Chương 12
Claire said nothing.
“I said no.”
A small part of Claire felt satisfied.
She disliked that part.
Eleanor looked toward the window.
“He asked if I remembered when he was twelve and found that injured dog near the lake.”
Claire did know the story.
Daniel carried the dog nearly a mile.
Paid for its surgery with birthday money.
Visited it at the shelter until it was adopted.
Eleanor had told the story at their rehearsal dinner.
“He said that person is still in him.”
Claire looked at her hands.
“Maybe he is.”
Eleanor turned.
Claire continued.
“That’s what makes this harder.”
“I thought you’d say he was lying.”
“People aren’t one thing.”
Eleanor’s face tightened.
“My son tried to have you killed.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re defending him?”
“No.”
“Then what are you doing?”
Claire thought about it.
“Trying not to lie just because he did.”
Eleanor looked away.
Rain tapped the window.
After a while she said, “I keep remembering things.”
Claire waited.
“Not clues. That’s what everyone asks. What did I miss? Was he cruel as a child? Did he have a temper? Did he hurt animals?”
Her mouth twisted.
“He rescued animals.”
Claire nodded.
“He cheated at cards.”
“That seems less useful.”
Eleanor almost smiled.
“He hated losing. Even when he was six. But lots of children hate losing.”
“Yes.”
“I keep trying to build a murderer backward.”
Claire felt the sentence enter her.
Eleanor looked at her.
“I can’t.”
“Maybe don’t.”
“Then what do I do with him?”
Claire did not know.
So she did not answer.
That was the beginning of a different relationship between them.
Not reconciliation.
Not forgiveness.
Something less graceful.
They exchanged occasional messages.
Eleanor asked about court dates.
Claire sometimes answered.
Once Eleanor sent a photograph of a rosebush Claire had planted at her house years earlier.
Still alive, she wrote.
Claire stared at the message for ten minutes before replying.
It needs pruning.
Eleanor responded:
So do most things.
Claire almost deleted the conversation.
Instead she wrote:
Not everything grows back better.
Eleanor did not answer for two days.
Then:
I know.
Peter Lang became a complicated witness.
He had suspected financial misconduct but had delayed reporting it because he feared losing his job.
During an interview with prosecutors, he admitted Daniel had pressured him months earlier to classify several questionable expenses differently.
Lang refused.
But he also stayed silent.
Claire met him once in a courthouse hallway.
He looked smaller than she expected.
Thin.
Gray suit.
Coffee stain near one cuff.
He recognized her.
“Mrs. Whitmore.”
“Claire.”
He nodded.
“I’m sorry.”
She almost kept walking.
Instead she stopped.
“For what part?”
Lang blinked.
Claire instantly regretted the question.
He deserved some things.
Not all things.
He rubbed his palm over the top of his coffee cup.
“I should’ve reported him earlier.”
“Yes.”
He flinched.
Claire added, “But you didn’t hire Voss.”
“No.”
“I’m trying to get better at assigning the right amount of blame.”
Lang gave a tired smile.
“How’s that going?”
“Terribly.”
They stood in silence.
Then he said, “He was afraid of you.”
Claire looked at him.
“Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He thought you saw through him.”
Claire almost laughed.
“I didn’t.”
“He thought you did.”
That was worse.
Lang continued.
“He once told me you could tell when he was lying because you watched his left hand.”
Claire frowned.
“I never said that.”
“He believed it.”
Claire remembered arguments.
Daniel placing his left hand in his pocket.
Holding a glass.
Adjusting a cuff.
She had never consciously watched it.
Maybe he had created surveillance in his own marriage before hiring someone else to do it.
“What did his left hand do?” Lang asked.
“I have no idea.”
Lang nodded.
“Maybe that was the problem.”
The criminal case did not move quickly.
There were hearings.
Motions.
Arguments over admissibility.
Challenges to Voss’s credibility.
Challenges to digital evidence.
Daniel’s defense emphasized that Voss had incentives to shift blame.
They argued the watch proved contact between Daniel and Voss, not murder.
They argued surveillance had begun as private security work.
They argued Daniel’s financial misconduct, if proven, was separate from violence.
They argued Claire’s interpretations of overheard conversations were shaped by trauma.
Some arguments were infuriating.
Some were legally ordinary.
Miriam taught Claire the distinction.
“A defense attorney doing the job aggressively is not the same as somebody calling you a liar personally.”
“It feels personal.”
“I know.”
“I hate when you say that.”
“I know.”
Claire returned to work part-time in October.
Her first morning, everyone pretended not to stare at her wrists.
Her editor, Gail, hugged her without asking.
Then immediately said, “We have a terrible piece on luxury condos that needs fixing.”
Claire nearly cried with gratitude.
The article was indeed terrible.
She spent three hours arguing with a writer about whether a forty-story glass tower could reasonably be described as “humble.”
For the first time in months, anger felt normal.
At lunch, a coworker named Ethan sat across from her.
He opened yogurt.
Closed it.
Opened it again.
Claire waited.
Finally he said, “Can I ask something?”
“No.”
He nodded.
“Fair.”
They ate.
Two minutes later Claire said, “Ask.”
Ethan looked embarrassed.
“Are you okay with people bringing up Daniel?”
“No.”
“Okay.”
“But I’m also not okay with everyone acting like he never existed.”
“Okay.”
“I don’t know what I want.”
“That’s helpful.”
She smiled.
He stirred the yogurt.
Then said, “My ex-wife stole my dog.”
Claire stared at him.
“What?”
“When we separated. She took Winston.”
“I’m sorry.”
“She was allowed. Technically he was hers.”
Claire began laughing.
Ethan looked offended.
“I was devastated.”
“I believe you.”
“You’re laughing.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s good.”
For the rest of lunch he told her about a beagle named Winston who had apparently possessed the emotional importance of a minor European monarch.
Claire listened.
Ordinary grief.
Ordinary betrayal.
It helped.
By winter, Daniel’s public life had collapsed.
May you like
He resigned from the company before the board could remove him.
News reports covered the criminal charges and financial investigation.
