Chapter 7 - The Man in the Parking Lot
I met Eleanor at a fundraiser six months after Grace died.
That was the story I had told people.
A chance meeting near the coat check. A dropped program. A woman who made me laugh for the first time in weeks.
Now I sat in Mara’s office and wondered how many details of that evening had been arranged.
Martin provided copies of Grace’s complaint and correspondence with the agency.
Eleanor had lost her job after an internal review.
Grace had refused to pay her.
There had been threats, but Grace was sick, the agency wanted the matter contained, and no criminal case had followed.
“None of this excuses keeping it from you,” Mara said. “But we need to separate what we know from what we suspect.”
“What we know is that she married me after trying to blackmail my dying wife.”
“Yes.”
Hearing it spoken plainly made me grip the edge of the chair.
Martin had contacted Daniel through the address in his file.
Daniel agreed to meet.
I found him the next morning in the parking lot outside Mara’s office, standing beside an old pickup.
He was twenty-five, tall, with Grace’s dark eyes and a nervous habit of rubbing his thumb against his palm.
For a second, looking at him hurt too much.
“You’re Richard?”
I nodded.
“I didn’t know whether you’d come,” he said.
“I didn’t know you existed.”
His face tightened.
“Yeah. I figured.”
We went inside.
Daniel had brought a folder and a small photograph of Grace taken during their first meeting.
“She talked about Lily the whole time,” he said. “Showed me pictures. Told me she was obsessed with ladybugs.”
“She still is.”
He smiled, then looked down.
“I wasn’t trying to take anything.”
“I know.”
“I have parents. Good ones. I just wanted to know her.”
He pushed the folder toward Mara.
“After she died, that woman contacted me.”
“Eleanor?”
He nodded.
“She said Richard knew about me. Said he wanted me to stay away.”
My stomach turned.
Daniel opened the folder.
Inside was a printed email with my name at the bottom.
Don’t contact my family again.
“I didn’t send that,” I said.
Daniel studied my face.
Then he reached into the folder again.
May you like
“There’s something else you didn’t send.”
He handed me a photograph of Lily leaving school.
