Before Nine

Chapter 40

Before Nine

Lily was still on the swing when they pulled up on the gravel.

She saw the car and jumped off before Grace could stop her and came running across the grass in her socks with Mr. Bear bouncing under her arm. Judith got out and caught her before she reached the gravel.

“You came back,” Lily said into her neck.

“I said I would,” Judith said.

Lily pulled back and looked at her face the way she always did. Checking. Making sure everything was where it was supposed to be.

“Are you okay Mummy.”

“Yes,” Judith said. “I am okay.”

Lily looked at her for one more second. Then she wriggled down and ran to Dan who had come around the side of the car. He caught her and lifted her up and she grabbed his face with both hands.

“Did you do the big thing,” she asked.

“We did the big thing,” Dan said.

“Was it scary.”

“A little bit,” he said honestly.

Lily nodded like that was the correct answer. Then she saw Ethan coming around the other side of the car and reached out one arm toward him without letting go of Dan with the other.

Ethan looked at the outstretched arm.

He came over and took her hand and she held both of them at the same time, one on each side of her, completely satisfied with the arrangement.

Grace appeared in the doorway. “Come inside. I have food ready.”

They ate around the kitchen table.

Grace had made a simple dinner. Nothing complicated. Just food that was warm and filling and asked nothing of anyone. Lily talked through most of it, telling them about the garden and the apple tree and a bird she had seen that she was fairly certain was the biggest bird in the world.

Nobody talked about Whitmore.

Nobody talked about nine o’clock.

They just ate and listened to Lily and let the kitchen be warm and ordinary for a little while.

After dinner Grace took Lily upstairs to get her ready for bed. Lily made Judith promise twice that she would come up to say goodnight before she went anywhere.

Judith promised.

The kitchen was quieter without her.

Dan poured three cups of tea and put them on the table and sat down. Ethan was already there with his phone in his hand. He had a message from Robert.

He read it out loud.

“Robert says be careful. He says Whitmore does not invite people to conversations unless he believes he still has something to gain from them. He says whatever the man offers tonight, do not agree to anything in the room. Hear it and leave.”

“Good advice,” Dan said.

“Yes,” Ethan agreed.

Judith wrapped both hands around her cup. “What do you think he has.”

“Names,” Ethan said. “People who were on that road that night who have not come up anywhere yet. He said Robert only knows what Gerald told him. Gerald did not know the full picture.” He put his phone down. “Whitmore is the only person alive who knows all of it.”

“So he is using it as a card,” Dan said.

“Yes,” Ethan said. “He wants to trade.”

“Trade what for what,” Judith said.

“Our silence most likely,” Ethan said. “Or at least our cooperation. He wants to control how far this investigation goes. He will offer us the full truth about Gerald in exchange for us pulling back.”

“And if we say no,” Dan said.

“Then he buries it,” Ethan said. “Whatever he knows about that night goes with him and we never get it officially.”

The kitchen was quiet.

Judith looked at the table. She thought about her father. About what Robert had said at the press conference. About the road and the rain and the truck that came from nowhere.

She thought about sitting in that room tonight across from the man who knew what really happened.

“We are not pulling back,” she said.

“No,” Ethan said. “We are not.”

“But we hear him out,” Dan said.

“We hear him out,” Ethan agreed. “And then we walk away with whatever he gives us and we use it.”

Dan looked at him. “He will not give us anything useful if he thinks we are going to use it against him.”

“I know,” Ethan said. “So we do not let him think that.”

Dan was quiet for a moment. Then he nodded slowly. “You want us to let him believe we are open to the deal.”

“Long enough to hear everything he has to say,” Ethan said. “Yes.”

Judith looked at Ethan across the table. “And you are comfortable doing that.”

Ethan looked back at her. “I am comfortable doing whatever it takes to get the truth about your father out into the open,” he said simply. “Yes.”

She held his gaze for a moment.

Then she looked away.

At half past seven she went upstairs to Lily.

Lily was already in bed with Mr. Bear under one arm and her drawing book open on the covers. She had drawn something that appeared to be the garden. Green lines for grass. A brown line for the tree. A small circle on a string for the swing.

“Is that the garden,” Judith asked, sitting on the edge of the bed.

“Yes,” Lily said. “I am going to show Grandma when she comes.”

“She will love it,” Judith said.

Lily put the book down and looked at her. “Are you going out again tonight.”

“For a little while,” Judith said. “Grace will be here. And you will be asleep.”

“What time will you be back.”

“Before you wake up,” Judith said.

Lily thought about this. “Promise.”

“Promise,” Judith said.

Lily reached out and patted her hand twice the way a small child does when they are trying to be reassuring. “It is okay Mummy,” she said. “You can go. I will look after Mr. Bear.”

Judith looked at her daughter’s face.

This small brave person who had been through more in her three years than most children ever would be and still woke up every morning ready to find a swing or a yellow flower or the biggest bird in the world.

She leaned forward and kissed her forehead.

“I love you,” she said.

“I love you more,” Lily said. Already closing her eyes.

Judith sat there until her breathing went slow and even.

Then she got up quietly and went back downstairs.

Ethan and Dan were both in their coats.

Elena was by the door with her own coat on. She had insisted on coming. Not into the meeting but to the building. To wait outside and know exactly where they were.

Robert had been told. His lawyer had been told. Sarah Okafor had been told.

If they were not out by ten thirty Elena was to call Robert immediately.

Judith picked up her coat from the back of the chair and put it on.

Grace appeared from the sitting room. “I will be here all night,” she said. “She will not be alone for a second.”

“Thank you Grace,” Judith said.

Grace nodded and went back in.

Judith looked at the kitchen one more time. The cups on the table. Lily’s drawing book on the counter where she had left it earlier. The garden dark outside the window.

Then she turned and walked to the front door.

“Ready,” Ethan said.

“Ready,” she said.

They walked out into the night.