Chapter 10 - Judith's Garage
Police surrounded Judith Lane's house before sunset.
Thomas learned about it from Ortiz only after the search had begun because she correctly assumed he would try to go there.
He still tried.
She stopped him in the hospital lobby.
"You are not part of the search team."
"That's my family."
"That's exactly why you're not going."
Thomas pointed toward the doors.
"Nathan's truck is in her garage."
"Which could mean many things."
"Name one innocent thing."
Ortiz gave him a hard look.
"This is why you're staying here."
Thomas paced the lobby for nearly an hour.
Megan was furious when she heard where the truck had been found.
"She helped him," Megan said.
"We don't know how much."
"Stop defending her."
Thomas stared at his wife.
"I'm not defending her."
"You keep saying we don't know."
"Because we don't."
Megan turned away.
"I know my mother."
"Do you?"
The question escaped before Thomas could stop it.
Megan looked at him.
He regretted it immediately.
Then she gave a tired, humorless laugh.
"Apparently not."
Ortiz called at seven-ten.
The search had found Nathan's truck but not Nathan.
The vehicle had been backed into the garage and covered with a tarp.
Its license plates had been removed.
Inside the truck, investigators found a hospital parking receipt from the morning Nathan entered Megan's room.
They also found an empty folder labeled Reed Residential Projects.
Thomas's missing business records were not inside.
Judith claimed Nathan had called her late the previous night saying the truck was having mechanical trouble.
She said he asked permission to leave it in her garage.
"And she just agreed?" Thomas asked.
"That's her statement."
"Did she see him?"
"She says no."
"How did the truck get inside a locked garage?"
"She says Nathan knows the keypad code."
Thomas laughed in disbelief.
"Of course he does."
Ortiz continued.
Police also found several shredded financial statements in Judith's home office.
Most were too damaged to reconstruct immediately.
One visible fragment carried the Harbor Ridge name.
"Is she arrested?"
"Not yet."
Thomas slammed his palm against the wall.
"What does she have to do?"
"Thomas."
"No, seriously."
"My wife names her."
"My son is afraid of her."
"Her house contains Nathan's truck."
"Her office contains shredded evidence."
"What are you waiting for?"
Ortiz lowered her voice.
"I'm waiting for evidence that survives a courtroom."
"You want justice or revenge?"
Thomas said nothing.
"Because if it's justice, you let us build it right."
He hated her question because he was no longer sure of his own answer.
That night, Eli was discharged from intensive monitoring and moved to a regular pediatric room.
Thomas slept in a chair beside him.
At two in the morning, Eli woke from a nightmare.
"Dad."
Thomas sat up immediately.
"I'm here."
Eli stared toward the door.
"Don't let Grandma come in."
"She won't."
"Promise?"
"I promise."
The boy relaxed slightly.
Thomas hesitated.
"Eli, you don't have to talk about the kitchen."
"But if you remember something and want to tell me, I'll listen."
Eli picked at the blanket.
"Grandma was crying."
Thomas stayed quiet.
"When?"
"Before I went upstairs."
"She told Mom she had ruined everything."
Thomas felt his pulse quicken.
"Did Mom say anything?"
"Mom said she was going to tell Grandpa's lawyer."
Thomas frowned.
Megan's father had been dead for six years.
"What lawyer?"
Eli shrugged.
"The old one."
"Then the green man came inside."
Thomas's breath caught.
"You saw him come inside?"
Eli nodded.
"Grandma opened the back door."
"Did you see his face?"
The boy closed his eyes.
"He had glasses."
"Did he talk?"
"He told Grandma she should have listened the first time."
Thomas remembered Nathan's reading glasses, thin black frames he wore only for paperwork.
"What happened next?"
"Grandma told me to go upstairs."
"I came back because I forgot my charger."
"Mom and Grandma were in the kitchen."
"The man was gone."
Eli's voice became quieter.
"Mom said not to drink anything."
"Grandma said Mom was being ridiculous."
"Then Grandma poured me a cup."
Thomas felt sick.
"Did she hand it to you?"
Eli nodded.
"But Mom knocked it out of my hand."
Thomas suddenly remembered the cup on its side near Eli.
"Then how did you drink the lemonade?"
Eli frowned.
"I didn't."
Thomas stared at him.
"Eli, the doctors found the same thing in your system."
The boy looked genuinely confused.
"I didn't drink it."
Thomas called Ortiz immediately.
This detail changed everything again.
If Eli had not swallowed from the cup, his exposure had come from somewhere else.
The hospital toxicologist reviewed the tests.
By dawn, he gave them an answer.
The compound detected in Eli's system did not perfectly match the compound found in the lemonade.
They were related but not identical.
Thomas stared at Ortiz.
"So there were two substances?"
She nodded.
"Which means whatever happened to Eli may have been separate from what happened to Megan."
Thomas felt a new terror settle over him.
The entire investigation had been built around one poisoned pitcher.
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Now it appeared there had been two different acts in the same kitchen.
And one of them had been aimed directly at his son.
