Chương 7
Notary woman wouldn’t do it.
Trip Friday? Don’t want lake.
Blue folder Daniel.
Daniel held the notebook so tightly the wire binding pressed into his palm.
“When was this written?” Kline asked.
“There are dates on some pages. Not these.”
“Do you recognize her handwriting?”
“Yes.”
“Photograph it, then leave it where it is.”
“You’re not taking it?”
“We may. First I need to expand the warrant.”
“Why?”
“Because finding relevant writing while accompanying you is not the same as having unlimited authority to seize every personal record.”
He wanted to tell her to stop explaining procedure as if procedure had not already given Nora days to find a lawyer, shape her story, and perhaps destroy evidence. Instead he photographed each page.
On the way downstairs, he heard the suitcase zipper.
The sound was faint and mechanical, coming from a recording played on Kline’s phone. She had received a video clip from the doorbell camera across the street. It showed Nora loading two grocery bags into her car the previous evening. Nothing suspicious appeared in the image, but the microphone had captured a muffled conversation through the open front window.
Nora’s voice said, “We’ll go tomorrow.”
Evelyn replied, “I don’t want to.”
“You said you needed a break.”
“From you talking.”
A zipper moved.
Then Nora said, “It’s only until the papers are settled.”
The recording ended.
Daniel stared at Kline’s phone.
“What papers?”
“That’s what we’re trying to establish.”
“Play it again.”
She did.
On the second listening, Evelyn’s voice sounded less frightened than irritable. Nora sounded tired, not threatening. The ambiguity was worse than a clear confession. Daniel could hear whatever he expected to hear.
Kline put away the phone. “Ms. Blake’s attorney provided recordings of his own.”
“Recordings of what?”
“Your mother discussing gifts and future plans.”
“Nora recorded her?”
“Apparently.”
“Without telling her?”
“State law may permit a participant in a conversation to record it, depending on the circumstances. Admissibility and context are separate issues.”
“What does Evelyn say?”
Kline hesitated. “In one clip, she says she wants Nora to have the house.”
Daniel looked toward the staircase.
“Let me hear it.”
“Not yet.”
“Why not?”
“Because it was turned over through counsel and is part of the investigation.”
“You just told me what it says.”
“I told you enough to prepare you.”
“For what?”
“For this not being simple.”
The recordings reached Priya Shah through the prosecutor’s office two weeks later. Evelyn agreed to listen only after Priya explained that refusing would not make them disappear.
They sat in Daniel’s dining room. Rain had given way to a bright, cold afternoon, and sunlight reflected off a neighbor’s windshield through the front window. Evelyn wore her floral nightgown beneath a long gray robe. Daniel had suggested real clothes. She had asked who she was dressing for.
Priya placed a small speaker on the table and played the first clip.
Nora’s voice came first. “You know I can’t stay forever.”
Evelyn answered, “Nobody does.”
“I’ve given everything to this job.”
“You complain too much.”
“I’m not complaining. I’m telling you I have no retirement, no house, nothing.”
“You’re thirty-four.”
“That doesn’t mean I have time.”
A cupboard closed.
Evelyn said, “Take the house, then.”
Nora laughed softly. “Don’t tease me.”
“I’m not teasing. Take it and fix the gutters.”
“You would really leave it to me?”
“Maybe. If Daniel keeps telling me to sell.”
The recording ended.
Daniel’s stomach tightened.
Priya did not look at him. She asked Evelyn, “Do you remember this conversation?”
“Some of it.”
“Did you intend to give Nora your house?”
“I was angry.”
“At Daniel?”
“At the gutters.”
Daniel pushed his chair back. “Mom.”
“What? They’ve leaked for years.”
“I paid to repair them.”
“You paid a man who did not repair them.”
Priya raised one hand. “Evelyn, when you said Nora could take the house, were you making a final decision?”
“No.”
“Did Nora ask you to sign anything afterward?”
Evelyn studied the grain of the table. “She brought papers.”
“What did she say they were?”
“Care papers. Something for the agency.”
“She no longer worked for an agency.”
“I know that now.”
Daniel leaned forward. “Did you sign them?”
“I signed something.”
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
“Were you awake?”
Priya turned toward him. “Daniel.”
He sat back.
The second recording was shorter.
Nora said, “If I had authority, I could stop him from moving you.”
Evelyn answered, “He can’t make me.”
“He can petition the court.”
“Daniel wouldn’t.”
“He talks to lawyers for a living.”
“I don’t want a judge.”
“Then you need somebody you trust.”
The clip ended.
Evelyn’s face had changed. The humor left it.
“She told me you were going to put me away,” she said to Daniel.
“I never said that.”
“She said you asked for prices.”
Daniel looked at Rachel.
Rachel’s hand tightened around her coffee cup.
Evelyn saw the movement. “You did.”
Rachel spoke carefully. “I called two assisted-living communities last spring.”
“Why?”
“You fell twice.”
“I slipped once.”
“You fell in the bathroom and again near the mailbox.”
“The mailbox was ice.”
“It was May,” Daniel said.
Evelyn looked from one to the other. “You planned it behind my back.”
“We gathered information,” Rachel said.
“You lied.”
“No one lied,” Daniel said.
“You didn’t tell me.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
Evelyn pushed herself up from the table. The robe caught under the chair arm. She pulled it free with a jerking motion and walked toward the den without her cane.
Rachel stood to help.
“Don’t,” Evelyn said.
They watched her cross the room slowly, one hand touching the backs of chairs for balance. Louie followed her, tail low.
Priya turned off the speaker. “That is how coercion works when it works well.”
Daniel looked toward the den doorway. “By telling the truth?”
“By selecting a truth and using it to isolate someone.”
“We did call facilities.”
May you like
“And Nora used that fact to suggest your mother needed protection from you.”
“Maybe she did.”
