Chapter 7 - A Father Behind Bars
Colin Ward met Maya through thick glass at the county detention center. Daniel watched from an adjoining room with permission from Colin's lawyer.
Colin looked exhausted, with a healing cut above one eyebrow.
"I didn't put that money in my account," he said. "Vanessa told the bank my wife had approved the transfer. My wife had been dead eleven days."
"Why were you at Daniel's house?" Maya asked.
Colin closed his eyes. "I wasn't."
Colin's grandmother had been a school librarian, and he'd grown up thinking paperwork was the boring part of life that kept things in order. He now collected copies of everything: court dates, visitor requests, bank statements, notes from Ben's teacher. He folded each page neatly before passing it to his lawyer. In the detention center he had learned that anger was costly. If he shouted, people wrote that he was disruptive. If he cried, they asked whether he was stable enough to parent. He practiced speaking in plain sentences because he needed someone to hear the facts rather than his desperation. When Daniel's name was mentioned, Colin had expected another rich stranger who would protect himself. Finding out Daniel had jumped into the water to save Nora changed something.
"Vanessa received calls from a number registered to you."
"My old number. I lost that phone when I was arrested. She knows that."
Daniel felt anger rise. "Nora said your son is missing."
Colin's face changed. "Ben isn't missing according to the state. They say he's in temporary protective care. His grandmother isn't allowed to visit because somebody filed a report against her."
"Who filed it?"
"Anonymous. But the details came from Vanessa."
Maya placed a still image from Lily's video on the table. The man's black shoes had a narrow white stripe around each sole.
Colin leaned close. "Those are staff shoes from the Harbor House care agency. They give them to transport workers."
"Would you recognize the man?"
"Maybe. But the person you should find is Evelyn Shaw. She managed the agency's finances. She kept records."
"Where is she?"
"She called my lawyer yesterday and said she was ready to testify. This morning she stopped answering."
Maya's phone vibrated before Colin finished.
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A patrol officer had found Evelyn's car abandoned beside a reservoir.
Her purse was on the passenger seat, her keys still in the ignition.
