Chương 7
Daniel placed the folder in the trunk, then crouched beside her.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“For what?”
“All of it.”
“You didn’t do it.”
“I brought you to that party.”
She looked at him. “Don’t make yourself responsible for everything. It’s another way of taking control.”
He absorbed that.
“You’re right.”
“Stop saying that.”
A dog barked inside Helen’s neighbor’s house. Someone opened a window and shouted for it to be quiet.
Mara looked back at the row house.
Helen stood behind the curtain. Her outline was visible through the fabric.
“I loved her,” Mara said.
“You still do.”
“That feels disloyal.”
“To whom?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel sat on the curb beside the open car door, still wearing yesterday’s dress shoes. One lace had come loose.
Mara noticed and nearly told him.
Instead, she said, “We need to speak to Evelyn.”
“Not alone.”
“I didn’t say alone.”
“Not at Harrowmere.”
“Fine.”
“With attorneys.”
“Daniel.”
“She investigated you. She assaulted you. Her family may be connected to your disappearance.”
“Exactly.”
He looked up at her.
“She is not only a grieving mother,” Mara said. “She is part of whatever happened, even if she doesn’t know how.”
Daniel stood slowly.
“We call Rebecca Cho,” he said. “Today.”
Rebecca was a litigator in Daniel’s firm, though not one who worked directly with him. She had a reputation for speaking softly while making powerful people reconsider their choices.
She met them that afternoon in a conference room overlooking Market Street.
Mara disliked the room immediately. The table was too polished. The chairs were designed to make everyone sit upright. Through the glass wall, employees passed with laptops and coffee, pretending not to look inside.
Rebecca arrived carrying a yellow legal pad and no visible surprise.
“I have watched the video,” she said. “I am sorry.”
Mara nodded.
Rebecca looked at Daniel. “You are the fiancé here, not counsel.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Daniel leaned back.
Rebecca turned to Mara. “What do you want?”
“Facts.”
“From whom?”
“Everyone.”
“That answer becomes expensive quickly.”
“I’m not asking for a lawsuit.”
“Good. A lawsuit would make the facts harder to reach at first, not easier.”
Mara placed Raymond’s letter and flash drive on the table inside clear plastic bags Daniel had bought at a pharmacy.
Rebecca read the letter without touching it.
“Who has handled these?”
“Helen Ellis, Daniel, and me,” Mara said.
“Anyone else?”
“No.”
“The flash drive?”
“Only Daniel touched it. We have not connected it to a computer.”
Rebecca nodded. “We’ll have a forensic examiner image it. Originals remain secured. We document custody from this point.”
Daniel said, “Evelyn’s adviser conducted a background search before the party.”
Rebecca made a note. “How do you know?”
“My mother spoke with him.”
“Secondhand, then.”
“Yes.”
“Mrs. Harrow has counsel?”
“She retained someone this morning.”
“Name?”
“Thomas Bellweather.”
Rebecca’s eyebrows rose slightly. “That is not a family lawyer. That is a crisis lawyer.”
Mara looked at her. “What does that mean?”
“It means Mrs. Harrow believes there may be consequences beyond hurt feelings.”
Rebecca asked for Helen’s contact information, Raymond’s full name, and every detail Mara could recall about the ballroom confrontation. She did not interrupt when Mara’s memory became strangely specific about the wine stain on the shawl and unclear about what happened seconds later.
At the end, Rebecca closed her legal pad.
“I can approach Bellweather with a proposal,” she said. “Private meeting, evidence preservation, voluntary DNA testing through an accredited lab, no public statements by either side until preliminary results return.”
Daniel said, “And Graham Voss’s files.”
“We can request them. We cannot compel them without litigation or law enforcement.”
“Then we involve law enforcement.”
Mara turned to him. “Not yet.”
“Mara, there was an abduction.”
“There may have been.”
“There was.”
“You don’t know that Evelyn’s child was me.”
“The dates, the mark, the photograph—”
“Are not proof.”
Rebecca watched them without expression.
Daniel’s voice tightened. “What are you afraid of?”
Mara looked at him.
The answer arrived before she could soften it.
“That you want Evelyn to be right because then there is a villain you can fight.”
Daniel went still.
Rebecca looked down at her notes.
Mara continued, quieter, “Helen did something terrible. Peter did too. But they were my parents. I don’t know how to hold that. You’re already at the part where we prosecute someone.”
“I’m at the part where we prevent evidence from disappearing.”
“You’re always three steps ahead.”
“Because someone has to be.”
“There.” Mara pointed at him. “That.”
Daniel’s face closed.
Rebecca waited until the silence became useful.
“Mr. Mercer, go get coffee.”
Daniel looked at her.
“That was not a suggestion.”
He left.
Mara pressed her palms against her knees.
Rebecca said, “He is frightened.”
“I know.”
“So are you.”
“I know.”
“His fear turns into action. Yours appears to turn into resistance.”
Mara almost smiled. “Do lawyers charge extra for personality assessments?”
“Only when they are correct.”
Rebecca folded her hands.
“You control the next step,” she said. “But control does not mean you control the result. It means you decide which uncertainty you can tolerate.”
Mara looked through the glass wall. Daniel stood near the coffee station, staring at nothing.
“What happens if the DNA matches?”
“Legally? Several things may happen, depending on evidence and statutes. Emotionally? I am not qualified to guess.”
“What happens if it doesn’t?”
“Mrs. Harrow may still have violated your privacy and committed an assault. Your relationship with your mother will still have changed. The letter will still exist.”
There was no version in which Mara returned to yesterday.
“Arrange the meeting,” she said.
Evelyn agreed to a DNA test within two hours.
She also agreed to meet at Rebecca’s office the following morning, with Thomas Bellweather and Graham Voss present. No press. No staff. No relatives.
Louise called Daniel repeatedly after learning she had been excluded.
May you like
He did not answer.
That night, Mara sat on the kitchen floor sorting through photographs Helen had sent by courier. Daniel remained in the living room, giving her space because Rebecca had advised him to and because he did not know what else to do.
