28. Erik
ERIK
Iend the call and put the phone back in my pocket. "Have the team preserve everything here. Peter can oversee the site while we get Rowan's timeline from Harper."
Makari looks across the gravel toward the access road before answering.
"I want tire impressions before anyone moves a vehicle, every camera on the property copied, and the service road photographed end to end.
" He turns toward the conference center and signals one of the secondary operators closer.
"Nobody cleans up anything, including the blood. "
Peter meets us inside, already pulling gloves from a box one of the operators found behind the reception desk. I give him the instructions while Makari speaks to the secondary team. Peter nods toward the damaged sedan outside. "I'll keep the site locked down and start with the cameras. Go."
We leave him with four men and take one of the replacement vehicles. Another operator drives, which leaves Makari free to work from the passenger seat while we head back toward Ashford. He alternates between the bracelet data and road cameras, but there are too many gaps to construct a route yet.
I call Rowan again from the back seat. Her voicemail picks up after several rings, and I disconnect before the recording finishes. There is still nothing I can say into a phone that matters more than finding her.
Harper has her apartment door open before we reach the top of the stairs.
Her kitchen looks as if Rowan stepped out during an ordinary afternoon and might come back complaining about the coffee.
A half-finished mug sits on the table beside Harper's laptop and two casebooks.
A yellow legal pad lies between them with PREGNANCY written across the top in large letters.
I stop in the doorway.
Harper follows my attention and flips the pad facedown without explaining it. Whatever the word means, it belonged to a conversation Rowan was having before somebody sent that photograph. I want to turn the pad over, but Rowan is missing, and the explanation can wait.
"I put everything in order." Harper moves back to the table and wakes the laptop. "Messages, calls, screenshots, and both location updates. I wrote down the sequence after she left because I knew the live share might disappear."
Makari takes the chair beside her and opens his own computer. I stay on the opposite side of the table while Harper brings up Rowan's call history.
"Callie's phone sent the message at six-forty-three. Rowan called Callie twice, then Laura. She tried the event number from the memorial invitation after that. Then she called you twice and Makari once."
The order is exactly what I would expect from Rowan. She didn't see an anonymous threat and obey it. She tested every piece she could reach.
"Did she believe Laura was at the conference center?"
Harper's irritation appears immediately. "No. She believed the purse was real. She said the rest proved nothing, and she was taking Vitaly and Anton to look. She specifically told me she wasn't walking into the building because somebody sent her a photograph and ordered her to."
Makari looks up from his screen. "What changed between that decision and her leaving?"
Harper brings up the notes she made after Rowan left. "Evelyn called. She said she'd followed Laura's car out of the memorial dinner after a valet brought it around without Laura inside. A man Evelyn didn't recognize was driving. She followed him to the conference center."
I picture Laura's open car door outside the building and the purse placed where Rowan could see it from the entrance. "Evelyn was at the memorial?"
"She organized it." Harper scrolls farther down her notes.
"She told Rowan she could see Laura's car, three men near the building, and another vehicle behind the east wing.
She also claimed she'd called campus police and state police.
Rowan told her to stay in her car with the doors locked and wait for them. "
"Did Evelyn send anything to support what she was telling her? A photograph, her location, a license plate?"
"No. Rowan had the picture from Callie's phone and Evelyn's call." Harper turns the laptop toward me. "That was the corroboration."
The original message gave Rowan something frightening but unverified. Evelyn supplied an independent witness who claimed to have watched Laura's car travel from one location to the other. More important, she was a witness Rowan already trusted.
I drag the chair beside me out far enough to sit. "Where are Laura and Callie now?"
"Still at the memorial dinner." Harper picks up her phone and opens another call record. "I reached Callie through one of the alumni staff members twenty-three minutes ago. Laura is with her, and neither of them ever left."
Makari stops typing and turns toward Harper.
"Their phones were collected when the memorial program began," she continues. "Callie said guests were asked to put them in numbered envelopes near the entrance. They didn't know anybody had used her phone."
I lean back in the chair. "Who arranged the phone collection?"
