Chapter 4: Paper and Names text
The investigation collected names faster once Clara’s attorney opened the civil file to the detectives.
Threats that had lived in screenshots became exhibits. A contractor Evan had argued with. A man who believed Clara’s company still owed money from a deal Evan had signed during the marriage. The pickup matched a vehicle registered to a cousin of that man. None of it made the bound woman in the office less real. All of it made the locked door less mysterious.
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Liam was located on schedule at Evan’s, unharmed, and transferred through the lawyers into a temporary safety arrangement while statements were taken. Evan denied any knowledge of the break-in or the victim. Detectives did not ask me to believe him. They asked me for timelines, the noon watering visit, the truck I had failed to note carefully, Jesse’s call, the sound.
I gave them everything twice. Clara gave them more. She slept, when she slept, on my sofa with the porch light left on and the new lock checked each time she rose. I did not tell her that the gutters could wait. She already knew which jobs had stopped mattering.
