Chương 8
“Because Colin had something on her.”
Before I could answer, Marisol opened the exam-room door.
“Mr. Blake?”
I covered the phone.
“One minute.”
She studied my face.
“Police are here.”
“Which officer?”
“Detective, not patrol.”
“I’ll be right there.”
She nodded and closed the door.
I returned to the call.
“What did Colin have on Vanessa?”
“I don’t know everything.”
“Then tell me what you do know.”
“She owed him money.”
“How much?”
“Enough.”
“That’s not useful.”
“More than two hundred thousand at one point.”
I felt something colder than anger.
“From what?”
“An investment scheme that went bad.
She brought people in.
Colin moved money.
When regulators started asking questions, he kept records showing she had made representations she wasn’t licensed to make.”
“Was she charged?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because the complaints got settled.”
“With whose money?”
“Colin’s.”
Of course.
Debt converted into obedience.
“You have proof of this?”
“Some.”
“Send it.”
“I already sent what I could without exposing where I am.”
“Why are you hiding?”
“Because Colin has spent twenty years making sure other people hold the risk.”
I looked at the photograph again.
“How did you get my number?”
“I had it from the trust paperwork.”
“You had access to Nora’s trust?”
“Not official access.”
The phrase made my jaw tighten.
“Then you stole it.”
“I copied files I should not have had.”
“At least you’re finally using accurate language.”
He accepted that without argument.
“Mr. Blake, listen to me.
Do not assume Vanessa and Colin are still on the same side.”
I thought of the recording.
Then stop getting attached.
“What happened?”
“I think she tried to back out.”
“When?”
“Months ago.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
I did.
Or at least I knew what Colin had accused her of.
She’s not a spreadsheet.
Then stop getting attached.
Nora had not been part of Vanessa’s life on paper.
She had become a child who left socks under the couch and called for help when thunder woke her.
That did not absolve anything.
It only made the shape of it more difficult.
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
Daniel answered softly.
“Maybe because telling you meant admitting why she met you.”
A detective was waiting when I returned to the exam room.
He introduced himself as Martin Alvarez.
He looked tired in the way people look when they have been awake too long but have learned not to advertise it.
Officer Ramirez stood beside him.
Vanessa was not there.
“Where is my wife?” I asked.
Alvarez glanced at Ramirez.
“She left the shopping center after we finished the initial interview.”
“You let her leave?”
“She wasn’t under arrest.”
“She drugged my daughter.”
“We’re investigating that allegation.”
I looked at Ramirez.
She held my gaze.
“He’s right.”
The answer did not help.
Alvarez motioned toward two chairs outside the room so Nora would not hear us.
“Mr. Blake, I need the recordings.”
“Caleb has them.”
“We’re arranging a formal transfer.”
“I also have messages.”
“From your wife?”
“And someone connected to Colin Mercer.”
Alvarez’s expression changed slightly at the name.
“You know Mercer?”
“You tell me.”
“That isn’t how this works.”
“Today, nothing seems to work the way I thought it did.”
Ramirez folded her arms.
“Ethan.”
The use of my first name pulled me back a fraction.
I handed Alvarez my phone and showed him the photograph.
He did not react dramatically.
He enlarged it.
Checked the timestamp.
Asked me who sent it.
I gave him Daniel’s name.
“Do not contact him again without telling us.”
“I’m not agreeing to that.”
Alvarez looked at me.
“This is now an investigation involving possible child endangerment, fraud, and maybe more depending on what the evidence supports.”
“Maybe more?”
“We’re not going to speculate in a hospital hallway.”
Louise appeared behind the glass and opened the door.
“Nora wants her father.”
I went inside.
My daughter held up the purple cat.
It had six legs.
“Cats don’t have six legs,” I said.
“This one does.”
“Fair enough.”
She looked at my face.
“Is Vanessa going to jail?”
Every adult in the room became still.
I sat on the edge of the exam bed.
“I don’t know.”
“Is she mad at me?”
“No.”
I almost said she had no right to be.
I stopped myself.
Nora picked at the corner of the sticker on her hand.
“She cries sometimes.”
Louise and I exchanged a glance.
“When?” I asked.
Marisol, standing near the sink, raised one finger subtly.
Do not interrogate.
I changed the question.
“You can tell us anything you think we should know.”
Nora nodded.
Then she looked toward Marisol.
“Even if it’s bad?”
“Especially then,” Marisol said.
Nora stared at the purple cat.
“Sometimes Vanessa sits on the floor in my room after I get mad.”
Her voice became smaller.
“She says she’s sorry.”
I did not move.
“What does she say she’s sorry for?”
Marisol asked gently.
Nora shrugged.
“She says she wishes she could make everything stop.”
Louise’s mouth tightened.
“Does she say what everything means?”
Nora shook her head.
“Sometimes she hugs me.”
I looked down at my hands.
The story I wanted was becoming unusable.
I wanted Vanessa to have been cold every second.
I wanted every breakfast to have been false and every bedtime story calculated.
Instead, Nora was describing a woman who had hurt her and then sat beside her afterward, apparently horrified by what she was doing.
That did not make the harm smaller.
It made it more human.
Human was harder.
Marisol changed the subject and asked Nora whether she wanted juice or water.
“Water.”
The answer made something twist inside me.
A nurse brought her a sealed bottle.
Nora inspected the cap before opening it.
I saw Louise notice.
She turned her face away.
Twenty minutes later, the doctor returned with preliminary results.
“The standard screen is negative.”
My first reaction was confusion.
Then relief arrived too fast.
“So there was nothing?”
May you like
“That is not what I said.”
The doctor sat on a rolling stool.
