Probably all three at different times. Probably. She looked at her tea. Daniel knew. He spent six years knowing what probably happened to Evan and he carried it and he kept documenting and he kept building the case and he never told me.
Her jaw tightened. I understand why. I understand all the reasons why. And it still breaks my heart that he was alone with it. I didn't try to fix that.
Some things don't get fixed. They just get acknowledged. He wasn't entirely alone. I said after a moment. He had the notebook.
He had the storage unit. He had the work. That's not the same as having a person to talk to. I know, but it's not nothing either. He turned it into something.
He made it matter. She looked at me for a long time. You're very good at this, she said quietly. At what? Saying the true thing instead of the comfortable thing.
At 3:45, Clare's phone rang. She looked at the screen. It's Margaret. She answered it. I watched her face while she listened.
She didn't move. Didn't change expression, just listened and once said yes and once said I understand and then said thank you and put the phone down a third arrest she said I waited the man who made the phone call to you last night they identified him from your description the call duration the timing the cell tower data he's a lawyer he's been representing the LLC structure for 8 years she paused he also represented the family of one of the men who owned a financial stake in the disposal operation. A man who died 4 years ago and left his stake to his son. She looked at the table. Margaret says the son has been cooperating since early this morning.
He inherited the operation without fully understanding what it was. And when he found out, he was the one who started keeping records in the shaft. He was the insurance policy inside the operation. I said he was 24 years old when his father died and left him a legal nightmare he didn't know how to get out of her voice was complicated. He's been living above that drainage channel.
Not literally, but the pressure of it for 4 years he came forward. He came forward. She picked up her mug. Set it down. There are going to be a lot of people in this county who feel very differently about that than I do.
How do you feel about it? She thought for a moment. I feel like a 24year-old kid who inherited something terrible and spent four years trying to find a way out of it deserves something different than the men who built it and the men who protected it for a decade. She looked at me. But I also know that Evan is still dead and Daniel is still dead.