Chapter 5 - Claire Knew Jenna Before Marcus
Marcus returned home carrying enough anger to frighten himself.
Claire sat in the living room with an officer nearby.
Evelyn had placed the folder on the coffee table.
Marcus opened it.
The first photograph showed Jenna outside a coffee shop.
The date stamp was eight days before her death.
The second showed Jenna beside her car.
In the background stood Claire.
Younger.
Different hair.
Same face.
Marcus looked up.
“You knew my wife.”
Claire began crying.
“Marcus—”
“You told me we met for the first time two years ago.”
“I lied.”
The simplicity of the admission hurt more than an excuse.
“How did you know Jenna?”
Claire looked toward Maya's closed bedroom door.
“We worked together.”
Marcus stared.
Jenna had been an elementary school counselor.
Claire had told him she worked in nonprofit fundraising.
“Where?”
“Fairfax County.”
“You worked at Jenna's school?”
“For six months.”
Marcus sat down because his legs suddenly felt unreliable.
“Why didn't I know you?”
“I was part-time. Different building most days.”
Evelyn spoke.
“Why hide it?”
Claire wiped her face.
“Because when Marcus and I met again, he didn't recognize me.”
“Again,” Marcus repeated.
Claire nodded.
“We had met once at a school fundraiser while Jenna was alive.”
Marcus searched his memory.
Nothing.
“So you knew exactly who I was when we started dating.”
“Yes.”
“And you pretended you didn't.”
“Yes.”
Marcus felt humiliated.
“What did Jenna think of you?”
Claire's eyes filled.
“She hated me.”
Silence.
“Why?”
Claire looked at the photographs.
“Because I reported her.”
Marcus's stomach tightened.
“For what?”
“She was worried about one of her students. She broke protocol trying to help the child.”
“What protocol?”
“She took confidential records home.”
Marcus remembered Jenna staying late that winter.
He remembered arguments about work she refused to explain because student privacy mattered deeply to her.
Claire continued.
“I saw the files in her bag. I reported it to administration.”
“Was she fired?”
“No. She was warned.”
“Then why did she hate you?”
“Because she thought I was trying to destroy her career.”
“Were you?”
Claire didn't answer quickly enough.
Marcus stood.
“Were you?”
“No.”
But something in her voice sounded incomplete.
Evelyn noticed too.
“Claire.”
Claire looked at her.
“There was more.”
Of course there was.
Claire explained that the child Jenna was trying to protect had been seven years old.
The same age Maya was now.
The child's mother was involved with a man suspected of abuse.
Jenna believed official channels were moving too slowly.
She had collected notes, photographs, and copies of communications.
Then the family abruptly moved.
The case disappeared.
Jenna remained obsessed with whether the child was safe.
Marcus felt a terrible connection forming.
“What does that have to do with Maya?”
“I don't know.”
“Then why were these photographs in your car?”
Claire shook her head.
“They weren't.”
Marcus stared.
“Mom found them under your passenger seat.”
“I've never seen that folder.”
Marcus almost dismissed the denial.
Then he remembered the forged signature.
The fake phone numbers.
The nonexistent therapist.
Someone was manufacturing evidence.
Claire had lied.
But not every piece of evidence against a liar was automatically true.
Marcus forced himself to ask the harder question.
“Who has access to your car?”
Claire looked confused.
“You. Me. Valet sometimes.”
“Anyone else?”
She thought.
“My brother borrowed it last week.”
Marcus had met Claire's brother only twice.
“Ethan?”
Claire nodded.
Marcus knew almost nothing about him.
Then Maya appeared at the top of the stairs.
“Daddy?”
Marcus immediately softened.
“What is it?”
Maya held something in her hand.
A photograph.
“I found this in Claire's room.”
Claire went pale.
Marcus climbed the stairs.
Maya handed it to him.
It showed Jenna standing beside a little girl Marcus didn't recognize.
On the back, Jenna had written a name.
SOPHIE MERCER.
Marcus stared at the surname.
Mercer.
May you like
The fake therapist was Dr. Hannah Mercer.
And suddenly the dead woman's old case and Maya's fake placement referral were connected.
