“The police have made a mistake, obviously. A very big one. And there will be all sorts of people having to make apologies when we finally get this—”
“Mom, please.” Cassandra’s voice was tremulous now. And she looked exhausted.Gretchenwas exhausting her. “Whathappened?”
“Someone your dad climbed Kilimanjaro with—they’ve been killed, apparently.”
“Anotherperson from the climb is dead?”
Gretchen met Cassandra’s gaze as calmly as she could. “Yes, I know. What are the odds?” Gretchen actually felt a little better now. Maybe Dr. Davis was right, and she just needed to keep talking about the situation. Exposed to daylight, the unsavory details might eventually lose their power. “But the police think this was murder. That’s what they’re investigating.”
“And they thinkDadhad something to do with it?” Cassandra’s mouth twitched down, and her eyes started darting around. “But that’s…insane. What, wha— I don’t even understand what you’re saying. Who was killed? Where?”
“We need to stay calm. That’s the important thing.” Gretchen felt steadier now. Cassandra’s distress was forcing her to find her equilibrium. After all, that was a mother’s job: to hold everyone andeverything together while the world was falling apart. “You know how these things are. The police act first, ask questions later. It’s a mistake, of course, but they aren’t going to admit that right away.”
As if Gretchen had great experience in such matters.
“Where is Dad now?” Cassandra asked.
“He’s at a police station in the East Village,” Gretchen said. “Scotty already went to see him. He’s going to bring in another lawyer to help, an expert in these kinds of cases.”
“A police station? Let’s bail him out!”
“We will, of course. But the arraignment is Monday. That’s when they set bail.”
“So Dad just stays injailall weekend? Is that safe? What if he’s assaulted?”
Gretchen did not have a satisfactory answer for this. It was still weighing on her despite Scotty’s assurances. But she didn’t want Cassandra more worried.
“That won’t happen,” she said. “They are holding him there because it’s the safest option. Besides, it’s not an especially full jail, and you know your dad. He’s very good at charming people.”
“And by ‘people,’ you mean criminals?”
“Let’s not forget where your dad came from, okay?”
“Mom,Jesus.Bridgeport is not Rikers Island.”
Gretchen wasn’t so sure about that.
“Anyway, after Monday he’ll be home. Then we can take the necessary steps to put this mess behind us. It’s unfortunate and upsetting, but I’m sure that with a little time, we’ll remember it as nothing more than an inconvenience. Think about this poor woman’s family—she’sdead.”
“Woman?” Cassandra asked. “I thought it was a guys’ trip.”
It wasn’t as though Gretchen had left that out on purpose. It simply had not come up.
“Your father went with his Dartmouth group, but there was a woman on the trip as well.”
“But why is Dad in jail? Mom, they don’t just go around arresting people—not rich, white people like Dad—unless they have evidence of some kind. What did they say, exactly?”
Gretchen certainly wasn’t going to mention any so-called statements by Richard. Or the eyewitness. Or this problem with the police arriving at their house so quickly. Or the evidence they’d supposedly found. She didn’t have any details yet. It would be wrong to share vague, alarming facts that might not amount to anything.
“Scotty says the police don’t offer a lot of information at this stage. That’s how they keep the upper hand.” Gretchen sounded so calm now that she was even reassuring herself.
“Mom,” Cassandra said, seeming unconvinced. “There’s more to the story, I can tell. Please just tell me.”
“Cassie, come on. Of course they have what they think is evidence. But it doesn’t matter. Your father didn’t do this. Whatever they think, they’re wrong.”
Cassandra shook her head. “This is insane. So, Dad met this woman on the trip and that’s it? That’s hisonlyconnection to her?”
“That’s it, which makes the whole thing just silly.” The words came out as an exhalation; it was getting difficult to breathe again. “Don’t you need to get to the office?”
