Chapter 24: Her Name Stays Hers

Six weeks later, on a Friday morning, I walk up the courthouse steps in the same charcoal coat.

The snow has gone gray and soft at the edges.

Petra walks beside me with two coffees and a folder.

"You don't have to come in for this," she says.

"I know."

"I'm only saying it so you can enjoy refusing."

The clerk at the probate window looks up when I reach the glass.

She is the one who pointed me to the family benches.

"Good morning, Dr. Mercer," she says, and slides an envelope under the window.

Inside is my death certificate.

Date of death: Tuesday.

Across it, in red, the court's stamp reads VOID.

"I thought you'd want the original," the clerk says.

"Most people only ever get a copy."

The arraignment is on the second floor.

The courtroom is full before nine.

Reporters fill the back rows.

Two of my department heads have taken the morning off to sit in the third.

Camille comes in at five to nine.

She is very pregnant now, in a gray coat instead of cream, and she walks straight up the aisle toward the seats behind the defense table.

The bailiff steps into her path.

"Family members sit on the left, ma'am."

Camille looks at the defense table.

Then at the left side of the room.

"I'm not family," she says.

The bailiff waits.

Camille turns and takes a seat on the public bench at the very back, alone, with her bag on her knees.

Adrian is brought in through the side door by his new lawyer.

His old attorney withdrew the week his accounts stayed frozen.

He is wearing the charcoal suit.

The tie is crooked.

He looks for Camille behind the defense table and finds an empty row.

The magistrate reads the charges in a flat, careful voice.

Filing a false identification of a deceased person.

Fraud upon the probate court.

Attempted conversion of corporate control.

"Is the complainant present?" she asks.

I stand.

"Dr. Lena Mercer, Your Honor."

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