Harper's face changes before she answers. "Evelyn."
That isn't proof of anything by itself. A memorial dinner without ringing phones is reasonable. Evelyn being present at an event she organized is reasonable too. The problem is that each reasonable detail fits the trap better than the last one.
I take out my phone and call Richard. He answers on the second ring, sounding distracted until I ask about the memorial.
"Yes, Evelyn organized most of it. The alumni office handled the venue and catering, but she chose the program."
"Was collecting phones her idea?"
There is a pause on his end, followed by the rustle of paper. "I believe so. She said Jeremy deserved an hour without interruptions and suggested numbered envelopes so nothing could be misplaced." His voice sharpens. "Why are you asking me this?"
"I'll call you back."
I disconnect and set the phone beside Harper's laptop.
Makari has stopped working on the bracelet trace. "We verify before we assign meaning to it."
"Yes." Yesterday I accused Rowan of treating Harper differently because she loved her. I'm not going to prove her point by deciding Evelyn is guilty because several facts suddenly look ugly.
Harper remembers the same argument. She watches me across the table but doesn't bring it up.
"What exactly did Evelyn say about the police?"
Harper checks her notes. "She said campus police wouldn't move because she couldn't establish Laura was inside the conference center. Then she said state police told her to remain in her car and wait for a unit."
Makari takes out his phone. "Those calls are verifiable. I'll check both agencies and start pulling traffic cameras between the memorial venue and the conference center."
He moves toward the living room to make the calls, leaving Harper and me at the kitchen table. Rowan's coffee is still there, cold now, and the facedown legal pad sits close enough that I could reach it without standing.
Harper follows my attention but leaves the pad alone. "Rowan trusted Evelyn."
"I know."
"She didn't trust her instead of checking the evidence." Harper shifts the laptop aside and rests her forearms on the table. "Evelyn was the check. Rowan had four semesters of reasons to believe her when she said she had personally watched Laura's car leave without Laura."
That distinction matters. Rowan called everyone she should have called.
She took two protection operators, sent Makari the address, gave Harper her live location, set a deadline, and activated the bracelet.
Whoever designed the trap didn't rely on Rowan being reckless.
They built it around the way she investigates a claim before she believes it.
I look at the turned-over legal pad again. "Evelyn taught her that."
"She taught Rowan not to confuse fear with evidence." Harper gives a short, humorless laugh. "Apparently somebody knew exactly what evidence Rowan would accept."
Makari comes back several minutes later. His expression tells me the calls gave him something before he reaches the table.
"Campus police have no record of contact from Evelyn Grant tonight. No call connected to Laura Bennett, the memorial venue, or the conference center either. State police have nothing under her name or any of those locations during the relevant period."
Harper pushes away from the table and stands. "Could she have used another phone?"
"Yes." Makari closes one of the open windows on his laptop. "She could also have spoken to somebody whose report isn't indexed yet, though both agencies say that is unlikely. I'm checking traffic cameras and requesting dispatch audio."
I study Harper's timeline again. Evelyn claimed two police contacts that currently don't exist, but that still doesn't tell me whether she designed the trap, helped someone else execute it, or lied for a reason we haven't found.
"We need to know where she actually was."
Harper crosses her arms. "You think she lied to Rowan."
"I think her account doesn't match anything we can verify yet." I stand and push the chair back into place. "Nobody contacts Evelyn until Makari finishes checking. We don't warn her if she's involved, and we don't accuse her if she isn't."
Makari nods. "That's the right call."
Harper studies both of us, then reaches for her coat. "I'm coming with you."
Makari turns toward her. "You stay here."
She pauses with one arm already in her coat and gives him a look.
He corrects himself before she can start. "You ride in the protected vehicle. If the route changes, you follow the operator's instructions without arguing about whether the change is necessary."
Harper finishes putting on her coat. "That's better."
Under any other circumstances, Rowan would enjoy watching Makari negotiate with Harper. I can hear the comment she would make from across the room, probably something about his survival instincts improving.
The thought hurts enough that I turn toward the door before either of them sees it.