Chương 3
Emily said, “Why?”
“Because right now it may be evidence.”
Laura’s head snapped toward him.
“Evidence of what?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“That belongs to me.”
“You can tell me that inside.”
“I don’t consent to you taking my property.”
O’Connell looked at her.
“You handed me a driver’s license under the name Laura Mercer. I have a law-enforcement return indicating a woman who appears to be you was reported missing under another name and later declared legally dead. Your daughter just produced a photograph connected to the missing-child information that came over my radio. I’m not going to stand in a storm and debate chain of custody with you.”
Daniel stared at Laura.
“You know what chain of custody means?”
She looked at him.
He had asked the question softly.
That hurt more.
“Everyone knows what it means.”
“No, not everyone reacts to it that fast.”
“Oh, for God’s sake.”
“There. That.”
“What?”
“You’re annoyed.”
Laura stared at him.
“You’re standing here and you’re annoyed because I noticed something.”
“I’m terrified.”
“So am I.”
Daniel looked down toward the Polaroid now in O’Connell’s hand.
“But apparently I’m the only one who doesn’t know why.”
Laura’s shoulders lowered.
For a moment she looked older than forty.
Then a snowplow groaned somewhere above the checkpoint, metal scraping against packed ice, and everyone turned instinctively toward the sound.
O’Connell used the interruption.
“Inside. All of you.”
The security lodge smelled of coffee, wet wool, and the faint pine cleaner expensive properties used to make functional rooms seem less functional.
A guard named Luis cleared the reception counter and pulled a folding privacy divider across the glass wall. It did not cover everything. Through the uncovered corners, Daniel could still see people watching.
One woman whispered to another.
Daniel turned his back on them.
Emily sat in a chair near a vending machine. She kept rubbing the spot on her hand where Laura had hit her.
Laura noticed.
Twice she seemed about to say something.
Twice she stopped.
O’Connell placed the red envelope and Polaroid on the counter beside the printed missing-person record. He removed his campaign hat and shook melting snow from the brim.
“Phones on the counter, please.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Why?”
“I’d rather nobody make calls until I understand whether there’s an active safety issue.”
“You can take hers.”
Laura shot him a look.
Daniel met it.
O’Connell said, “I’m asking, not ordering. Yet.”
Daniel set his phone down.
Emily did the same.
Laura held hers a moment longer.
O’Connell waited.
She placed it beside Daniel’s.
His screen lit with a message from the resort.
WELCOME, MERCER FAMILY. DUE TO WEATHER CONDITIONS—
Daniel turned it facedown.
“Start,” he said.
Laura remained standing.
“Daniel, I need you to let me speak to him first.”
“No.”
“Please.”
“No.”
“There are things—”
“Don’t say there are things.”
Laura stopped.
He stepped closer.
“I don’t want categories. I don’t want one of your calm little sentences that means there’s a whole room behind it. Was your name Rebecca Hale?”
Silence.
“Laura.”
Her eyes moved toward Emily.
Daniel noticed.
“Don’t look at her. Look at me.”
Emily said, “Dad.”
He stopped.
The word had escaped her automatically.
Now all three of them seemed to hear it differently.
Emily looked down.
Daniel’s anger disappeared for a second.
“Sorry,” he said.
She rubbed her thumb over the red mark on her hand.
“Are you?”
He looked at her.
“I don’t know what I am.”
“That makes two of us.”
Laura sat down.
Her knees had begun to tremble.
Daniel saw it.
He hated that he still wanted to help her.
He hated himself a little for hating it.
O’Connell pulled another chair away from the wall and sat opposite them.
“All right. Here’s what I know, and I want everyone to understand that what I know is incomplete.”
Laura looked at him sharply.
“Don’t say the name again.”
O’Connell frowned.
“What?”
“The other name.”
“Rebecca Hale?”
Laura’s eyes went immediately toward the lodge windows.
Daniel followed the look.
“Why?”
She said nothing.
O’Connell’s attention sharpened.
“Is somebody looking for you?”
Laura’s mouth tightened.
“Not if they think I’m dead.”
No one spoke.
Even the guard behind the desk stopped pretending not to listen.
O’Connell leaned forward.
“Is this person a current threat?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then how do you know the danger depends on you being dead?”
Laura looked toward her phone.
“I don’t.”
Daniel let out a breath.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
“I said I don’t know.”
“For eighteen years?”
“I thought it was over.”
“What was over?”
Laura’s eyes closed.
Daniel slapped his palm against the counter.
Emily jumped.
He immediately lowered his hand.
“Sorry.”
He stepped away.
“I’m sorry.”
Laura whispered, “This is why I didn’t want to do this here.”
Daniel turned.
“Do what? Tell me my life?”
O’Connell held up a hand.
“Let’s slow down.”
Daniel’s head snapped toward him.
“Don’t tell me to slow down.”
“I’m not asking you to feel differently. I’m asking you not to make it harder for your daughter.”
That reached him.
Daniel looked at Emily.
She was sitting with her arms folded tightly across herself, staring at nothing.
He sat beside her.
Not too close.
He had done that since she was thirteen. When Emily was upset, she hated being touched without warning. Daniel had learned to sit nearby until she made the first move.
After a few seconds, her shoulder touched his.
Barely.
It nearly broke him.
O’Connell looked at Laura.
“Were you born Rebecca Hale?”
Laura’s gaze remained fixed on Emily and Daniel.
“Yes.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
O’Connell continued.
“Is Laura Mercer your legal name?”
A long pause.
“It is now.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“I know.”
“Did you legally change it?”
“Eventually.”
Daniel turned.
“Eventually?”
Laura looked at him.
He gave a small nod as if confirming something for himself.
“That’s a bad word.”
“What?”
“Eventually. That means when I married you, it wasn’t.”
May you like
Laura did not answer.
Daniel stood again.
