Chapter 5 - The Attorney’s Message
Officer Ramirez saw the screen light up too.
Grant grabbed the phone before anyone could read the message.
“Private communication,” he said.
Ramirez did not argue. “Keep it. Don’t delete anything.”
Grant gave a short laugh. “You don’t get to tell me what to do with my own phone.”
“Actually, tonight I get to tell you quite a few things.”
Paramedics arrived minutes later.
Claire sat in the back of the ambulance with Noah while a medic examined her lip, cheek, shoulder, and leg. The injuries were not life-threatening, but hearing them described out loud made her feel strangely detached.
Contusion. Swelling. Split lip. Tenderness.
Words that sounded cleaner than what had happened.
Officer Patel photographed the visible injuries with Claire’s permission.
Grant stood on the lawn, talking rapidly to another officer.
Diane had become tearful.
“She attacked him first,” she insisted.
Claire heard it through the open ambulance door.
She looked at Patel. “I didn’t.”
“I know what you told us.”
“He’ll have videos.”
“Of tonight?”
“No. Other nights. Me crying. Me yelling once. Me exhausted.”
Patel crouched slightly so they were eye level.
“People are allowed to cry. People are allowed to be exhausted. That does not explain injuries.”
Claire looked down at Noah.
The baby’s tiny hand had escaped the blanket and curled against her shirt.
A different officer approached Ramirez and said quietly, “We found a screwdriver by the bathroom door and the emergency key on the floor.”
Grant immediately objected. “It’s a bathroom key. Of course we have one.”
Ramirez asked, “Why was it outside the door?”
“To help my wife.”
Claire laughed once, without humor.
Grant looked toward her.
That look contained a promise.
Not here. Not now. Later.
Claire knew it because she had seen it before.
Then Officer Patel’s body camera beeped.
Her radio crackled.
A dispatcher said there was a new development involving the Mason residence.
Ramirez listened, then turned toward Grant.
“Sir, whose car is the silver sedan in the garage?”
“My mother’s.”
Diane’s face changed.
Ramirez continued, “Because the trunk is open.”
Diane moved too fast.
“That’s not relevant.”
“Maybe not.”
The officer paused.
“But there’s a packed suitcase inside with the baby’s birth certificate, his insurance card, and a printed airline itinerary for tomorrow morning.”
Claire stared at Diane.
The older woman stopped crying.
May you like
And Grant said the one thing he should not have said.
“Mom, I told you not to put the documents in the car yet.”
