He Declared Me Dead on Tuesday, So I Walked Into Court on Friday novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: The Warning He Signed Through

On Monday morning, I place the medical examiner's email in front of Adrian before he can finish saying he was never warned.

"Please identify the sender," I say.

The probate judge watches him read the header.

Tuesday, 1:04 p.m.

Adrian's attorney reaches for the page.

My counsel puts one hand over it.

"Your client can answer," she says.

Adrian looks at me first.

That is his mistake.

He is still checking whether I intend to save him.

I do not.

"The county medical examiner," Adrian says.

"You received this email before you signed the identification?"

"That depends on what you mean by received."

"It arrived in your inbox."

"My office received a number of communications during a chaotic period."

His voice has the polished rhythm he uses when selling a bad quarter to a nervous board.

He is trying to make the sentence longer than the fact.

The judge looks down at the printed page.

"Mr. Mercer, did you receive this email?"

Adrian adjusts the paper by its corner.

His silver watch catches the courthouse light.

"Yes."

His attorney turns toward him.

It is a small movement, but I see the warning in it.

Too late.

"Did you read it?" I ask.

"Eventually."

"Before you signed the death identification?"

Adrian's mouth tightens.

He has already chosen the answer.

He is only waiting for the least expensive version of it.

"The email raised a routine question about records. It did not establish that the woman was not Lena."

"So you did read it before signing."

"That is not what I said."

"It is what you said in the previous answer."

My counsel slides a second page forward.

The email is printed in full.

Three lines are highlighted in yellow.

The examiner asks Adrian to stop the identification until the records are resolved.

The dental comparison, he writes, cannot support the name Lena Mercer.

I do not need to read the lines aloud.

The judge is already reading them.

Adrian's attorney stands.

"My client was grieving. He was not acting as a medical investigator."

"He was acting as the identifying party," my counsel says.

"That distinction matters."

"The identity was later processed by the authorities."

"After Mr. Mercer signed the form."

Adrian turns to the judge.

"I was told the matter would be corrected through normal channels."

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