Chương 14
“If she knew that, why would she do any of this?”
“We don’t know whether she knew.”
I sank into the armchair.
The story I had started constructing cracked.
Greed had seemed horrible but simple.
A policy.
A death.
Money.
Now even that certainty moved away from me.
Reyes said, “Claire, there’s another issue.”
I almost laughed.
“Of course there is.”
“Grant Holloway came in voluntarily.”
Lucas stepped closer.
“And?”
“He confirmed Mark met with him the afternoon Mark died.”
“To change the beneficiary.”
“Yes.”
“Did Grandma know?”
“Grant says Mark asked him not to inform her.”
I gripped the phone.
“So she didn’t know.”
“According to Grant, he did not tell her before Mark’s death.”
Lucas frowned.
“Then how did she know about the trust?”
Reyes paused.
“Because she confronted Grant the next morning.”
The room went silent.
“What did she say?”
I asked.
“Grant says she demanded to know whether Mark had removed her as trustee.”
My skin went cold.
“How would she know to ask?”
“That is the question we are now asking too.”
Lucas stared at me.
Then he whispered, “She knew before Dad died.”
“She had to.”
Lucas’s voice was barely audible.
I looked at the phone in my hand.
“Reyes, can you prove that?”
“Not yet.”
“Then what do you have?”
“Grant says Mark called him from his office at 3:07 that afternoon and confirmed the change was complete.”
“That doesn’t connect Evelyn.”
“No.”
“But?”
Reyes paused.
“Mark’s office building had exterior security cameras.”
Lucas moved closer.
“Did Grandma go there?”
“We found footage of her car entering the visitor lot at 3:41.”
My stomach tightened.
“Did she go inside?”
“We’re still reviewing interior footage.”
“What time did Mark leave?”
“Four twelve.”
“And Evelyn?”
“Her car left at four twenty.”
The living room went completely quiet.
Lucas sat down again.
“She saw him.”
“Maybe.”
“Detective.”
“We need the interior footage.”
I closed my eyes.
“What happens now?”
“Tonight, you sleep if you can.”
I almost laughed.
“That’s ambitious.”
“Tomorrow we take formal statements.”
“And Evelyn?”
“She remains in custody on the evidence-related charge while prosecutors evaluate additional counts.”
“Can she get out?”
“Not tonight.”
That answer was enough.
For that night.
I thanked Reyes and ended the call.
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Then Marjorie said, “I should go.”
Lucas looked at her.
“Are you sure?”
It was the first gentle thing he had said to her.
She nodded.
“Ron will worry.”
Beth stood.
“I’ll drive you.”
Marjorie picked up her handbag.
At the door, she turned back to me.
“I’m going to tell them everything.”
I nodded.
“Good.”
She waited, maybe for forgiveness.
I had none to give yet.
Not because I hated her.
Because forgiveness had started to feel like another thing people expected from grieving women so everyone else could sleep better.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said.
After they left, Lucas and I sat in the living room with every lamp on.
Neither of us mentioned going upstairs.
Around midnight, he said, “Do you think Grandma killed Dad too?”
I stared at Lily’s crayons on the coffee table.
“Yes.”
The word frightened me because I meant it.
Lucas swallowed.
“Me too.”
We did not discuss it further.
Sometime after two, he fell asleep on the couch with one arm over his face.
I covered him with the afghan Lily used during movie nights.
Then I sat in the chair opposite him until dawn.
At eight forty the next morning, Beth drove us to the police station.
The sky was painfully blue.
People waited at bus stops.
A landscaper blew leaves from one side of a sidewalk to the other.
Normal life continued its insulting little routines.
Reyes interviewed me for nearly two hours.
She asked about Mark.
Evelyn.
Money.
Keys.
Arguments.
Lily’s medications.
Tuesday traffic.
Every answer felt inadequate.
When she asked whether Evelyn had ever threatened me before the funeral, I said no.
Then I remembered something.
“Not directly.”
Reyes stopped writing.
“What does that mean?”
“After Mark died, she told me I wouldn’t last six months without her.”
“Financially?”
“I thought emotionally.”
“And now?”
“I don’t know.”
“She help you financially?”
“Sometimes.”
“Bills?”
“School expenses.”
“Did she ever ask for repayment?”
“No.”
“Anything in exchange?”
I thought about holiday dinners.
Church events.
Being expected to bring Lily over whenever Evelyn asked.
The invisible bookkeeping of obligation.
“She liked access.”
“To Lily?”
“To all of us.”
Reyes nodded.
When the interview ended, Lucas was waiting in the hall.
His face looked exhausted.
“What did they ask you?”
“Everything.”
“Same.”
We sat beside each other on molded plastic chairs.
A vending machine hummed across from us.
Lucas bought pretzels and ate three before deciding they were terrible.
He handed me the bag.
I ate them anyway.
At eleven twenty, Reyes came through the security door.
Her expression told me something had changed.
“Come with me.”
We followed her into a smaller interview room.
Beth joined us.
Reyes closed the door.
“We have enough for an arrest warrant on additional charges.”
Lucas stopped breathing for a second.
“Which charges?”
“In connection with Lily’s death, the prosecutor authorized charges including child endangerment resulting in death, evidence tampering, insurance fraud, and homicide-related charges that may be amended as the case develops.”
I gripped the edge of the table.
“And Mark?”
“Not yet.”
Lucas looked angry.
“What more do you need?”
“Proof.”
“You have the car.”
“We have evidence that supports suspicion.”
“That isn’t proof.”
“No.”
He looked at the wall.
Reyes continued.
“But we recovered interior security footage from Mark’s office building.”
I looked back at her.
“Evelyn was there?”
“Yes.”
“She spoke to him?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“Approximately eleven minutes.”
“Can we hear it?”
“No audio.”
“What happened?”
“They argued.”
“How do you know?”
“Body language.”
“You just said that isn’t proof.”
“It isn’t.”
I almost smiled despite everything.
Reyes slid a photograph across the table.
It was a still image from the security camera.
May you like
Mark stood near the elevator.
Evelyn faced him.
