“I think you might be right,” Camila said to Hannah. “About Prosper changing his name, I mean. It makes sense.”
“Do we have any pictures of him?” Hannah asked. “In the files? If we track him down, but he’s going by a different name, how are we going to know it’s him?”
“There’s the yearbook Camila found. But he was eighteen in that.
Maybe there’s something more recent in the case file,” Sean said.
“I’m not sure.” He looked back over his shoulder toward the office.
“I’l go back in and have a look now, and then—do you need to go to your place to pick up some stuff, Hannah? I can fol ow you there if you like? That is . . . I thought I’d drive, if you’re okay with that. I figured you might like a break . . .”
Hannah shrugged. “Sure. My car’s here, in the parking lot. I have an overnight bag in the trunk that I packed when Camila and I thought we were going to stay in Yorktown. I can bring that, just in case. Otherwise, I’m good to go. But I’l wait here for you, if that’s al right. I’l take a minute and just check in on my mom.”
Camila left. Sean went back into the law school building in search of the photograph. Hannah retrieved her bag from the trunk of her car and telephoned her mother. Laura answered the cal on the first ring.
“Hannah.”
Shit. Laura’s voice was a rasp. She’d obviously been crying, which meant she’d been drinking. It took only Hannah’s name, said in precisely that way, for Hannah to understand what kind of state her mother was in.
“Oh, Mom.”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. But you didn’t cal me. You said you would and then you didn’t.”
It would be useless to protest that she had cal ed, just later than planned. “It’s okay. Please, it’s okay. Where are you? Are you home?”
“Yes.”
“That’s good. Did you see Jan today? Did you go to your meeting?”
“I saw Jan. I can’t stop thinking about you out there. About the risks you’re taking. So then I . . . I’m sorry, Hannah.”
Laura didn’t drive. She’d lost her license a few years back and since then Hannah was the only one who drove the car. So how had she gotten her hands on alcohol? Jan wouldn’t have bought it for her. Laura must have had a stash somewhere. Damnit. Damn. That felt like such a betrayal. Or no. More likely she’d just cal ed a cab and had it drive her to the liquor store. Laura couldn’t help the drinking. She’d been through so much that had stripped her raw, torn away al of her defenses, and now sometimes the world was just too much for her. Alcohol was the anesthetic she chose to numb the pain. Hannah understood al that but sometimes it was hard.
Sometimes she felt let down or hurt or just overwhelmed. That wasn’t okay. That was taking Laura’s trauma and making it al about herself. She needed to be stronger than that.
“You know you can’t drink anymore, right? You have to stop now or you wil hurt yourself.”
“I’m sorry.” Laura was crying harder now.
Hannah drew a breath. “Do you need me to come home?”
“I . . . I don’t know . . .”
Hannah closed her eyes for a second. “The most important thing is that you’re okay. Al of this . . . none of it is worth doing if you’re going to be hurt by it.” The whole point of everything was to help Laura. To heal her.
“I’m al right.” Laura’s tone was stronger.
“Are you sure?”
There was a moment’s silence and then Laura spoke again and she sounded stronger, more together. “Do you feel like what you’re doing is making a difference?”
“Yes. Yes, I definitely do.” She lowered her voice. “Dandridge’s defense is weaker than I expected. I think what I’m doing is keeping everyone off balance. And there’l be other opportunities. I’m just getting started.”
“I wish you didn’t feel like you have to do this. I’m worried about the risks you’re taking. If you get caught, if they find out that you’ve been lying . . . they won’t al ow you to graduate. You could lose everything you’ve worked for. But I understand why you’re doing it.
And . . . I. . . .” Laura let her voice trail off and she was silent for a long moment before she spoke again. “Maybe it would make a difference if I could believe he’d final y paid the price for what he did.”
Hannah felt a flood of emotion that left her almost giddy— surprise and hope, combined with a fierce need not to let her mother down. “I’m going to cal Jan. She’l come over again and help, if you’l let her. I’l ask her to stay with you for the rest of the day, okay?”