Chapter 7: Richard Bennett Makes His Move
Dana called me the next morning with her voice at a different pitch than usual.
"Your father filed a motion last night," she said.
"He's petitioning to have the hotel footage excluded from the crjminal proceeding on the grounds that the security system's data retention policy wasn't properly disclosed to event guests.
He's also filed a civil complaint against the Whitmore Hotel for unauthorized use of private event recordings."
I sat down.
"Can he do that?"
"He can file it.
Whether it succeeds is another matter.
But it creates delay, and delay is what he wants right now." She paused.
"He also contacted the hospital where Sophie was treated.
He's requesting her medical records under a family medical history provision.
His argument will be that Sophie has a prior history of balance issues that contributed to the injury."
"She doesn't have a history of balance issues."
"I know.
But it takes time to prove a negative, and time is what he's buying." Dana's voice was steady.
"Evelyn, your father is a very good lawyer.
I want you to understand what we're dealing with.
He is not going to let this proceed cleanly."
"What do we do?"
"We move faster than he does." A pause.
"Detective Osei called me this morning.
The DA's office has been reviewing the footage independently.
They're not going to wait for the civil motion to resolve before making a charging decision.
But they need one more thing."
"What?"
"A witness who can place Preston with Nora in that corridor and confirm what was said.
The camera shows the interaction.
It doesn't capture audio." She paused.
"Sophie's account is valuable, but she's eight.
A defense attorney will challenge her recollection.
We need an adult who was in that corridor."
I thought about the wedding.
The guests.
The bridesmaids moving in and out of the side rooms.
The catering staff.
Then I thought about something Sophie had said.
*She had a big envelope.
She kept trying to give it to him.*
Someone had let Nora into that hotel.
Someone had known she was coming.
A woman in a green dress with a legal envelope didn't walk through a wedding reception unnoticed by everyone.
"I think someone helped Nora get in," I said.
Dana was quiet.
"Someone on the inside," I said.
"Someone who wanted Preston to have to face her."
"Do you have anyone in mind?"
I thought about Madison.
About the way she had covered her mouth.
About the way she had looked at Preston during the speeches — not with adoration, but with something more careful.
More watchful.
"I might," I said.
"Give me today."
---
I texted Madison from a number she wouldn't recognize — Dana's office line, which Dana agreed to loan me for the message.
*Madison.
This is Evelyn.
I know this is the last contact you want right now.
I'm not calling to hurt you.
I think you may already be hurting enough.
If you helped Nora get into the hotel, I need you to know that telling the truth now is the only thing that protects you from what Preston's defense will do to you later.
I'm not your enemy.
Call Dana Reeves at the number below.*
I sent it and put the phone down and made Sophie lunch and tried not to watch the clock.
Madison called Dana at 2:47 p.m.
Dana called me at 3:15.
"She let Nora in," Dana said.
"She found out about the child six weeks ago.
She confronted Preston and he denied it.
She hired her own investigator, confirmed the DNA, and contacted Nora directly.
She arranged for Nora to come to the hotel with the court documents because she wanted Preston to have no exit.
She wanted him to have to face it in front of his family."
I thought about that.
A woman arranging the destruction of her own wedding because she had been lied to so completely that she saw no other way to make it real.
"She didn't know he would hjt Sophie," Dana said.
"When that happened, she froze.
She said she didn't know what to do.
She's been in a hotel room since the night of the wedding.
She hasn't spoken to Preston or his family."
"Will she give a statement?"
"She already has," Dana said.
"She went to the precinct this morning before I called you.
She brought the investigator's report, the DNA documentation, and her own written account of the six weeks leading up to the wedding."
I sat with that for a moment.
"Is she okay?" I asked.
Dana paused.
"She said to tell you she's sorry about Sophie."
---
My father called at 6 p.m.
He didn't bother with my mother this time.
"You convinced Madison to go to the police." His courtroom voice was gone.
What was underneath it was colder.
"I didn't convince her of anything," I said.
"I told her the truth was the only thing that would protect her.
She made her own decision."
"She is Preston's wife.
She had no obligation—"
"She had every obligation," I said.
"She knew about his son.
She knew he had been lying to Nora for eighteen months.
She knew he was walking into a marriage built on a concealed child.
She had every obligation."
"Evelyn." A pause.
"I am trying to protect this family."
"You are trying to protect Preston," I said.
"You have always been trying to protect Preston.
You protected him when he failed out of his first year of law school and you called in favors to get him reinstated.
You protected him when he embezzled from his college roommate and you wrote a personal check.
You protected him when he was twenty-six and you made a problem go away that I was never told the details of but that cost you enough that you sold the lake house." I stopped.
"I know more than you think I know, Dad.
I've been watching you protect him my entire life.
I just never understood the cost until it was Sophie's bl00d on my hands."
The line was very quiet.
"The motion to exclude the footage," I said.
"Withdraw it."
"Evelyn—"
"Withdraw it.
Because if you don't, I will give the press every detail I just told you, and I will let them connect the dots about what kind of lawyer spends forty years cleaning up after his son." I paused.
"I don't want to do that.
I want Sophie to have at least one grandfather who chooses her.
But I will do it."
He didn't answer for a long time.
"I'll call my clerk in the morning," he said finally.
The line went dead.
May you like
I set the phone down.
My hands were not shaking this time.
