Chương 6
Lily whispered, “Why is she here?”
Daniel had explained death to his daughter before she understood what permanence meant.
Now he had to explain the failure of permanence.
He could not.
Not yet.
“This is Claire,” he said.
Claire’s face tightened at the use of her first name.
Lily looked at her.
“That was Mommy’s name.”
“Yes.”
“Is she Mommy?”
Daniel heard the brakes engage more firmly.
The train entered the station beneath hard white platform lights.
He crouched beside Lily.
“I don’t know everything yet.”
This was not enough.
He knew it.
But it was true.
“We’re going to talk to some people who can help us understand.”
Lily studied his face.
“Did she hit you?”
Daniel touched his cheek.
“I’m okay.”
Lily frowned at Claire.
“You shouldn’t hit people.”
Claire nodded.
“You’re right.”
“Say sorry.”
Daniel nearly laughed.
Claire looked at him.
“I’m sorry I hit you.”
He did not answer.
Lily seemed dissatisfied but sleepy enough to accept temporary failure.
The train stopped.
Rachel opened the carriage door.
Cold air entered immediately.
Two uniformed transit officers stepped aboard.
Everything after that became slower than Daniel expected.
There was no dramatic arrest.
No handcuffs.
No immediate declaration that Claire was or was not who she claimed to be.
The officers asked names, separated them, checked identification, called supervisors, and repeatedly said that identity questions involving a person legally recorded as deceased were not something transit police could resolve on a platform at eleven o’clock at night.
Claire handed over a driver’s license with the name Anna Reed.
One officer stared at it.
“You’ve been living under this identity for four years?”
Claire said, “Yes.”
“Is it yours?”
“No.”
Daniel looked away.
The officer’s expression changed.
Claire clarified quickly.
“It isn’t a stolen identity. I built it from false documents.”
“That’s not better.”
“No.”
The second officer asked Daniel whether Claire had threatened him.
Daniel said no.
“Assaulted you?”
“Yes.”
Claire closed her eyes.
The officer looked at Daniel’s cheek.
“Do you want to make a complaint?”
Daniel looked at Lily.
She had fallen asleep again with her head against Rachel’s arm.
Rachel had somehow become the safest person in the world simply by being uninvolved.
Daniel said, “I want this documented.”
Claire nodded once.
The officer wrote it down.
The train could not remain stopped indefinitely.
After several phone calls, the decision was made that Claire would leave the train at Marlow Junction and be taken to the county sheriff’s office until her identity and outstanding legal issues could be sorted out.
Daniel was asked whether he wanted to continue with Lily.
He looked at Claire.
She looked terrified.
Not of jail.
Of the train leaving.
Daniel understood that expression too.
He hated that he understood anything about her.
“Can I speak to her for one minute?”
The officer hesitated, then nodded.
Daniel stepped onto the platform.
Snow had gathered in thin lines along the concrete.
The cold felt clean after the warm carriage.
Claire stood a few feet away with an officer beside her.
Daniel kept his voice low.
“Is Ross Merrick alive?”
Claire shook her head.
“He died in October.”
“How?”
“Heart attack.”
Daniel watched her.
“You came back because he died.”
“Partly.”
“What’s the other part?”
Claire looked through the train window at Lily.
“I saw Leah’s post about this trip.”
Daniel frowned.
“Leah’s account is private.”
“She accepted a follow request from me two years ago.”
“Under Anna?”
“Yes.”
Daniel’s anger returned so quickly it surprised him.
“You watched us.”
Claire flinched.
“Sometimes.”
“You watched Lily grow up through social media.”
“Yes.”
“And that was enough?”
“No.”
“Apparently it was.”
“No.”
“Then why tonight?”
Claire rubbed her hands together against the cold.
“I kept telling myself there would be a right moment.”
“There wasn’t.”
“No.”
“So you made one.”
“Yes.”
“By ambushing me on a train.”
“Yes.”
“And hitting me.”
Claire looked miserable.
“That part wasn’t planned.”
Daniel almost said something cruel.
He was getting good at finding cruel things.
Instead he looked at the tracks.
The officer shifted his weight behind Claire.
Daniel said, “When did Ross stop threatening you?”
Claire did not answer.
Daniel looked up.
“When?”
“About seven months after the crash.”
Something inside Daniel became very still.
“He stopped?”
“Yes.”
“And you stayed dead another three years.”
Claire’s face emptied.
There it was.
The truth beneath the truth.
Daniel stepped backward.
Claire moved toward him.
The officer raised a hand.
She stopped.
“Daniel, I was scared.”
“No.”
“I didn’t know how to come back.”
“You knew how to book a train cabin.”
“I know.”
“You knew how to follow my sister.”
“I know.”
“You knew where Jenna’s mother lived.”
Claire looked down.
Daniel’s voice cracked for the first time.
“You just didn’t know how to come home.”
Claire began to cry then, though silently.
Daniel felt no satisfaction.
A conductor called from the doorway.
They had to leave.
Daniel looked at Claire one last time.
“There’s something you need to understand before you decide what story you tell the police.”
She lifted her face.
“You do not get to disappear again.”
Claire nodded.
“Not for me.”
He pointed toward the window.
“For her.”
Lily slept against Rachel’s shoulder.
Daniel continued.
“And not for you.”
Claire’s brow tightened.
“For Jenna Morales.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Daniel stepped back onto the train.
The doors shut between them.
For the next twenty minutes, Lily slept while Daniel sat beside her and stared at nothing.
Rachel brought him coffee without asking.
He drank half of it and then forgot it existed.
The train moved north again.
Snow blurred outside the windows.
At 11:42, Leah called.
Daniel answered quietly.
“Where is she?”
“Sheriff’s office.”
“You let them take her?”
“I didn’t let anybody do anything.”
“You know what I mean.”
“No, Leah, tonight I really don’t.”
His sister went silent.
Daniel regretted the sharpness almost immediately.
He rubbed his forehead.
“Sorry.”
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel.”
“Neither do I.”
May you like
“I’m happy.”
Daniel stared at the dark glass.
