Chapter 7
The gesture made my stomach tighten. He was invoking a dead man who could no longer object.
Afterward, Marjorie opened the messages on her own phone.
At 10:12 that night, she had sent her sister a photograph of Reed balancing two vending-machine coffees against a paper bag. He had been trying to make her laugh while they waited for the final discharge instructions.
The original photograph remained on her phone. The conversation showed her sister answering two minutes later.
Marjorie also offered to obtain the relevant portions of her own hospital records. Reed would request documentation of the discharge arrangements he had signed.
The medical center was almost an hour from the hotel.
"Avery's video was supposedly taken shortly after ten," I said.
"According to Avery," Wendy answered. "We need the hotel's records."
The hotel kept ninety days of corridor footage under a retention policy Marjorie had approved two years earlier. An outside technician was coming to retrieve the relevant period without altering it.
While we waited, Wendy played the file Avery had provided for the dinner. It was short, cropped tightly, and strangely careful about the man's face.
Marjorie asked her to pause it when Avery touched his arm.
"Go back two seconds."
The man's wrist turned toward the camera.
Marjorie stood so abruptly that her chair rolled backward.
"What is it?" Reed asked.
She pointed to the rectangular watch with its dark leather strap.
"Your father wore that for thirty-two years. I gave it to Grant after the funeral."
Reed stared at the screen.
"A watch can be borrowed," I said, because I could not bear another assumption passing for certainty.
"Yes," Marjorie answered. "Which is why we're going to find the man wearing it."
PART 4 — THE MAN WEARING MY GROOM'S COAT
The technician arrived at eleven carrying a laptop and a case of equipment.
Linnea Park, the company's attorney, arrived ten minutes later. She asked Marjorie to keep the investigation confined to relevant records and to avoid giving anyone access they did not already have authority to grant.
I liked her immediately. She was interested in what could be established, not in producing a satisfying scene.
The first corridor view showed an empty elevator lobby, a housekeeping cart, and a guest looking for the ice machine.
Then a man entered from the service passage.
He wore the navy jacket from Avery's video.
He turned toward the elevator before walking down the corridor, and the camera caught his face beneath the ceiling light.