Chapter 12 - The Lab Receipt
The receipt Serena brought looked damning.
Maya still wanted more.
"A receipt for 'report preparation' doesn't prove they fabricated a paternity result."
Claire stared at her.
"It says genetic consultation."
"That helps."
"It has Margaret's company card."
"That helps more."
"Serena has a recording."
"Also helpful."
Claire frowned.
"What would count as enough?"
Maya closed the file.
"The person who made the document."
They found Dr. Alan Mercer through an old professional directory.
He now operated a private medical consulting office outside Milwaukee.
Maya sent a formal preservation letter.
Then she called.
His assistant said he was unavailable.
Maya called again the next day.
Unavailable.
On the third day, Dr. Mercer called back.
He did not sound surprised.
He sounded tired.
"I was wondering when someone would contact me."
Maya put him on speaker.
Claire sat across the table with Lily sleeping against her chest.
"Did Margaret Hale pay you to create a paternity report?" Maya asked.
There was a long silence.
"I would prefer counsel present."
"That's your right."
Another pause.
"I did not perform a genetic test."
Claire closed her eyes.
Maya's voice stayed even.
"Did you create the report?"
"I prepared a document."
"Based on what data?"
"No genetic data."
Claire tightened her arms around Lily.
Maya asked, "Why?"
Dr. Mercer exhaled.
"Mrs. Hale said she needed a sample format for a family mediation."
"A sample format with Claire Bennett's name and an exclusion result?"
"Yes."
"Did that strike you as unusual?"
"Yes."
"But you did it."
"Yes."
"Did she tell you it would be used as a real laboratory result?"
"No."
Claire spoke for the first time.
"Did you put Northlake's name on it?"
Dr. Mercer went quiet.
"Yes."
"You used the name of a lab you no longer worked for."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I made a serious error."
Claire almost laughed.
"You made four thousand eight hundred dollars."
Maya raised a hand gently.
Claire stopped.
Dr. Mercer said, "I returned the money yesterday."
Maya looked at Claire.
"Why yesterday?"
"Because Mrs. Hale called me."
Claire's pulse jumped.
"What did she say?"
"She told me a lawyer might contact me."
Maya asked, "Did she ask you to lie?"
Another pause.
"She asked me to remember that the document was only illustrative."
Claire's voice sharpened.
"She showed it to my husband as real."
"I understand that now."
"She used it to put a newborn outside in the snow."
"I am aware."
Claire's eyes filled.
She hated that.
She hated crying in front of the man who had helped create the lie.
"You didn't even test us."
"No."
"You just typed a sentence."
"Yes."
"And my husband believed it."
Dr. Mercer did not answer.
Maya asked him to preserve every communication with Margaret.
He agreed.
Before ending the call, he added something.
"There was one thing I found odd."
Claire looked up.
"What?"
"Mrs. Hale did not ask me to invent the report from scratch."
Maya leaned forward.
"What did she give you?"
"A template."
"What kind?"
"An older Northlake report."
"Whose?"
Dr. Mercer hesitated.
"That is the problem."
Claire felt a chill.
"The patient name had been removed."
"Could you see the result?"
"Yes."
"It was also an exclusion result."
"Yes."
Maya asked, "Did Mrs. Hale say where it came from?"
"No."
"Did you keep a copy?"
"I may have the scan."
"Send it to me."
The file arrived twenty minutes later.
Most identifying information had been blacked out before Mercer received it.
But one corner had not been fully covered.
A partial date of birth remained visible.
05/17/19--
Maya zoomed in.
Claire stared.
"What are we looking at?"
Maya was quiet.
"Maybe nothing."
Claire knew that tone.
"What?"
"What's Ethan's date of birth?"
"May seventeenth."
Maya looked at her.
"What year?"
Claire answered.
The last two digits matched the partially visible report.
The room went silent.
Claire frowned.
"Why would Margaret have an old paternity exclusion report connected to Ethan's birthday?"
Maya did not speculate.
She sent the document to a forensic imaging specialist.
Two hours later, the specialist enhanced faint text beneath the black redaction.
The patient's name remained unreadable.
The alleged father field was clearer.
Thomas Hale.
Claire knew that name.
Thomas Hale had been Ethan's father.
He died when Ethan was nineteen.
Maya looked at Claire.
"This may be an old paternity report concerning Ethan."
Claire stared at the screen.
"That's impossible."
"Maybe."
"Margaret spent the last week talking about bloodlines and paternity."
"Yes."
"And she used an old report involving her own son to forge one involving Lily?"
"Possibly."
Claire's mind raced.
"What was the result?"
Maya read it again.
Exclusion.
Thomas Hale could not be the biological father of the tested child.
Claire's mouth went dry.
"Ethan isn't Thomas's son?"
"We do not know that yet."
"Margaret knows."
"Probably."
Claire looked toward the window.
Suddenly Margaret's obsession with biological certainty looked different.
Not weaker.
More dangerous.
The phone rang.
Ethan.
Claire ignored it.
He called again.
Then a text appeared.
I found a copy of the old lab report in Mom's room.
It has my name on it.
A second message followed.
Claire, I need to know what your dad knew about my father.
Then a third.
May you like
Please answer.
Mom is gone.
