Then she frowned.
“No. Not insurance.”
“What, then?”
“Study.”
Stephen’s face changed.
“What study?”
Evelyn became agitated.
Daniel touched her shoulder.
“Mom, it’s okay.”
“No, no. She shouldn’t have looked.”
“Claire?”
“She was curious.”
Evelyn looked at me.
“Always curious.”
Her voice softened.
“Like you.”
Then she said something that transformed the entire mystery.
“She found your father’s name.”
I froze.
“My father’s?”
Evelyn nodded.
“On the list.”
“What list?”
But her focus had begun to drift.
“The children.”
“What children?”
“Mom,” Daniel said gently, “what children?”
Evelyn stared through the window.
“Such pretty trees.”
We didn’t get more.
On the drive home, nobody spoke for several miles.
Finally, Stephen said, “Harlow operated an employee medical clinic until 2003.”
Daniel nodded.
“Everyone used it.”
“So did my father,” I said.
“Probably.”
I looked at Stephen.
“What kind of study involved children?”
“I don’t know.”
“Could it have been legitimate?”
“Absolutely.”
That mattered.
