Chương 2
Claire stared at the cup until she hated it.
Ortiz entered the room after the surgeon had checked Lily and confirmed that the change in her heart rate had not harmed anything. She closed the door behind her, but not fully. Hospital policy required a clear line of sight.
“Mrs. Mercer,” she said.
“Claire.”
Ortiz nodded once. “Claire. I need to ask you some questions, but not while she’s unstable.”
“She heard us.”
“I know.”
“She understood enough.”
“I know.”
Claire rubbed her thumb over Lily’s knuckle. The child’s skin felt waxy and fragile, yet the pressure of her hand remained stubborn.
“What was on his phone?”
“I saw the same preview you did.”
“Can you take it?”
“Not because we’re curious.”
Claire looked up.
Ortiz had dark hair pulled into a low bun and a face that revealed very little unless a person watched the muscles around her eyes. She seemed practiced at not offering false comfort.
“We have legal steps,” Ortiz said. “We’re working on them.”
“He was about to delete it.”
“He may already have deleted other things.”
“So take the phone.”
“I intend to preserve what we lawfully can.”
The careful wording irritated Claire. It belonged to a world of forms, permissions, and clocks, while Lily lay beneath a warmed blanket with a repaired spleen and a line in her arm.
“He knew,” Claire said.
Ortiz did not answer.
“You don’t come into my daughter’s room with that bag unless you think he knew.”
“I came because he tried to leave after we asked him to remain available, and because we had reason to believe he might contact Ms. Cole.”
“You said again.”
Ortiz glanced toward Lily.
Claire followed the glance. “Say it.”
“We recovered call records showing Grant spoke with Vanessa Cole eleven minutes after the collision.”
The fluorescent light above the sink hummed faintly. Claire had not noticed it before.
“How long?”
“Four minutes, seventeen seconds.”
“He called her?”
“She called him.”
“And afterward?”
“He called the Northstar garage supervisor. Then the company’s outside counsel. Then you.”
Claire remembered Grant’s call. She had been standing beside a grocery-store freezer, holding a bag of peas she did not need, because Lily had texted ten minutes earlier asking for green grapes and Claire was trying to decide whether returning to produce was worth it.
There’s been an accident, Grant had said.
Not Lily’s been hurt.
Not our daughter.
There’s been an accident.
He had told Claire to drive to Lakeview Children’s and not to ask questions while she was driving. His voice had been controlled, almost stern. He said he was already on his way.
At the hospital he claimed the police had called him first because Lily’s emergency contact card listed both parents. Claire had believed him because there had been too many other things to believe at once.
“Why did Vanessa call him?” Claire asked.
“We don’t know yet.”
“You do.”
“We have theories. I’m not going to turn them into facts for you.”
Claire looked back at Lily. “Was Vanessa driving?”
“The evidence strongly suggests she was operating the Northstar SUV that struck Lily and left the scene.”
“Strongly suggests.”
Ortiz’s expression tightened slightly. “The vehicle was recovered from a private service garage at two this morning. The front passenger-side damage is consistent with debris recovered from the scene. We found blood transfer and fibers that will require laboratory confirmation. The key fob was discovered in a storm drain twenty yards from the impact point.”
Claire’s stomach twisted.
“No details,” Naomi said from the monitors.
Ortiz stopped. “You’re right.”
Naomi checked Lily’s blood pressure cuff, although it had not alarmed. “She may look asleep. That doesn’t mean she isn’t hearing.”
Claire wanted to thank her, but the words lodged behind her teeth.
“Where is Vanessa?” she asked.
“We believe she’s with an attorney.”
“You believe?”
“She left her condo before officers arrived.”
“And Grant was going to meet her.”
“We don’t know where he intended to go.”
“He had his coat, his keys, and his phone.”
“He told security he needed air.”
Claire almost laughed. It would have sounded wrong, so she pressed her lips together until the impulse passed.
Grant had always needed air when rooms began demanding answers. He needed air when Lily’s kindergarten teacher asked why he had missed the parent conference he had personally scheduled. He needed air when Claire found a hotel receipt in a jacket pocket three years earlier. That receipt had turned out to belong to a client dinner, just as Grant said, though he never explained why he had spent forty minutes accusing Claire of searching his belongings before showing her the email confirmation.
He was not a man who lied every day. He was a man who made truth feel like an insult whenever it inconvenienced him.
“What happens now?” Claire asked.
“To Lily?”
“To all of us.”
Ortiz paused. “Grant is being interviewed. Depending on the evidence, he may be released, detained, or charged. Ms. Cole is being located. Northstar’s records are being preserved. Your daughter’s phone is with our digital unit.”
“Her phone?”
“It was found near the crosswalk.”
Claire’s hand went still.
“Was it broken?”
“The screen was damaged. We may be able to recover data.”
“She was supposed to be at school.”
Ortiz watched her carefully. “We know she left campus at ten thirty-two.”
“No.”
“The attendance office recorded her signing out.”
“Who signed her out?”
“She did.”
“She can’t.”
“At her school, students can sign out if a parent sends authorization through the portal.”
Claire felt the room shift beneath her chair.
“I didn’t authorize anything.”
“We know.”
Grant had access to the school portal.
May you like
So did Claire.
She pictured Lily at breakfast, hair still wet from the shower, using one foot to push open the silverware drawer because her hands were full. She had complained that the kitchen smelled like burnt toast. Grant was already gone. Claire had reminded Lily about her science quiz and received the ceremonial eye roll required by twelve-year-olds.
