Chapter 10
I brought the pages to Collins.
She read them twice.
Then she called Agent Voss.
Within an hour, federal jurisdiction expanded.
Trust fraud.
Money laundering.
Judicial corruption.
Possible homicide review.
The word homicide landed like a stone in my chest.
Anna’s car accident had been investigated and closed in four days.
Rain.
Brake failure.
Bad luck.
I had accepted it because I was drowning in grief and holding a six-year-old who kept asking when Mommy was coming home.
Now I sat in a federal conference room while strangers reopened the worst day of my life.
Mara Voss placed a file in front of me.
“We pulled the old accident photos.”
I stared at the folder.
“I don’t know if I can.”
“You don’t have to.”
I thought of Lily in the hospital.
Anna hiding pages in a dollhouse.
Evelyn saying, She survived.
“Yes,” I said. “I do.”
The photos were clinical.
Cold.
They showed Anna’s car against a guardrail.
Wet pavement.
Crushed metal.
Then Mara pointed to a close-up of the brake line.
“The original report called this wear.”
“And now?”
“We have an expert saying it may have been cut.”
The room went silent.
My ears rang.
Michael.
Evelyn.
Sloane.
Any of them.
All of them.
I stood and walked to the corner because the floor felt unsteady.
Collins waited.
No one filled the silence with pity.
Good.
Pity would have broken me.
Finally, I turned back.
“What do you need?”
Mara’s eyes softened.
“Permission to exhume certain evidence from storage, not Anna. Her vehicle parts are preserved.”
“Granted.”
“Also, Daniel, this may take time.”
I almost laughed.
“Everything that matters does.”
When I returned to Lily’s room, she was awake.
Rebecca sat beside her painting her nails pale pink.
Lily smiled weakly.
“Dad, Aunt Becca says Uncle Michael is an idiot.”
Rebecca coughed.
“I said emotionally bankrupt idiot.”
For the first time since the ER, I laughed.
Then Lily asked, “Did you find Mommy’s pages?”
My smile faded.
“Yes.”
“Did they help?”
May you like
I kissed her forehead.
“They might help Mommy too.”
