Chapter 15 - Daniel's Missing Night

Daniel didn't raise his voice. “I was at college that night. In Boston.”

Arthur stared at the lease record. “I know that's what you told the police.”

“Because it was true.”

Eleanor looked as though she'd aged ten years in one morning. The date on the lease was the date my mother died. Daniel had a scholarship banquet on campus, photographs with the dean, and a dormitory key log. Tessa checked all three. He couldn't have been driving the sedan on the bridge.

The vehicle, however, had been registered for his use under Arthur's family account. Someone had borrowed his identity to conceal the driver.

“Who else had the keys?” Ortiz asked.

Arthur looked away. “Richard's assistant sometimes handled transportation.”

“Julian Cross was only eighteen,” Priya said. “He wasn't working for you yet.”

Eleanor spoke at last. “I remember that evening. Richard said his daughter was sick, and he needed Arthur's car because his own driver was unavailable.”

“Why didn't you tell anyone?” I asked.

“Because I didn't know about the accident until the next morning. And afterward Richard told us he'd returned the car before dinner.”

Investigators compared toll records and found a charge timestamped shortly before the crash. The sedan had crossed toward the bridge. A traffic camera photograph showed a driver wearing a dark coat. The face was unclear.

Daniel drove me back to the bookstore. We barely spoke. At the curb he said, “If my father knew, even for one day, I don't know how to forgive him.”

“Maybe you don't have to decide that today.”

He nodded. “You deserve to know what happened. Even if the answer ruins what's left of us.”

I wasn't sure there was an us. There was guilt, history, and a strange growing respect. But respect was real, and that was more than I'd expected from anyone wearing a wedding tuxedo.

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Then Rebecca opened the bookstore door holding a courier envelope. Inside was a certified copy of a birth record the court had released to Priya.

The name in the mother field was Rebecca Lane. The child had a different name at birth: Elizabeth Mara Lane.