Chapter 6: The Woman Who Already Knew
His brother's name was Paul.
Paul arrived forty minutes later with a duffel bag and no questions, which was exactly what Daniel had asked for.
He was four years older, broader across the shoulders, and had a way of standing in a doorway that made the room feel accounted for.
Daniel met him on the porch.
"Lily's inside," Daniel said quietly.
"I need someone with her while I deal with this."
"Done." Paul looked at him.
"How bad?"
Daniel held up the two bottles.
Paul looked at them for a long moment.
"Have you called the police?"
"Not yet.
I want to know what's in these first.
And I want to know who else is involved before I make that call."
"You think someone helped her?"
"I think Marcus Hale took a phone call he shouldn't have and looked at Nora in a way that had history behind it." Daniel put the bottles in a zip-lock bag from the kitchen.
"I think this didn't start last night."
Paul took the bag.
"I know someone at the hospital lab.
Off the books, tonight.
You'll have a result by morning."
"I need the chain of custody clean enough to use."
"I know." Paul pocketed the bag.
"Go deal with your wife."
Daniel went back inside.
He climbed the stairs.
The bedroom door was closed.
He knocked once and opened it.
Nora was sitting on the edge of the bed.
Her phone was face-down on the pillow beside her.
A small overnight bag sat open on the floor, half-packed.
"Who were you calling?" Daniel asked.
"My sister."
"Try again."
Nora looked at him.
"My attorney."
"You don't have an attorney."
"I do now." She stood and zipped the bag.
"His name is Raymond Goss.
He told me not to say anything else to you tonight."
Daniel recognized the name.
Raymond Goss was not a family attorney.
He handled high-asset divorces and, before that, had spent twelve years in criminal defense.
"You hired a criminal defense attorney," Daniel said.
"I hired an attorney." Nora picked up her bag.
"Raymond says the bottle proves nothing without a lab result.
And he says that without a formal police report, you have no legal basis to remove me from this home."
"I'm not removing you.
I'm asking you to leave."
"And I'm declining." She set the bag back down on the floor.
"Raymond says I should stay in the marital home until there is a court order telling me otherwise."
She sat back down on the edge of the bed.
"So here I am," she said.
Daniel looked at her for a long moment.
Then he turned and walked back downstairs without a word.
He found Paul in the living room, sitting beside Lily, who had fallen asleep against his arm.
"She's staying," Daniel said quietly.
Paul looked up.
"Then we stay too."
Daniel nodded.
He sat in the armchair across from them.
The house was quiet except for Lily's slow breathing.
His phone buzzed.
A text from an unknown number.
*You should know she wasn't working alone.
Call me.
— K*
Daniel stared at the message.
He didn't know anyone who went by K.
May you like
But Nora, at the top of the stairs where Daniel couldn't see her, was reading the same message on her own phone.
And she was not surprised.
