“Sometimes I helped people make better choices.”
Jake considered that explanation.
“Grandpa needs help with that.”
Later, while Christine accompanied Jake for another examination, Daniel placed an old photograph on the table.
It showed him and me outside the lake house. The same image Jake had found in Warren’s drawer.
“Where did you get this?” I asked.
“Christine photographed the file before she left.”
I examined the edges.
Something had been cropped from the version in Warren’s possession. Daniel opened the original image on his phone.
A third person stood behind us near the porch.
Elaine Hale.
I looked from the screen to Daniel.
“You knew her?”
“I met her once,” he said.
“You never told me.”
“I didn’t know she was Christine’s mother. She used another name.”
“What name?”
“Eleanor Mercer.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“Mercer?”
“She came to us two days before Charles Mercer disappeared. She claimed she was his sister. She offered evidence that he was being framed.”
