“What are you risking by helping me?”
“My job, if I handle the records improperly.”
“And if you do everything properly?”
“Then I still have to explain why I knew where to look.”
She closed the cabinet.
“I need you to understand something, Nathan. I am not giving you private records because I want to hurt your family.”
“I know.”
“No. You need to know.”
At six fifteen, Lorraine was in the kitchen making tea when I sat on the floor with a screwdriver and the loose cabinet hinge.
She slid a cup toward the edge of the counter.
“You always did fix things before asking whether they needed fixing.”
“The hinge was loose.”
“So you noticed.”
I tightened the first screw.
Lorraine opened the tea tin.
“Did Caroline contact you?”
I kept the screwdriver against the hinge.
“Why?”
“She was Hannah’s friend. I assumed she might call.”
“She did.”
Lorraine’s hand stopped over the tin.
“What did she want?”
“She asked about Hannah’s records.”
Lorraine smoothed the same cuff of her blouse.
