Chapter 6: What the Coroner Found
They arrived at six fifty-three.
Two vehicles: a county sheriff's cruiser and a white van from the state medical examiner's office.
I was already downstairs when the knock came, the laptop in a sealed evidence bag that Grace had couriered over at midnight along with a signed chain-of-custody form.
Mother appeared at the top of the stairs in her dressing gown, her hair loose, her face stripped of its usual composure.
She looked older without the armor of it.
"What is happening?" she said.
"The coroner is here," I said.
"For Emily."
"You can't—" She gripped the banister.
"Daniel, you cannot do this.
She deserves to be buried with dignity, not—"
"She deserves the truth," I said.
"Sit down, Mother."
The lead examiner, a compact woman named Dr.
Reyes, came in with quiet efficiency.
She spoke to me briefly, confirmed the chain of custody for the laptop with the deputy standing beside her, and then her team moved to the living room.
Caleb came downstairs ten minutes later.
He was dressed.
He had a bag.
The deputy at the door looked at the bag, then at Caleb.
"Sir, I'm going to need you to remain on the premises for now."
Caleb's jaw tightened.
"I haven't been told I'm required to stay."
"You haven't been told you're free to go either." The deputy didn't move from the doorway.
"Please have a seat."
Caleb turned and looked at me.
It was the longest he'd looked directly at me since I'd come home.
"This is a mistake," he said.
"Sit down, Caleb."
He sat.
Grace arrived at eight fifteen, a slim woman in her fifties with silver-streaked hair and a briefcase that she set on the dining room table without ceremony.
She shook my hand, nodded at the deputy, and then looked at Caleb and Mother seated on the sofa.
"I'm Grace Holloway," she said pleasantly.
"I represent Daniel Mercer.
I want to be transparent with you both — anything you say in this room from this point forward may be relevant to ongoing proceedings.
You're each entitled to your own counsel.
I'd strongly recommend you call someone."
Mother looked at Caleb.
Caleb looked at his phone, screen down on his knee.
"I'd like to call someone," Mother said quietly.
"Of course," Grace said.
"Take your time."
Grace pulled me aside into the hallway.
"Dr.
Reyes will have preliminary findings within seventy-two hours," she said, low.
"But she flagged something this morning during the initial examination.
She's not releasing details yet — but she told me informally that the presentation is not consistent with postpartum hemorrhage."
My chest went very still.
"What is it consistent with?"
Grace held my gaze.
"She's not saying yet.
But she's asked the state crjminal investigation division to assign a detective." She paused.
"Daniel.
Prepare yourself."
I looked through the doorway at the living room, at the coffin that had been sitting in my house since before I landed.
At the yellow swaddle blanket visible through the nursery window upstairs.
At my brother on the sofa, staring at nothing.
"I've been preparing since I walked through that door," I said.
At eleven that morning, a detective named Okafor arrived.
He was tall, unhurried, and he shook my hand with both of his.
"I'm sorry for your loss," he said.
"I'd like to speak with you first, then separately with the other members of the household."
"Of course."
He interviewed me for ninety minutes at the dining room table.
I gave him everything: the timeline, the satellite calls, the birth plan, the C-section scheduled at St.
Jude's, the midwife with no name and no paper trail, the laptop, the video, Renata Voss, the pre-dated filing.
When I finished he closed his notebook.
"Mr.
Mercer," he said.
"Is there anyone outside this household who can corroborate Emily's birth plan?
A doctor, a nurse, anyone at St.
Jude's?"
"Her obstetrician.
Dr.
Patricia Lund.
Emily had an appointment with her the week before I deployed.
The C-section was on the calendar."
He wrote the name down.
"We'll contact Dr.
Lund today."
He stood to leave, then paused.
"One more thing.
The woman in the video — Renata Voss.
Do you know her current location?"
"No."
He nodded slowly.
May you like
"We do," he said.
And he walked out to the hallway to find Caleb.
