Chương 13
Eleanor said, "We need a lawyer."
This time I did not disagree.
Chloe's phone rang.
Lauren again.
All three of us stared at the screen.
"Answer it," I said.
Chloe looked at me.
"You sure?"
"Yes."
"Speaker?"
"No."
She answered.
"Hi."
Her face changed almost immediately.
"What?"
She listened.
"No."
Another pause.
"No, I'm still at the church."
Eleanor moved closer.
Chloe turned away from her.
"Lauren, slow down."
Her eyes widened.
"What do you mean you resigned?"
I felt Eleanor stiffen beside me.
Chloe listened.
"When?"
A pause.
"Why?"
Whatever Lauren said made Chloe look at me.
Then at Eleanor.
"No, she knows."
Another pause.
"She knows about the check."
Eleanor closed her eyes.
Chloe listened again.
"What are you talking about?"
Her voice lowered.
"Who is Robert?"
I looked at Eleanor.
She stared back at me.
Chloe's face went pale.
"Your uncle?"
A long silence.
Then Chloe whispered, "Lauren, what did he do?"
She listened.
Her free hand began trembling.
"No."
Another pause.
"No, don't hang up."
She turned toward us.
"Where are you?"
Lauren answered.
Chloe's expression changed from fear to confusion.
"What hospital?"
My stomach dropped.
Eleanor stepped forward.
Chloe held up one hand.
"What happened to him?"
She listened.
Then her face emptied.
"Okay."
A pause.
"Okay, I'm coming."
She ended the call.
Eleanor said, "What happened?"
Chloe stared at the phone.
"Robert Danner had a stroke this morning."
"Where?"
"St. Matthew's."
I looked at her.
"What did Lauren say he did?"
Chloe swallowed.
"She said he called her before the ambulance came."
Eleanor's voice sharpened.
"And?"
Chloe looked directly at me.
"He told her the woman who cashed your check wasn't a stranger."
I felt something cold move through my chest.
"Who was she?"
Chloe shook her head.
"Lauren wouldn't say."
"Why?"
"She said Robert wants to tell you himself."
Eleanor grabbed her purse.
"We're going."
I stayed where I was.
She turned.
"Clara."
"No."
"What do you mean, no?"
"If he's just had a stroke, we don't storm into a hospital demanding a twenty-seven-year-old confession."
"He may be the only person who knows what happened."
"Then we wait until a doctor says he can speak."
Eleanor stared at me.
"How can you be this calm?"
"I'm not."
I picked up my purse.
"But I have already spent most of my life paying for other people's emergencies."
I looked at Chloe.
Then at Eleanor.
"I'm not going to create another one just because I finally found out somebody owes me an explanation."
Eleanor looked as if she wanted to argue, but the fight went out of her before it reached her mouth.
"Fine," she said.
It was not agreement so much as surrender to the fact that I was not one of her employees.
Chloe removed her veil.
She did it carefully, finding each pin with trembling fingers and setting them one by one on the pew.
When the last one came free, her hair sagged on one side.
She looked younger.
"I don't want to go to the hospital in this dress."
"No," I said.
"You don't."
The wedding coordinator found her a garment bag and led her to a small room near the choir entrance.
Eleanor and I waited in the nave.
Neither of us spoke for a while.
A janitor began gathering abandoned programs.
He stacked them in neat piles as if this were merely another event ending.
"I should have found you myself," Eleanor said.
I looked at her.
She was staring at the altar.
"I should not have left it to Martin and an attorney."
"You had a sick daughter and a failing business."
"Rebecca was better by then."
"You had a life."
"So did you."
I looked down at my hands.
"Yes."
"I told myself I had done everything possible."
"Most people do."
She turned to me.
"Is that forgiveness?"
"No."
Her mouth tightened.
"Fair."
Chloe returned twenty minutes later wearing a gray sweater, black leggings, and bridal makeup she had not managed to remove.
Her wedding dress hung behind her in the garment bag.
She carried it over one arm.
The sight of it made my chest ache more than the altar had.
"Ready?" Eleanor asked.
Chloe nodded.
We left through a side door to avoid the remaining photographers.
It did not work completely.
Two people across the street raised phones when they recognized Eleanor.
Chloe lowered her face.
I wanted to tell her not to hide.
Then I remembered how much damage had begun with that very instinct.
I said nothing.
At St. Matthew's, Robert Danner was not able to speak.
A neurologist told Lauren and the rest of us that he was stable but exhausted and that any conversation would have to wait.
Lauren stood near the nurses' station in a navy blouse and trousers, looking smaller than I had expected.
She had the bracelet.
The blue enamel charm hung against her wrist.
Chloe noticed it immediately.
Lauren saw her notice.
"I didn't lend it to anyone," she said.
No greeting.
No explanation.
Eleanor crossed her arms.
"Then why is it on the woman in the security image?"
Lauren looked toward the waiting room.
"My aunt borrowed it."
Chloe stared at her.
"Your aunt?"
Lauren nodded.
"My father's sister."
"Was she the woman who signed Mom's name?"
Lauren looked at me for the first time.
"I think so."
"You think so?"
Her eyes reddened.
"I didn't know that day."
Eleanor gave a hard laugh.
"Convenient."
Lauren flinched.
"I knew Chloe was lying."
"That is not helping you."
"I know."
"Then choose better words."
Lauren pressed her lips together.
"I helped make the story consistent."
Chloe looked away.
Lauren continued.
"I knew the affidavit itself wasn't true, but Robert told me there was already old documentation under Clara's name."
My stomach tightened.
"What documentation?"
"The repayment file."
"Why did he tell you about it?"
May you like
"Because I asked him how to make an affidavit look credible."
The answer was so ugly in its simplicity that no one spoke.
