The Murder Rule(40)
“I’m so sorry, Rob. I don’t understand . . .”
He held up a hand. “We don’t have time for this, Marianne. Just see what you can do about getting to the bottom of what went wrong, okay? And from now on the Dandridge files stay off the main system.”
Marianne swal owed. She looked like she was close to tears, but she left the room with purpose in her step and her head held high.
Parekh seemed to realize in the same moment that Hannah, Sean, and Camila were stil sitting there, frozen.
“Let’s go, people,” Parekh said, irritated, and they hurried out of his office.
“MAN, I CAN’T BELIEVE IT. IT’S NOT LIKE MARIANNE TO SCREW
UP like that,” Sean said, once they were out of the office and walking down the corridor.
Camila was frowning. “You’re assuming it was Marianne. It might have been Jim. Just because he went in there shouting the loudest doesn’t mean it wasn’t him.”
“Right,” said Sean.
“Or maybe it wasn’t anyone. Maybe it was just a glitch.” Camila’s frown deepened. “If it was a glitch, it’s not going to be isolated to one case. I’d better go and check my stuff. As if I didn’t have enough to do today.” She sighed. “Do you have anything you want me to look at for you, Sean? If you’re going to be on the road today?”
He shook his head. “I’l bring my laptop, check it tonight. But thank you. That’s a nice offer.”
“Do you think they’l get permission to file late? In the Dandridge case, I mean,” Hannah asked.
Camila shrugged. “Who knows? I guess we don’t have any friends in Yorktown right now. There’s a lot of politics with this case.
But Rob Parekh is pretty smart. Maybe he can find a way to put pressure on the judge.”
They were quiet for a moment before Sean spoke again.
“Do you mind, Camila? Not going to North Carolina, I mean. It was your lead. Yours and Hannah’s.”
She shook her head. “Not real y. Taking another day or couple of days would be hard right now. I just wish Parekh wouldn’t cal us girls. It’s patronizing.”
“I’m not sure he means it the way it sounds,” Sean said. Camila cast him a look, and he held his hands up. “Okay, okay.”
“I think you might be right,” Camila said to Hannah. “About Prosper changing his name, I mean. It makes sense.”
“Do we have any pictures of him?” Hannah asked. “In the files? If we track him down, but he’s going by a different name, how are we going to know it’s him?”
“There’s the yearbook Camila found. But he was eighteen in that.
Maybe there’s something more recent in the case file,” Sean said.
“I’m not sure.” He looked back over his shoulder toward the office.
“I’l go back in and have a look now, and then—do you need to go to your place to pick up some stuff, Hannah? I can fol ow you there if you like? That is . . . I thought I’d drive, if you’re okay with that. I figured you might like a break . . .”
Hannah shrugged. “Sure. My car’s here, in the parking lot. I have an overnight bag in the trunk that I packed when Camila and I thought we were going to stay in Yorktown. I can bring that, just in case. Otherwise, I’m good to go. But I’l wait here for you, if that’s al right. I’l take a minute and just check in on my mom.”
Camila left. Sean went back into the law school building in search of the photograph. Hannah retrieved her bag from the trunk of her car and telephoned her mother. Laura answered the cal on the first ring.
“Hannah.”
Shit. Laura’s voice was a rasp. She’d obviously been crying, which meant she’d been drinking. It took only Hannah’s name, said in precisely that way, for Hannah to understand what kind of state her mother was in.
“Oh, Mom.”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. But you didn’t cal me. You said you would and then you didn’t.”
It would be useless to protest that she had cal ed, just later than planned. “It’s okay. Please, it’s okay. Where are you? Are you home?”
“Yes.”
“That’s good. Did you see Jan today? Did you go to your meeting?”
“I saw Jan. I can’t stop thinking about you out there. About the risks you’re taking. So then I . . . I’m sorry, Hannah.”
Laura didn’t drive. She’d lost her license a few years back and since then Hannah was the only one who drove the car. So how had she gotten her hands on alcohol? Jan wouldn’t have bought it for her. Laura must have had a stash somewhere. Damnit. Damn. That felt like such a betrayal. Or no. More likely she’d just cal ed a cab and had it drive her to the liquor store. Laura couldn’t help the drinking. She’d been through so much that had stripped her raw, torn away al of her defenses, and now sometimes the world was just too much for her. Alcohol was the anesthetic she chose to numb the pain. Hannah understood al that but sometimes it was hard.
Sometimes she felt let down or hurt or just overwhelmed. That wasn’t okay. That was taking Laura’s trauma and making it al about herself. She needed to be stronger than that.
“You know you can’t drink anymore, right? You have to stop now or you wil hurt yourself.”