Jessica recognized Theo’s name immediately.
She remembered Peter helping him learn to swim the summer before Saint Alden.
Theo was shy and afraid of deep water, she said, and Peter had taught him to float by holding one hand under his back.
The detail was small enough that Daniel believed her completely.
He pictured Peter in a shallow lake, speaking quietly to a child who trusted him.
Mara contacted Theo through counsel rather than appearing at his home.
The response arrived three days later: Theo would consider speaking if the request did not become public and if no one promised that his memories would prove a particular theory.
Daniel respected the conditions.
People had treated Theo as a fragment of evidence for too long.
He was a man with a life outside an old case.
Caroline made a different discovery.
A financial ledger from the Alden Futures Trust showed yearly expenditures for an independent claimant-support program long after the settlement.
Payments were routed through a management firm registered in Rhode Island.
She could not tell whether the payments provided legitimate counseling, private assistance, or something improper.
The largest recurring expense was labeled witness coordination.
It began six months after the inquest and ended shortly before Richard’s private dinners.
“They were paying someone for years,” Daniel said.
“That’s what the ledger says,” Caroline replied.
“The question is who got the money and what they did for it.”
Daniel began building a timeline on a large sheet of paper.
He marked the fire, the inquest, the settlement, Jessica’s parcel, her letter, the false dinner, the transfer of the cedar box, and the recent preservation order.
He left space between each event because the gaps were more honest than the certainty Richard offered.
When the sheet became too crowded, he taped another beside it.
Luis walked through the kitchen, studied the dates, and said the wall looked like a detective show.
Daniel said he was trying very hard not to behave like one.
On Sunday Jessica called with a question that surprised him.
She asked whether he wanted her to remain involved in the search for Peter’s records, or whether her presence made everything harder.
Daniel thought about it before answering.
He said she had every right to pursue the truth about her brother, and he would share factual developments through their attorneys.
He would not resume their marriage as the price of cooperation.
Jessica thanked him, and for once she did not add a plea for another chance.
