Chương 5
Mara closed her eyes.
Caleb almost smiled.
The housekeeper escaped toward the kitchen.
Lily swung her legs beneath the chair. Her pink shoes moved back and forth with effortless rhythm. Caleb found himself staring until Mara noticed.
“She didn’t do it to hurt you,” Mara said quietly.
“I know.”
Lily stopped swinging. “Did I hurt you?”
“No.”
“Does your leg hurt?”
“Sometimes.”
“Can you feel it?”
“Sometimes.”
She considered this. “That sounds confusing.”
“It is.”
“My arm falls asleep when I lie on it.”
Mara said, “Not the same thing.”
“I didn’t say it was.”
The grilled cheese arrived cut into four triangles. Lily ate the center of each piece and left the crusts despite having requested their removal. A smear of butter shone on her chin.
Caleb’s phone vibrated where Dario had placed it beside his plate.
VICTOR CALLING.
He let it ring twice before answering.
“Where is Venn?” Victor asked.
No greeting.
Caleb looked toward the ceiling camera in the corner of the breakfast room. Dario had said the feed was disabled. Caleb no longer trusted disabled things.
“Good evening to you too.”
“I sent him because I heard you had a neurological episode.”
“Who told you?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes.”
Victor exhaled. “You have twelve employees who panic when you clear your throat.”
“What did they say happened?”
“That you had a spasm in the garden.”
Caleb cut a piece of steak. His hand shook slightly. He set down the knife before Victor could hear it against the plate.
“I don’t go into the garden.”
“So I was told.”
“Then someone is lying to you.”
Silence followed.
Victor changed direction. “The board meeting moved to Thursday. We need your signature on the financing package before noon tomorrow.”
“Send Ruth the documents.”
“She already reviewed them.”
“Then she can review them again.”
“Caleb, the lenders are losing patience. If we miss this closing, the Pennsylvania contracts go to Rizzo.”
Lily lifted her plate and licked melted cheese from the edge.
Mara lowered it gently.
Victor said, “Who is that?”
“A child.”
“I can hear that.”
“Then why did you ask?”
Another silence, longer this time.
“You have a child at the estate?”
“One of the staff brought her daughter.”
“No staff live on the property with children.”
Caleb watched Mara’s face.
Victor knew the household roster without checking.
“Apparently one does now.”
“Who?”
Caleb hung up.
Lily stared at the phone.
“That was rude,” she said.
“It was.”
“Are you going to call back?”
“No.”
“What if he had more words?”
“He always has more words.”
Ruth arrived at nine in a borrowed florist’s van, furious about the smell of wet cardboard.
She wore a gray suit and orthopedic shoes and carried a leather case secured with two locks. After Dario searched her, she struck him with her handbag.
“That was for touching my bra,” she said.
“I used the back of my hand.”
“Then the back of your hand is a pervert.”
She entered Audrey’s sitting room, saw Lily, and stopped.
Lily was asleep beneath the blue shawl. The teddy bear rested against her cheek. Mara sat beside her, still wearing the maid uniform.
Ruth looked from the child to Caleb.
“Oh,” she said.
It was not a legal assessment. It was grief.
Caleb disliked her for showing it.
Ruth collected samples with sealed swabs from Caleb and Lily. Mara photographed each step and wrote down the identification numbers. The laboratory courier would collect them at a highway service plaza, away from Marino property. Results would take two days, even with Ruth’s expensive request for priority processing.
“No one from your organization touches the chain of custody,” Mara said.
Ruth sealed the envelopes. “For once, I agree with the woman who smuggled a child into a mafia compound.”
Mara flinched at the word.
Caleb looked at Lily, still sleeping.
“Don’t say that near her.”
Ruth raised one eyebrow.
“You have threatened judges in restaurants.”
“Not near her.”
The room became uncomfortable.
Ruth placed the samples in the case. “We also need an independent neurologist.”
“Name one.”
“Naomi Price.”
Caleb remembered her immediately. Dr. Price had supervised his rehabilitation during the first six months after the crash. She had argued with Venn about his prognosis, recommended a second surgical review, and objected when his therapy schedule was reduced. Victor called her ambitious. Venn called her reckless.
She was dismissed after Caleb suffered a severe episode during a medication adjustment.
“Price nearly killed me,” he said.
“According to Venn.”
“I was there.”
“You were delirious for forty-eight hours.”
“I remember enough.”
Ruth leaned toward him. “Do you remember signing the complaint that ended her hospital privileges?”
Caleb did not.
He remembered Victor placing papers on a tray across his lap. He remembered the pen slipping twice from his fingers. He remembered wanting everyone out of the room.
Ruth saw the answer.
“She practices in Boston now,” she said. “I spoke with her last year.”
“About me?”
“I ask questions when men with no medical training become experts in your treatment.”
“Did she say I could walk?”
“She said the phrase complete injury did not match the original imaging she reviewed.”
Caleb looked at Venn’s confiscated programmer on the desk.
“What happened to the imaging?”
“The hospital archive was migrated to a new system. Your scans are missing.”
Mara gave a bitter laugh.
Ruth glanced at her. “You find that amusing?”
“No. I find it familiar.”
Caleb rolled toward the sleeping child.
Lily’s hand rested beneath her cheek. There was a small pale scar near her thumb. Audrey had carried a similar scar from a broken teacup when she was nine.
He looked away before anyone noticed.
“Bring Price,” he said.
Ruth’s mouth tightened. “She may refuse.”
“Ask her.”
“Ask?”
Caleb met her eyes.
Ruth waited.
He forced the word out.
“Please.”
May you like
Dr. Naomi Price arrived the next afternoon carrying one duffel bag and enough anger for the entire household.
She was forty-five, tall, with closely cropped hair and a practical black coat. She declined Dario’s offered hand and asked immediately whether Venn was on the property.
