CHAPTER 61
EVAN PINE
BEFORE
“I’m tired, Daddy,” Tommy said.
It was only six o’clock, but Evan supposed it had been a long day. The sun and heat—all the walking—took it out of you. Tommy looked flushed, and hadn’t finished the dinner Evan had made him when Liv and Maggie went out for a long walk. It wasn’t like him to leave any mac and cheese behind. Liv constantly forced bottled water on them all, so he didn’t think Tommy was dehydrated. The half-empty bottle was next to Tommy’s plate.
Evan put his hand on his son’s forehead. A little warm. Probably nothing to worry about, but ever since the appendix scare, Evan never took routine symptoms for granted. Tonight, though, it seemed like simple fatigue. Hell, Evan could curl up and go to bed right now himself.
“Let’s get you to bed, kiddo,” Evan said. Tommy was already nod ding off right at the table. Evan carried him to his room. He dug out Tommy’s pj’s from the suitcase, then lowered him to the bed.
“Arms up,” Evan said.
His son lifted his arms, which were noodles. Evan tugged off Tommy’s shirt. He gently slipped the pajama top over Tommy’s head.
Tommy flopped on his back and Evan repeated the maneuver with the bottoms. Evan tucked him under the covers, positioned Sweet Bear next to him.
Evan gazed at his son. The rise and fall of his tiny chest. His handsome face. He kissed him on the head and clicked off the light.
Back in the living room, Liv and Maggie had returned from their walk. They seemed somber, subdued.
“Everything okay?”
Liv looked at Maggie. “Yeah. We’re just tired—right, Mags?”
His daughter gave Liv an admiring look. Like they shared a secret and it was just for them. “Yeah, just tired,” Maggie said.
“There’s some mac and cheese or leftover spaghetti,” Evan said. “Or I can make you something?”
“I’m not hungry,” Liv said. “Too much food on this vacation.” She retrieved a bottle of water from the refrigerator and took a drink.
“Maybe later,” Maggie said. She also took a bottle of water, then went to the bedroom.
Alone with Liv, Evan said, “You sure everything’s okay?”
Liv nodded. “We can talk about it more later, but she’s okay, I promise.”
Evan wondered if Maggie had told her about the reason for the trip. Their futile investigation. The couple who’d tricked Evan into coming to Tulum. That would explain the mood.
He needed to swallow his medicine and tell Liv himself. He needed to be honest with his wife, otherwise the magic of this trip wouldn’t be real.
“I have something to tell you,” he said.
Liv sat next to him at the dining table.
He took a long gulp of water, stalling, thinking how he’d explain. “I haven’t been totally honest with you about the trip.”
“When you said we could afford it? Yeah, I kinda figured.”
“No, not that.” He told her about the call from Charlotte, or at least the person pretending to be Charlotte. About Maggie tracking the phone. About the couple who had set him up. He felt foolish. He braced himself to tell her the rest—about his job, about their finances, about him taking the pills.
Before he could do so, Liv said, “Well, I have something to tell you too.”
Evan tilted his head to the side.
His wife went to the bedroom and came out with a thin file folder. She handed it to him.
“Ron Sampson’s wife gave this to me when I was in Nebraska. Her husband told her the file proved Danny was innocent.”
“Why didn’t you—” Evan stopped himself. It didn’t matter.
“I knew we were here because of Danny,” Liv said. “I didn’t know what exactly you and Mags were up to, but I knew. And I’m sorry I didn’t give you the file earlier. We were having such a good time, you guys didn’t seem completely consumed by the case, so I thought it could wait. Sampson’s wife seemed out of her mind, and it looked like just random papers, and I thought there was nothing we could do here anyway, so I—”
“It’s okay,” Evan said softly. He opened the folder, which held three sheets of paper. Examining the first two pages, he said, “It’s blood work. It looks like tests of samples of Charlotte’s blood and Danny’s.” The file assigned numbers to the samples. Charlotte’s 4215, Danny’s 5094.
Evan inspected the third document, realizing it was a page from an evidence log. Why would Sampson have these in his files? Then it hit him. What if Charlotte’s blood work had been switched out with someone else’s? Because the murdered girl wasn’t Charlotte. He caught himself. He was doing it again. And the separate log—a police chain of evidence record—didn’t show anyone having access to Charlotte’s sample. Then Evan realized that it did show someone—Ron Sampson—gaining access to sample 5094, Danny’s blood.