.
"Is there a security concern?"
"Possibly."
"Then I have to notify security."
Samir nodded.
"Do that."
When she left, Claire said, "You just told me you don't know who here knows."
"I also don't know who's waiting downstairs."
"Waiting for what?"
Samir looked at the envelope.
"That."
Claire felt something colder than fear settle into place.
"Finish telling me about Evan."
Samir leaned forward, elbows on his knees.
"The project collected blood samples from pediatric patients with unexplained inflammatory symptoms."
"Without consent?"
"I don't know that Daniel's samples were formally included."
"You just said he was in the study unofficially."
"I said there was evidence Evan believed that."
"That's lawyer language."
"It's scared-doctor language."
The distinction silenced her.
Samir continued.
"Evan found discrepancies between Daniel's original lab results and values entered later into a research database."
"What kind of discrepancies?"
"Enough that he thought somebody was cleaning data."
"For what?"
"To make an experimental treatment look safer."
Claire stared at him.
"Daniel never received an experimental treatment."
Samir did not answer.
Her stomach dropped.
"What did they give him?"
"I don't know."
"Samir."
"I don't know."
"You were his doctor."
"I was not his treating pediatrician."
"You were in this hospital."
"So were six thousand other employees."
"Don't get cute with me."
"I'm not."
His voice rose, then immediately lowered.
"I am telling you the part that has kept me awake for four years."
Daniel looked between them.
"Dad said I got the wrong medicine."
Samir's eyes closed again.
Claire could no longer tell whether Daniel was remembering the night itself or reconstructing pieces from what he had heard.
She did not care yet.
"What happened after Evan gave you the folder?"
Samir looked at Daniel.
"Richard arrived."
Claire's nails pressed into her palm.
"At the hospital?"
"About twenty minutes later."
"Why?"
"Evan called him."
That was not the answer she expected.
"My father knew Evan was investigating this?"
"Yes."
"How long?"
"I don't know."
"Stop saying that."
"I wasn't part of their conversations."
"But you were there that night."
"Yes."
"Then tell me what you saw."
Samir's gaze dropped to the floor.
"Evan accused Richard of knowing the foundation had paid to bury an internal review."
Claire's mind rejected the sentence before she could examine it.
Richard donated buildings.
Richard chaired boards.
Richard made calls when insurance companies delayed approvals and remembered nurses' names at fundraising dinners.
Those facts did not make him innocent.
May you like
They merely made the alternative harder to fit inside the shape of her father.
"What did Dad say?" Daniel asked.
