Chapter 9 - THE MAN WHO REMEMBERED REBECCA
The man was not Gregory Vale.
Marisol identified him from a corporate website.
Howard Sloane.
Seventy-one.
Former legal counsel for the company that owned the contaminated aircraft-parts facility in 1998.
Now a paid adviser to Halcyon Urban Partners.
Daniel stared at the photograph.
Sloane had fought Rebecca Carter twenty-eight years earlier.
Now he was helping redevelop the same land.
Detective Benton reopened archival environmental files.
Rebecca had alleged that early cleanup samples were manipulated.
She never proved it.
Then she became ill.
Cancer did not prove exposure.
Many things did not prove anything individually.
But Emily had apparently rediscovered the same contamination signature decades later.
Sloane’s first interview was polished.
Rebecca was “a passionate activist.”
Emily was “emotionally invested.”
Riverstone complied with every applicable standard.
Then Benton asked whether he told Emily:
Rebecca already lost this fight.
Sloane paused.
Denied it.
Marisol remembered hearing something too.
Not exact words.
Enough.
Then investigators found Sloane had accessed EnviroCore’s offices twice in the month before Emily’s crash.
He claimed meetings.
Possible.
Gregory Vale confirmed.
But one building log placed Sloane on the floor containing Emily’s office after midnight.
Vale said he had no explanation.
The alliance began cracking.
Daniel visited Emily that evening.
He told her everything.
Not because he knew she understood.
Because maybe she did.
“Your mom was right about something.”
Emily remained still.
“I’m sorry I called it dirt.”
Her heart rate rose slightly.
Daniel almost laughed.
“Still mad at me?”
Nothing.
Then the baby kicked visibly beneath the blanket.
Daniel placed his palm against Emily’s belly.
“Your son agrees with you.”
He had started calling the baby Benjamin.
A name Emily wrote on a list before the accident.
Then Dr. Shah entered.
She looked excited.
Professional excitement.
Controlled.
“We got something.”
Daniel stood.
“What?”
During command-response testing, Emily’s brain activity changed consistently when asked to imagine playing tennis.
A standard imagery task.
Then changed differently when asked to imagine walking through her home.
Repeated.
Statistically meaningful.
Daniel stared.
“What does that mean?”
May you like
Dr. Shah smiled carefully.
“It means I believe Emily can hear us.”
