“After.”
“How do you know it was after?”
“Because he attended Miss Moreau’s services.”
“So your son had been in contact with Miss Moreau?”
Deyadria looked at her lawyer. “I’m not sure.”
“Objection.”
The judge didn’t rule quickly, so Mr. Yanez continued his argument. “How can Mrs. Coleman speculate on her son’s knowledge?”
“Sustained.”
“Where is your son now?” Clive asked.
“The last I heard he was in Syria. For work.”
“Does your son travel a lot?”
“He is a photojournalist. Traveling to places most of us avoid is his job.”
“You sound very proud of your son.” Clive smiled.
“I am.”
“How long has your son traveled for work?”
“Ever since he graduated from college. Almost twenty years.”
“Would you say Syria is a safe country?”
Mrs. Coleman shook her head. “No. I pray for his safety every night.”
“Probably not a place he’d take his son.”
“No. TJ would never put Owen in danger.”
Clive smiled and turned to the judge. “No further questions.”
Rachel sighed when Clive sat down.
“Any other witnesses?” Judge Sherman asked Mr. Yanez.
“No, Your Honor.”
“Mr. Redshaw, you have our attention.”
He patted Rachel’s hand and stood before calling her to the stand.
The vulnerable short stride to the bench, where she sat behind a microphone, was the longest walk she’d ever taken. She vowed to tell the truth and then took her seat.
Clive walked around the desk and tilted his head with a smile. “You look like you’ve had a long night,” he began.
“I have.”
“Why?”
“I . . . we have been searching the streets of New York ever since Owen went missing.”
Clive looked around the room. “Who is we?”
“The Fairchilds, myself.” She looked at the clock. “By now Owen’s friends are out of school, and their families have joined the search.”
“Is it hard for you to be in this courtroom right now?”
She nodded. “We should be out there looking for him and not in here fighting over him.”
“Objection, Your Honor. If Mr. Redshaw felt the need to postpone this hearing, he could have asked at the beginning.”
Clive looked at the judge. “Leaving Owen in the foster care system longer than necessary will prompt the boy to flee again once he’s found. Which I will establish during this testimony.”
“Overruled,” Judge Sherman said.
Mr. Yanez sat down.
“Miss Price, tell me about your relationship with Owen.”
“I’ve known Owen since he was five. His mother and I became best friends shortly after we met.”
“Can you describe Emily Moreau for the court?”
Rachel couldn’t help the emotion that caught in her throat. “Em was, uhm . . . kind, loving. Very down-to-earth.”
“A saint?”
“No, of course not. She was very real and didn’t sugarcoat life just to please others.”
“What can you tell us about her relationship with TJ?”
“Objection,” Mr. Yanez shouted.
“Sustained.”
Clive didn’t miss a beat. “When did you meet TJ?”
“Owen was in first grade. I remember that because Emily and I were making thirty paper pioneer hats for his class. TJ came over to Emily and Owen’s home to see his son.”
“So TJ knew he had a son?”
“Yes, since his birth. I saw TJ once more when Owen was maybe ten, and then again at Emily’s funeral.”
“Would you say that Emily and TJ had a friendly relationship?”
Rachel smiled. “Yes. They were very adult about Owen. Emily never pressed TJ to be a full-time father, and from what I saw, he never tried.”
Rachel held her breath, thinking Mr. Yanez was going to object.
He didn’t.
“Did Owen know TJ was his father?” Clive asked.
“Yes,” Rachel said.
“Did Owen ever talk about his father?”
“No. Not really. Not until Emily got sick.”
“Let’s talk about that. You were living in California at the time of Emily’s passing?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you move to the East Coast?”
She looked at Jason, smiled. “To avoid this.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Colemans did contact me, within a month of Emily’s death. They told me they wanted to take Owen in.”
“How did that make you feel?”
“Anxious. Worried they would fight for custody. So Owen and I talked about our options and decided to move.”
“Just like that?”
“Yes. Honestly, I thought it would be good for Owen to know his grandparents.”
Rachel’s comment brought a gasp and rolling of the eyes from Deyadria.
“Why?” Clive asked.
“Watching your best friend die at a young age has a way of making you look at your own mortality. I knew if something happened to me, Owen would truly be alone. At least for Emily, she knew she had me. We worked out custody arrangements the month we found out she had cancer.”
Clive tapped his hand on the banister. “So you uprooted your life, found a position in Manhattan, and set down roots here.”
“That’s right. I bought a house, enrolled Owen in the high school.”
“How was your reception from the Colemans?”
Rachel looked first at Deyadria, then to Tereck. “Strained.”
“How so?”
“I felt they were trying to find fault in everything I did.”
“Was it comfortable to be around them?”
“No.”
“Have you kept Owen from seeing them?”
“No. We’ve seen them several times since we moved here.”
“Mrs. Coleman testified that you’re keeping Owen away,” Clive stated.
“If she is referring to the time she asked us to dinner and Owen had to work on a group project at school, then yes. We didn’t go.”
Deyadria was having a hard time sitting still.
“Or the time I had strep throat and had to cancel.”
“Could Owen go alone?”
“If he wanted to. He didn’t. I wasn’t about to force him.”
Clive walked back to his papers, looked at his notes. “On the petition for custody, the Colemans state they believe your home is full of toxins that are making their grandson ill.”
“It’s an old home, like many in the suburbs. But instead of guessing, I hired a contractor to test every corner of my house for anything toxic.”
Clive handed a piece of paper to the judge. “This is the preliminary report on the home inspection, along with blood work testing Miss Price for lead poisoning.”
“Has the opposing counsel seen this?” Judge Sherman asked.
“We have, Your Honor.”
She looked at the document in silence. “The full report won’t be ready for two days.”
“That’s right,” Clive told her.
Clive switched gears again.
“How did you end up in Costa Rica?”
Jason smiled her way, his eyes soft.
“I was with Mr. Fairchild when he learned of one of the company planes crashing. He needed to fly to the wreckage site and asked me to come.”