Chương 9
“We repeated it properly.”
“And?”
“He’s ours.”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
Arthur released her wrist.
She stood beside the bed for another minute.
Then she left without touching Ethan.
Downstairs, Caroline waited with tea.
No one drank it.
Arthur told them about Benton’s arrest.
Eleanor listened.
Caroline had heard enough fragments of the family history to be angry at everyone.
“So Mom knew Margaret was alive.”
Arthur nodded.
Caroline looked at Eleanor.
“You let us have a funeral.”
Eleanor’s face tightened.
“I did.”
“You let me give a eulogy.”
“I know.”
“I was twenty-seven.”
“I know how old you were.”
“No, you know the number.”
“Caroline.”
“You let me stand there and talk about how my sister taught me to drive.”
Arthur said, “Enough.”
Caroline turned.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
She looked at both parents.
“You two don’t get to decide when enough arrives.”
Eleanor sat very still.
Caroline wiped beneath one eye with the heel of her hand.
“I spent three years feeling guilty because the last voicemail Margaret left me was one I didn’t return.”
Eleanor looked down.
“You knew she was alive when I told you that.”
“Yes.”
“And you let me carry it.”
“I’m sorry.”
Caroline laughed.
“See, that’s the problem. It sounds so small.”
No one spoke.
The refrigerator compressor clicked on.
A car passed outside.
Arthur noticed absurdly that one cabinet door did not close all the way. It bothered him. He stared at the narrow black line between the door and frame because looking at that was easier than looking at his daughter.
Caroline saw.
“Do not fix the cabinet right now.”
Arthur looked at her.
“I wasn’t going to.”
“You were thinking about it.”
“I was not.”
Eleanor, unexpectedly, laughed.
One brief exhausted laugh.
Caroline stared at her.
Then started laughing too.
It was not funny.
That made it worse.
Arthur stood between them, irritated and close to crying, while both women laughed harder than the moment deserved.
Ethan appeared on the stairs.
Everyone stopped.
He held the triceratops by one leg.
“What happened?”
Caroline wiped her face.
“Nothing.”
Ethan looked at Arthur.
“Adults lie a lot.”
Arthur sighed.
“Yes.”
Eleanor covered her mouth.
Ethan studied her.
“Are you my grandma?”
Eleanor’s face crumpled.
Arthur expected tears.
Instead she said, “Apparently.”
Ethan nodded.
“What’s your name?”
“Eleanor.”
“Grandma Eleanor?”
“If you want.”
He considered it.
“Okay.”
Then he looked at Caroline.
“Can I have water?”
Caroline stood.
“Absolutely.”
And somehow that was how Eleanor Hale first met the grandson she had believed lost six years earlier.
Not with music or speeches.
With a glass of water at twelve thirty-seven in the morning.
Vanessa requested a meeting the next day.
Through her attorney, she offered information in exchange for limited cooperation regarding the kidnapping investigation.
Arthur’s lawyers advised him not to attend.
He attended.
The meeting took place in a county interview facility with investigators present.
Vanessa wore jail-issued clothing instead of burgundy.
Without makeup, she looked younger and more tired.
Arthur sat across from her.
For several seconds they simply looked at each other.
Vanessa spoke first.
“How is he?”
Arthur’s anger rose immediately.
“You don’t get to ask.”
She looked down.
“I suppose not.”
“Why did you take him?”
“To move him.”
“Where?”
“Canada.”
“Why?”
“Because Benton found out he was with you.”
Arthur stared.
“Benton knew he existed.”
“Yes.”
“Then why would he care now?”
“Because he didn’t know Ethan had the bracelet.”
Arthur leaned forward.
“How did Ethan get it?”
Vanessa’s eyes moved to the investigators.
Her attorney nodded once.
“Margaret gave it to me,” Vanessa said.
“When?”
“Six years ago.”
“Before she disappeared?”
“Yes.”
“For Ethan?”
“She said if anything happened to her, he should have something with his name on it.”
Arthur’s jaw tightened.
“The bracelet said his name?”
“Margaret had it re-engraved.”
“That was the bracelet I buried.”
“Yes.”
“How did Margaret get it?”
Vanessa looked at him.
“She was at her own funeral.”
Arthur did not move.
The investigator beside him stopped writing.
Vanessa continued.
“She stayed in a vehicle beyond the cemetery wall. She insisted on going.”
Arthur’s vision narrowed.
“You took her?”
“Yes.”
“You let her watch us bury her?”
“I tried to stop her.”
“Do not make yourself the reasonable person in that story.”
Vanessa looked away.
Arthur’s hands tightened beneath the table.
“Why?”
“She wanted to see who came.”
Arthur stared.
“To her funeral.”
“She believed someone would attend who had been involved in the attack.”
“What attack?”
“The crash wasn’t an accident.”
Arthur inhaled slowly.
Vanessa continued.
“Margaret’s car was forced off the road. The other driver died. Margaret survived because she was thrown clear before the vehicle caught fire.”
“The body in the coffin?”
“The other driver.”
Arthur felt sick.
“Dental records.”
“Altered.”
“By whom?”
“Philip Dane arranged it.”
Arthur sat back.
His former general counsel.
A man Arthur had trusted with privileged information for thirty years.
“Why would Dane protect Margaret?”
Vanessa’s mouth tightened.
“He wasn’t protecting her.”
Arthur looked at her.
“He was protecting the company.”
“From what?”
“Scandal. Criminal exposure. Your reaction. Pick one.”
“You said Benton was involved.”
“He was.”
“In the trafficking?”
“Yes.”
“And Dane?”
“He helped hide irregularities after Margaret discovered them. Whether he knew the entire scheme at first, I don’t know.”
“Why help Margaret fake her death?”
“Because by then Benton wanted her dead, and Dane realized that would create a larger disaster if the truth surfaced.”
Arthur stared at her.
“So everyone developed ethics at the exact moment ethics became useful.”
Vanessa almost smiled.
“No. They developed self-preservation.”
That sounded true enough to anger him.
“Where did you take Margaret?”
“A private house in Vermont first.”
“With Ethan?”
“No.”
Arthur leaned forward.
“Where was my grandson?”
Vanessa looked down at her hands.
“With me.”
The answer took a moment to settle.
“You had him.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Margaret asked me.”
“Why would she trust you?”
“She didn’t.”
Arthur frowned.
“Then why?”
May you like
“Because she trusted everyone else less.”
Vanessa rubbed one thumb over the other.
