Chapter 6: What Harpe Filed
Patricia was reading when I arrived.
She was standing at her desk — she rarely sat when she was working through something — with the document in one hand and her reading glasses pushed up into her hair.
I set the notebook on her desk in its sealed envelope.
She didn't reach for it yet.
"Sit down," she said.
I sat.
"Douglas Harpe filed a motion this morning.
Emergency custody application." She set the document down and looked at me over her glasses.
"Serena is claiming that you removed Ethan from a safe home environment without cause, that you've made false allegations to hospital staff, and that you are coaching a vulnerable undocumented worker to fabricate evidence against her."
I didn't say anything.
"She's also claiming," Patricia continued, "that Ethan's injury occurred while in Lily's care.
Not hers."
The room was very quiet.
"She's flipping it," I said.
"She's flipping it." Patricia picked up the envelope.
"Which is why this needs to be authenticated today.
I'm sending it to a forensic document examiner this afternoon — ink dating, paper analysis, the works.
If those entries are as old as they appear, we'll have proof the notebook wasn't fabricated after the fact."
"It wasn't."
"I know it wasn't.
But knowing and proving are different rooms." She set the envelope aside.
"There's more.
Harpe's motion includes a character statement from Serena's mother, a letter from their family physician stating that Ethan has been in good health at all recent checkups, and—" she paused, "—an affidavit from a woman named Greta Simms, who describes herself as a neighbor, stating that she has observed Lily behaving erratically with Ethan on multiple occasions."
"I've never heard that name."
"Neither had I.
I ran it this morning.
Greta Simms is the sister of Serena's college roommate." Patricia looked at me steadily.
"She lives in Phoenix."
"She's never been to our street."
"No.
But she's signed a legal document saying she has." Patricia let that sit for a moment.
"That's perjury, Victor.
If we can prove she was never there, Harpe's entire filing starts to unravel — and Harpe himself has a problem."
I thought of the text message.
*A mutual resolution that avoids unnecessary legal proceedings.*
"He knew what was in that affidavit when he sent me that text," I said.
"Almost certainly."
"He was trying to get me to settle before I found out."
Patricia didn't answer.
She didn't need to.
I leaned forward.
"What about Mrs.
Hargrove?
The neighbor Lily mentioned."
"I've already sent someone to speak with her this morning." Patricia finally sat down.
"Victor, I want to be honest with you.
Serena's team moved fast.
They have resources and they have a strategy.
This is going to get worse before it gets better." She folded her hands on the desk.
"But they made a mistake."
"What mistake?"
"They invented a witness.
And invented witnesses can be disproven." She picked up her pen.
"When a fabricated witness falls apart in a legal proceeding, it doesn't just damage that piece of evidence.
It damages everything attached to it.
The judge starts looking at the whole filing differently."
I sat back.
"How long?" I asked.
"The emergency hearing is in four days." She looked at me.
"We have four days to take Greta Simms apart."
My phone buzzed in my pocket.
A text from Lily: *She's here.
May you like
Serena is outside the house.
She's knocking on the door.*
