Chương 5
“Bell won’t discuss it without counsel.”
Nora nodded.
“That’s smart.”
“You don’t look disappointed.”
“I am.”
“You hide it well.”
“No. I’m tired.”
That afternoon Margaret called.
Nora let it ring twice before answering.
“Hi.”
“I need you to come to the house.”
“No.”
“Nora.”
“I’m working.”
“After.”
“Why?”
Silence.
Then Margaret said, “Your father moved into a hotel.”
Nora looked at the wall clock.
“I’m sorry.”
“Are you?”
“No.”
Margaret let out a brittle little laugh.
“I suppose that’s fair.”
“What do you need?”
“I found something.”
Nora’s hand tightened around the phone.
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
“Mom.”
“There are boxes in his study.”
“There have always been boxes in his study.”
“He locked the cabinet.”
“Then don’t open it.”
Margaret was silent.
Nora closed her eyes.
“You opened it.”
“I’m his wife.”
“That’s not a legal doctrine.”
“Don’t start.”
“What did you find?”
“Come see.”
“Take pictures and send them to Elise.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I want you here.”
Nora looked through her office window.
A grounds crew was trimming a hedge with mechanical precision.
“I’m not coming to help you search Dad’s private papers.”
“I already searched them.”
“Then I’m definitely not coming.”
“Nora.”
Her mother’s voice cracked.
Nora hated the effect it had on her.
“I don’t want to be alone in this house.”
That was different.
Nora went.
The Vale home sat on a quiet street in McLean behind trees Robert had once complained were too close to the roof. Nothing about the exterior suggested that its occupants had spent the week dismantling one another under oath.
Margaret opened the door before Nora knocked.
She looked smaller without the beige blazer.
She wore jeans and one of Robert’s old academy sweatshirts.
Nora stared at it.
Margaret noticed.
“I grabbed it without thinking.”
“You can keep it.”
“That sounded ominous.”
“It wasn’t meant to.”
Inside, the house smelled like lemon furniture polish and the rosemary plant Margaret kept near the kitchen window.
Nora had not been there in four years.
Daniel’s photograph still stood on the piano.
So did hers.
That surprised her.
In the picture, she was twenty-two and wearing second lieutenant bars, smiling with such reckless confidence that Nora disliked her on sight.
Margaret went to the kitchen.
“I made soup.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“You’re always not hungry.”
“I ate.”
“What?”
Nora opened her mouth.
She had eaten half a protein bar in traffic.
Margaret nodded.
“Soup.”
Nora sat.
They ate in silence.
It was chicken with too much dill.
Daniel had hated dill.
The thought came and went without crushing her, which felt like a small betrayal.
Afterward, Margaret led her upstairs.
Robert’s study looked untouched except for the open lower cabinet.
Files lay across the rug.
Nora stopped at the doorway.
“This is a crime scene created by a librarian.”
“I panicked.”
“You alphabetized while panicking?”
“I didn’t alphabetize.”
“They’re in chronological order.”
Margaret looked down.
“Oh.”
Despite herself, Nora laughed.
Margaret did too.
The laughter lasted perhaps three seconds.
Then both women seemed embarrassed by it.
Margaret pointed to a banker's box.
“These were behind old tax files.”
Nora crouched but did not touch anything.
“What am I looking at?”
“Copies of Daniel’s emails.”
“To Dad?”
“Some.”
Nora’s pulse changed.
“Don’t touch them.”
“I already—”
“I know. Stop now.”
Margaret sat on the floor.
“One is dated two days before the mission.”
Nora looked at her.
“What does it say?”
Margaret’s eyes filled.
“He asked Robert to stop calling the brigade commander.”
Nora stayed very still.
“Why?”
“He said, ‘You’re making this worse. We can handle the route issue without you.’”
The room seemed to lose depth.
Nora sat on the edge of Robert’s desk chair.
“Anything else?”
“There’s a reply.”
“From Dad?”
“Yes.”
“What does it say?”
Margaret looked toward the window.
“‘You asked for help. Don’t get righteous because you don’t like the form it takes.’”
Nora pressed her thumb against the side of her index finger until it hurt.
Daniel had asked Robert for help.
That did not fit the story she had carried.
“What help?”
“I don’t know.”
“Any earlier emails?”
“Not here.”
“Then we don’t guess.”
Margaret’s face hardened.
“I know what he did.”
“No. You know what you’re afraid he did.”
“You’re doing it again.”
“What?”
“Protecting him.”
Nora stood.
“I am protecting the truth from us.”
Margaret stared at her.
Nora gestured toward the papers.
“If we decide now that every line means the worst possible thing, we’re not different from what happened to me.”
Her mother looked down.
After a moment, she nodded.
They called Elise.
Elise arrived forty minutes later with two investigators assigned to preserve the documents properly.
Robert called Margaret while they were there.
She put him on speaker without warning.
Nora almost told her not to.
Then Robert’s voice filled the kitchen.
“Margaret, there are people at the house.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“Investigators.”
Silence.
“Why?”
“I found your files.”
Another silence.
This one longer.
“Margaret, listen to me carefully. Do not consent to a search of my personal office.”
Margaret looked at Nora.
Nora shook her head once, warning her not to perform for him.
Margaret ignored it.
“Why? What will they find?”
Robert exhaled.
“This is exactly why I didn’t want you involved.”
“I am involved.”
“No. You are grieving, and people are taking advantage of that.”
Margaret’s face went white.
Nora watched the phrase land.
It had worked on Margaret before.
Maybe hundreds of times.
Not today.
“Did Daniel ask you to stop calling his commander?”
Robert did not answer.
“Robert?”
“Those emails are privileged family communications taken out of context.”
“Did he?”
“He was angry.”
“So yes.”
“Margaret.”
“What help did he ask you for?”
The line went quiet.
When Robert answered, his voice had softened.
May you like
It was the voice Nora remembered from childhood injuries and bad report cards. The reasonable father. The man who could make disappointment sound like shelter.
“Daniel believed his unit was being assigned an unnecessarily dangerous route because another team had priority for air support. He asked whether I could make inquiries.”
