“Ellen.
I am truly sorry.”
I walked to the door.
Ava followed.
I didn’t tell him it was all right.
It wasn’t all right.
But I didn’t say that either.
We got back in the car.
I sat for a moment with the envelope on my lap.
“What now?” Ava asked.
I started the engine.
“Now we go see a lawyer,” I said.
The lawyer’s name was Patricia Hale.
She had been recommended by my sister three years ago for a property matter I’d never ended up needing her for.
I had kept her card.
She saw us the same afternoon, cleared a cancellation, and listened without interrupting for forty-five minutes.
When I finished, she looked at the photograph, the note, and Marcus’s written record.
She read each one twice.
“This is enough to reopen the investigation,” she said.
“The photograph places Daniel at the wheel.
