Chapter 9: What Jana Kept
Jana Reeves drove three hours from Sacramento on a Thursday morning and arrived at Patricia's office with a manila folder and red eyes and the kind of controlled fury that comes from months of helpless worry finally finding somewhere to go.
She was thirty-four, small, with short dark hair and the handshake of someone who had decided on the drive down exactly how this meeting was going to go.
She sat across from Patricia and put the folder on the desk.
"There are twenty-three messages," she said.
"Sent from Mara's number.
I have the originals on my phone and printed copies here.
The timestamps don't match Mara's writing style and three of them reference things Mara would never say — including one that tells me she's decided to convert to Cole's family's religion and won't be attending any more events that conflict with their schedule." Jana's voice was flat and precise.
"Mara is not religious.
She's never been religious.
Cole knew that.
He just didn't know I knew that."
Patricia opened the folder.
She read in silence for two minutes.
"These are excellent," she said.
"I know." Jana looked at Mara.
"I should have come sooner.
I should have pushed harder."
"You couldn't have known—" Mara started.
"I knew something was wrong.
I just didn't want to make it worse by pushing." Jana's jaw tightened.
"I won't make that mistake again."
Patricia set the folder down.
"I want to talk to you about what testifying would involve."
"I'll do whatever you need," Jana said.
"I'll fly back.
I'll take time off work.
I've already told my supervisor it may be necessary."
"Have you spoken to anyone else about this?
Any mutual friends who may have received similar messages?"
Jana looked at Mara.
"There's also Diane.
And possibly your old colleague from the school — Priya."
Mara blinked.
"He messaged Priya?"
"Priya told me six months ago that she'd gotten a strange message from you saying you were taking a break from all your old friendships to focus on the marriage.
She thought it was odd but didn't want to intrude." Jana's voice was careful.
"I think he worked through your contacts systematically."
The room was very quiet.
Mara sat back in her chair.
"He went through my entire phone," she said slowly.
"Everyone I might have called."
"It appears so," Patricia said.
"Which means we may have more witnesses than we realized.
Each person who received a message from your number that you didn't send is a potential piece of corroborating evidence." She made a note.
"I'd like a list of everyone in your contacts who might have received something unusual.
Can you do that?"
"Yes," Mara said.
Her voice had gone somewhere careful and internal, the way it did when she was working something out.
"Good." Patricia turned a page.
"Now.
Cole's attorney filed a motion yesterday to have the protective order reviewed on the grounds that Cole poses no credible threat.
They've submitted a character statement from his employer and two letters from colleagues." She looked up.
"Garrett Holloway is one of them."
Jana made a short sound.
"What?" I asked.
"Garrett Holloway was at a dinner party at their house eight months ago," Jana said.
"I was there.
Cole had too much to drink and said something to Mara in the kitchen — I was standing in the doorway, he didn't see me.
He grabbed her wrist and said—" she stopped.
"He said if she embarrassed him in front of his friends again, she'd be sorry."
"Did Mara react?"
"She said 'of course not, sweetheart' and handed him a fresh drink." Jana looked at her hands.
"I didn't say anything.
I've regretted it every day since."
"You're saying it now," Patricia said.
"That's what matters." She wrote something on her legal pad.
"I'll want a formal statement from you about that incident.
Date, location, exact words as best you recall, who was present."
"I can have it to you today."
Patricia nodded and looked at all three of us.
"Here is where we stand," she said.
"We have medical documentation.
We have photographic evidence.
We have a pattern of impersonation across multiple contacts — potentially a dozen or more witnesses.
We have a firsthand account of a threatening incident with a corroborating witness.
We have a psychiatric report commissioned in secret two months into the marriage, which speaks to premeditation rather than legitimate concern." She paused.
"Cole's attorney is good.
But Cole has been building a case against his own wife since before the ink was dry on the marriage certificate.
And he did it assuming she had no one in her corner who knew how to fight back."
She looked at me.
"He was wrong about that," she said.
That afternoon, while Patricia's team began drafting the response to the protective order motion, I drove Jana to Mara's house.
The three of us sat in the kitchen and went through Mara's contact list name by name.
By the end of the afternoon, they had identified nine people who had received messages from Mara's number that Mara had never sent.
Nine people who had quietly stepped back from her life, thinking she had chosen to disappear.
Nine people who, when Mara reached out to explain, said some version of the same thing:
*I knew something was wrong.
I just didn't know what to do.*
Mara called them one by one.
I sat at the kitchen table and listened to her voice move from careful to steadier to something that sounded, by the seventh call, almost like herself.
Jana made tea and didn't say much.
She just stayed.
That was enough.
By evening, six of the nine had agreed to provide statements.
Three more said they needed to think about it but would likely say yes.
Mara set her phone down after the last call and looked at the ceiling.
"He thought he was isolating me," she said.
"He was," Jana said.
"But he was also creating a list of witnesses." Mara looked at us.
"Every person he pushed away — he left a record."
Outside, the streetlights came on one by one.
"Patricia's going to want to know about all of them," I said.
May you like
"I know." Mara picked up her phone again.
"I'll call her now."
