00:00I had learned to distrust drama on sight long before Claire Bennett sat across from me.
00:03Old murder cases drag in every kind of stray orbit.
00:05Gossips.
00:06Opportunists.
00:07Relatives who suddenly want absolution.
00:09A frightened young woman, with perfect credentials, could still be one more version of the same mess.
00:12But she wasn't trying to impress me.
00:14She looked like she was trying to survive saying something out loud.
00:16I set my pen near the file and nodded toward her.
00:18Start wherever you need to.
00:20She answered with one small nod.
00:22It starts with my father, and the fireworks plant.
00:25The way she said father hit harder because there was no softness in it.
00:28No performance.
00:30Just wait.
00:30Outside the frost glass, phones kept ringing.
00:34Someone laughed in the hall.
00:35A printer kicked out a stack of paper.
00:37The office kept moving in its ordinary rhythm, which only made the room feel stranger.
00:41Claire folded her hands together.
00:42So tightly her knuckles whitened.
00:44Before I say anything else, you should know that for years I thought my father died a thief.
00:47That was the first sentence that made me pick up my pen.
00:50I clicked it once and leaned in.
00:52She drew a breath that looked painful to hold.
00:54Her eyes fixed on a point past my shoulder, like she could already see the factory yard.
00:59I lowered the pen to the page.
01:01Whatever story I had expected when she stopped me outside the courthouse, it was gone now.
01:05Something older had just opened between us.
01:07Things were written for me, so Mandy, kind of made me
01:08up for a young man.
