Chapter 19: The Gala Invitation

The invitation arrived at the NICU on the thirtieth, by courier, in a cream envelope with a gold seal.

The charge nurse handed it to me at the desk as if it might leak.

I opened it standing up.

*The Garver family requests your company at the fortieth anniversary gala of Garver Lodging.*

*New Year's Eve, eight o'clock, the Alder Pass Grand Ballroom.*

Under the printed line, in Joyce's handwriting, were two more.

*Do come, Hallie. I will be introducing our newest Garver, and I'd like you to see how much she is loved.*

I read it twice.

"She can't introduce June," Rhonda said. "June's in an incubator."

"She'll introduce a picture of June," I said. "A blanket, a photo and a story about how I'm not well."

"She wouldn't."

"She watched me through a window for four minutes."

Rhonda took the card out of my hand and tore it in half.

"Okay," she said. "That's what I think of the card."

The lawyer got to the fire hall at noon, with a thermos and a phone call she had been waiting two days to make.

We put her on speaker on the folding table.

A woman's voice, dry and unhurried, identified herself as an investigator for the state attorney general's office.

"I've seen the doorbell footage," she said. "It's authentic."

"How do you know?"

"The cloud company's records custodian confirms the restore and the original deletion."

"That's Joyce Garver," the lawyer said.

"It is. Tampering with evidence, conspiracy to commit custodial interference, and forgery on a foundation form."

"Can you swear a warrant?"

"I can write one."

"When?"

"The judge who can sign it is out of the state until the second of January."