By sunrise a black sedan had parked across from Mara's apartment. Its driver remained inside, reading a newspaper that never turned a page. Mara noticed the car while packing Caleb's lunch. She shut the blinds and called the hospital where Ward had been taken. A nurse confirmed he was stable but refused to discuss visitors.
Mara asked her neighbor Mrs. Bell to walk Caleb to school. Instead, Caleb insisted on going with his mother. He said he'd seen the sedan before, three nights earlier, parked near the playground. Mara had dismissed his first account as imagination. Now she felt the walls of their small apartment closing in.
At the hospital, a detective named Adrian Pike intercepted them outside the intensive care wing. His tailored suit and calm voice seemed inappropriate beside the crowded emergency department. He introduced himself as an investigator assigned to Ward's assault. Then he asked for the scarf. Caleb said it was on Ward. Pike smiled without warmth and replied that evidence needed to be collected. Mara asked for a written receipt. The smile vanished.
They were allowed five minutes at Ward's bedside. The officer's face was bruised, but he recognized Caleb at once. Before Pike could enter, Ward held up a bandaged finger and pointed to the back of his watch. Mara looked closer. A tiny scratch marked two letters: DB.
"Blue book," she murmured.
Ward's eyes filled. "He got it out," he whispered. "Daniel got the names out."
Outside Ward's hospital room, a cleaning attendant quietly told Mara that someone had tried to enter after visiting hours without signing the log. The attendant remembered a polished shoe and a briefcase rather than a face. Mara gave the information to Brooks later instead of confronting the stranger. At the hospital entrance, Caleb noticed a family carrying balloons toward the maternity wing. It seemed absurd that the building could contain births, good news, and attempted intimidation at the same time. Mara held his hand longer than usual as they crossed the parking lot, careful not to let him see how hard she was shaking.
A nurse stopped Mara at the exit to ask whether she had someone to call. Mara said she did.
She knew the next answer might hurt. Time passed.
A monitor sounded. A nurse ordered everyone into the hallway while staff adjusted Ward's medication. Pike appeared at Mara's shoulder and told her to stop asking questions connected to the old case. Mara finally understood that this was not a hospital visit interrupted by an inconvenient investigation. It was the same investigation, still alive after ten years. As Caleb took her hand, Ward called through the half-open door: "Ask why the evidence room burned twice."