Chương 4
“I buy breakfast for someone who knows the producer.”
“No.”
“Daniel.”
“No calls to the press. No favors. No pressure.”
Marcus lowered his voice. “They’re going to put your history around her neck.”
“I know.”
“They’ll say she was buying drugs. They’ll say she was unstable. They’ll say this was family business. You know how this works.”
“I said no.”
Marcus looked through the glass at Lily. “You call me in the middle of the night, ask me to find the fourth person, and then tie both hands behind my back.”
“I asked you to find a name.”
“The name exists inside a world. The world has lawyers.”
“Then work around them.”
Marcus gave a humorless laugh. “There he is.”
Daniel’s grip tightened around the coffee cup. The lid bent beneath his thumb.
Marcus noticed. He had always noticed Daniel’s hands.
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll keep it clean.”
“Clean enough to survive court.”
“Now you sound like Claire.”
Daniel did not answer.
Marcus touched his shoulder once before leaving. Daniel allowed it, though he wanted the weight gone.
At six, Dr. Park told him Lily would be moved to surgery preparation within the hour. The detective returned soon after, this time without coffee.
Alvarez looked at Marcus’s untouched sandwich on the chair. “Your operations director came by.”
“He brought breakfast.”
“And surveillance photographs.”
Daniel met her gaze.
She held out her hand. “Phone.”
“No.”
“Mr. Walker.”
“Get a warrant.”
“Or you can show me what he sent and save us both time.”
“The last time you saved time, my face was on television before sunrise.”
“I didn’t leak your name.”
“I didn’t say you did.”
“You thought it.”
“I thought someone did.”
Alvarez’s eyes narrowed. “The Cole family’s attorney issued a statement at five twelve. He said Ethan attended a university fundraiser and left before any alleged assault occurred. Hale’s representative issued one six minutes later. Whitmore’s family says Tyler was injured breaking up a fight.”
“His shirt had blood on it.”
Alvarez became still. “Show me.”
Daniel unlocked the phone and held it where she could see without handing it over.
She examined the images. “Where did these come from?”
“Ask Marcus.”
“I am asking you.”
“I don’t know.”
“That is the problem.”
“It’s also the truth.”
Alvarez copied the address beneath the photographs. “Send these to me.”
“I’ll have counsel transfer them with source information.”
“Your daughter is going into surgery, and you’re already lawyering up?”
“My daughter is going into surgery, and three families hired lawyers before dawn.”
That stopped her.
Daniel sent the images directly instead.
Alvarez’s phone chimed. She checked them, then looked toward Lily. “We found the liquor-store owner. His camera shows a dark SUV stopping behind Harker Print at 10:31. No visible plate. Driver stays inside. Someone in a hood pulls your daughter from the rear passenger door.”
“One person?”
“One visible.”
“Build?”
“Average. Could be male or female.”
“The sweatshirt?”
“Already around her.”
“Then whoever dropped her didn’t do all of it.”
“Probably not.”
“Four attackers and a driver?”
“We do not know that four people attacked her.”
Daniel looked at Lily through the glass. “She knows.”
“She said six words after major trauma.”
“Five.”
Alvarez frowned.
“Dad. There were four.”
The detective looked away first. “We need to understand what four means.”
“It means one more than the names on the paper.”
“It could mean four people at the party. Four men following her. Four cars. Four drinks. Four anything.”
“Do you believe that?”
“My belief doesn’t go into an affidavit.”
Before Daniel could answer, Lily moved beneath the blanket. The monitor quickened.
Dr. Park entered from the nurses’ station and leaned over her. Lily’s eyes opened wider than before, searching until they found Daniel.
He went inside.
Lily’s mouth moved.
“No,” he said. “Don’t speak.”
Her fingers lifted from the blanket and made a small motion.
Daniel bent closer. “What?”
She repeated it. Two taps against the blanket, a pause, then one.
Dr. Park brought a laminated communication board from a drawer. Letters, common words, pain numbers, yes and no.
“We use this with patients who can’t speak,” she said. “Keep questions simple. Let her choose whether to answer.”
Daniel held the board within Lily’s line of sight.
“Do you want to tell us something?”
Her eyes moved to YES.
He pointed to rows of letters, one at a time. She blinked when he reached M.
“M,” Daniel said.
Her eyes closed briefly.
“A name starting with M?”
YES.
“Was M one of the four?”
YES.
Alvarez stepped into the bay but remained near the door.
Daniel moved through the alphabet again.
Lily chose A.
Then S.
Then—
Her breathing changed. The monitor chirped.
Dr. Park took the board. “Enough.”
“M-A-S,” Daniel said. “Mason?”
Lily’s fingers tightened around the blanket.
Dr. Park touched Daniel’s shoulder. “Stop.”
He stopped.
Lily’s eyes opened again, wet and furious. She looked past him toward the door.
Marcus stood on the other side of the glass.
He had returned without Daniel hearing him.
For one moment, Marcus and Lily looked directly at each other.
Then Marcus lowered his eyes.
Daniel turned slowly.
Marcus lifted one hand, holding up his phone as though that explained why he was there. “I found something.”
Daniel stepped into the corridor and pulled the glass door closed behind him.
“What?” he asked.
Marcus glanced toward Alvarez. “Private.”
“Say it.”
“Daniel.”
“Say it here.”
Marcus looked at the detective, then back at Daniel. “There’s a Mason on the guest list. Mason Reed. Junior. Political science.”
Alvarez opened her notebook. “Address?”
“Dorm housing. West Campus.”
“Photo?”
“I sent it to Daniel.”
Daniel checked his phone. A photograph had arrived of a thin, red-haired young man in a university rowing jacket.
He held it up to the glass.
Inside the room, Lily saw the face.
Her eyes moved to NO.
Marcus watched her response.
Daniel watched Marcus.
“Mason Reed isn’t the one,” Daniel said.
“Maybe she’s confused,” Marcus replied.
May you like
“She isn’t.”
“She’s sedated.”
