In exchange, Ava would recant her statement and I would withdraw my cooperation with the investigation.
I read it at Patricia’s office.
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When I finished, I set it on her desk.
“No,” I said.
Patricia picked up her pen.
“I’ll draft the response.”
“Make it short,” I said.
She almost smiled.
“I will.”
On the way home, Ava asked what the letter had said.
“He offered money to make it stop,” I told her.
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She was quiet for a moment.
“What did you say?”
“No.”
She looked out the window.
After a long pause, she said: “Chloe would have said the same thing.”
I didn’t answer.
But I reached over and put my hand briefly on hers.
That was enough.
Epilogue
Five years later, I still kept Chloe’s photograph in the top drawer of my nightstand.
Not because I wanted to live in the past.
