The text came yesterday."
"He's testing the water," she said.
"Seeing if you'll engage quietly before he files anything.
That's standard when someone wants to avoid a public record." She looked at me over her glasses.
"He doesn't want this in a courtroom if he can help it."
"Why not?"
"Because of what's on that recorder." She tapped it with one finger.
"And because of her age when the relationship began.
Depending on the state and the dates, there may be more to that story than a custody dispute."
The room was very quiet.
"Are you telling me he may have committed a crjme?"
"I'm telling you the evidence your daughter preserved raises serious questions that a family court judge would not ignore." She folded her hands on the desk.
"What does your grandson know?"
"Nothing.
He knows his mother d*ed when he was born.
He knows I've raised him.
He asks about his father sometimes.
I've always told him I didn't know."
"He's ten?"
"Yes."
"He'll need to know something, eventually.
But not yet, and not from Carter Welles." She picked up the text printout.
"I'm going to send a response to Richard Hale today.
I'll make it clear that you have legal representation and that any further contact should come through this office." She looked up.
"That will tell us very quickly how serious they are."
"And if they file for paternity?"
"Then we respond.
And we bring everything in that box with us." She paused.
"Mrs.
Calloway, your daughter was very careful.
She documented everything.
She was scared, but she was thinking clearly.
What she left you is not nothing."
I looked at the shoebox on the edge of her desk.
"She knew she might not make it," I said.
"She prepared for it."
"It appears so."
I pressed my hands flat on my knees to keep them steady.
"He left a message on that recorder threatening a seventeen-year-old girl.
He sent her texts telling her to destroy evidence.
He stayed silent for ten years and then contacted me eight months after his father's estate opened." I looked at Susan directly.
"He doesn't want my grandson.
He wants an heir."
Susan Greer didn't disagree.
"Then we make sure the court understands exactly what kind of man is asking for that child."
My phone buzzed in my bag.
I didn't reach for it.
"One more thing," I said.
"He's had someone watching my house.
Since at least April."
Susan's pen stopped moving.
