Chương 8
I looked toward the window.
Hospital parking lights reflected against the dark glass.
“She still came here.”
Ortiz pulled her chair closer again.
“Maybe.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means we have one unconfirmed sighting of a woman matching her general description.”
“It was her.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know Vanessa.”
“You know what she looks like.”
The distinction irritated me because it was accurate.
Ortiz continued.
“If she was here, she may be afraid of Preston.”
“She helped him.”
“People help dangerous people and still fear them.”
Evelyn looked down.
Nobody missed it.
Ortiz noticed first.
“Mrs. Vale.”
Evelyn did not answer.
“Is there something you haven’t told us?”
“No.”
The lie was terrible.
Richard crossed his arms.
Evelyn looked toward him.
“I don’t appreciate being examined.”
Ortiz’s voice stayed calm.
“Then stop giving me reasons.”
Evelyn’s face tightened.
I knew that look.
It had appeared across dinner tables, charity luncheons, airport delays, and my wedding rehearsal.
It meant Evelyn was about to turn pride into a weapon.
Then she looked at Eli.
Her shoulders dropped.
“When Preston was nineteen, he hit a boy.”
Ortiz waited.
Evelyn continued.
“Outside a bar.”
“How badly?”
“Badly enough for stitches.”
“Was he charged?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“His father paid the family.”
I closed my eyes.
Another old story transformed.
Preston had told me he broke his hand defending a friend during college.
He even showed me the scar.
“Was that the only incident?”
Evelyn stared at the floor.
“No.”
Richard said nothing.
Ortiz said nothing.
That silence forced Evelyn to keep going.
“He had a temper.”
My laugh came out sharp.
“A temper?”
“Madison.”
“You just watched me hold the baby he tried to kill.”
“I know what happened.”
“No, you know the version that lets you say temper instead of violence.”
Her cheeks colored.
For once, I did not care.
Eli shifted against me.
I lowered my voice.
“What else?”
Evelyn swallowed.
“There was a woman.”
My skin prickled.
“What woman?”
“Before you.”
“How long before?”
“About two years.”
“Name?”
“I don’t remember.”
“You remember.”
Evelyn looked at me.
“Her name was Claire.”
“Claire what?”
“Donovan.”
Ortiz wrote it down.
“What happened?”
“They dated for several months.”
“And?”
“She ended it.”
“That’s not an incident.”
Evelyn’s fingers twisted together.
“He went to her apartment.”
I could almost see the rest before she said it.
“He broke the door.”
“Did he hurt her?” Ortiz asked.
“No.”
Evelyn hesitated.
“She said he grabbed her.”
“That is hurting her,” I said.
“I mean he didn’t put her in the hospital.”
The sentence was so ugly that even Evelyn seemed ashamed of it.
“Was there a police report?”
“I don’t know.”
“You do know,” Ortiz said.
Evelyn looked at her.
“His father handled it.”
Of course he had.
Dead fathers make convenient containers for family shame.
Preston’s father had been gone six years.
Cancer.
I remembered standing beside Preston at the funeral while Evelyn held herself rigid enough to crack.
At the time, I thought she was grieving.
Now I wondered how much of it had been fear about what would happen without the man who cleaned up after their son.
“Did Preston ever threaten Claire again?” Ortiz asked.
“I don’t know.”
“What happened to her?”
“She moved.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Ortiz looked unimpressed.
Evelyn snapped.
“I said I don’t know.”
That sounded true.
Ortiz nodded.
“We’ll find her.”
Evelyn turned toward me.
“I should have told you.”
“Yes.”
“I convinced myself he had grown up.”
“You liked believing that.”
Her eyes filled.
“Yes.”
It was the first honest answer she had given me without qualification.
I looked away because anger was easier when she defended herself.
Richard’s phone buzzed again.
He read the message.
“This is from security.”
Ortiz stood.
“What?”
“The trust instruction came through a remote login using Daniel Mercer’s credentials.”
“That doesn’t tell us who used them.”
“No, but there’s another problem.”
I felt exhausted before he said it.
“What problem?”
“The trust itself was created six weeks ago.”
“By Daniel?”
“Yes.”
Ortiz frowned.
“So Daniel knew about the insurance plan?”
“Possibly.”
Richard scrolled further.
“He opened the trust through an online legal service.”
“Purpose?”
“Tuition and living expenses for one beneficiary.”
“Who?”
Richard’s eyes narrowed.
“Lila Mercer.”
Ortiz looked at me.
“Vanessa has a daughter?”
I searched my memory.
“She never mentioned one.”
Evelyn said, “She doesn’t.”
Richard looked up.
“You’re certain?”
“She and Daniel couldn’t have children.”
Ortiz turned.
“How do you know that?”
“Vanessa told me.”
“When?”
“Last year.”
“Why would Vanessa discuss infertility with you?”
Evelyn hesitated.
“She volunteered at one of my foundation events.”
I almost laughed.
Of course she did.
Everyone connected eventually through Evelyn’s galas.
Ortiz looked back at Richard.
“How old is Lila?”
He scrolled.
“Seventeen.”
“Address?”
“Same as Daniel and Vanessa.”
Evelyn looked confused.
“That’s impossible.”
Ortiz’s expression had sharpened.
“No, it’s hidden.”
“What?”
“Not literally.”
She held out her hand.
“Mr. Whitaker, can you send me the filing?”
“Yes.”
While he did, I tried to remember anything Preston had ever said about Daniel.
Almost nothing.
That seemed important now.
He referred to Vanessa’s husband as boring, underpaid, harmless.
Once, after too much bourbon, Preston called him “Saint Daniel.”
At the time, I thought it was jealousy.
Maybe it was.
Maybe it was something else.
“Does Lila have Vanessa’s last name anywhere?” Ortiz asked.
Richard shook his head.
“Mercer only.”
“Birth certificate?”
“Not in what I can access.”
“School?”
“I’m not accessing a minor’s educational records without authority.”
Ortiz nodded.
“Good.”
He gave her a dry look.
She ignored it.
I watched them work around the same obstacle from opposite sides.
Richard had access.
Ortiz had authority.
Neither had both.
That limitation made me trust them more.
Real life, I had discovered, was mostly people needing permission while terrible things happened anyway.
Ortiz’s phone rang.
She stepped into the corner.
“Yes.”
Her posture changed.
“When?”
A pause.
“Is she safe?”
I knew before she turned.
May you like
They had found Vanessa.
Ortiz ended the call.
