Chapter 22: Under Oath

The letter said Selene Baird intended to sue me for defamation and for the assault on the stairs.

It asked for eight hundred thousand dollars.

It also said she would drop everything if I signed a statement.

The statement said the recording was edited and the clause in my settlement was still in force.

Desmond read it over my shoulder in Marit's kitchen, with a towel around his waist.

"Hester wrote this," he said.

"Hester's lawyer wrote it. Hester's pen signed his paycheck."

"We don't have to go."

"We're going," I said. "The letter asks for a meeting on Thursday. I'd like to be in the room."

Marit looked up from her toast.

"I'm coming too," she said. "I'm bringing a clipboard, so I look important."

The meeting was in a glass conference room on the thirty-first floor of a downtown tower.

Selene's lawyer was a tall man in a gray suit with a very white smile.

Selene sat beside him in a plain black dress.

Her hair was flat, and she looked thin.

She did not meet my eyes.

Our lawyer put a recorder on the table.

Desmond sat next to me, close but not touching, with his hands folded.

The nurse sat at the end of the table in her grey cardigan.

"Before we begin," our lawyer said, "my client has a witness."

Selene's lawyer smiled.

"Of course. We'll hear anything."

The nurse took the oath.

She told it from the beginning, quietly, in order.

She told them about the envelope and the line she had written on the chart.

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