What Silence Cost

Back at the hotel, Emma read her notes from the meeting. Reid had admitted that he had kept something out of the record. He had not explained exactly what it was. She could report the first point, but she could not invent the second.

She called Sarah and read the important lines aloud. Sarah asked whether Reid had agreed to be named. Emma explained that he would allow her to report his acknowledgement of an incomplete follow-up, provided she gave him the chance to correct factual errors. He would not be allowed to control the article.

Emma sent Reid a written summary and asked him to check it. She also submitted her request for the missing reference number.

Then an email arrived from Calum, one of the former scholarship students. His college had found an old account entry. A payment had arrived, but later than promised and for less than the amount in his award letter. The college had not yet checked whether there had been later adjustments. Emma asked Calum for permission to request an official copy.

She placed the two discoveries side by side: a delayed scholarship payment and an incomplete police note. The police record came from 2011; the scholarship correspondence began in 2010. Both involved people connected to Claire's disappearance. That did not prove they were part of the same plan.

At dusk Emma walked beside the river. She thought about the Morrison family waiting for news, and about the harm caused when reporters treated guesses as facts. Protecting a person's privacy mattered. So did telling the truth. Sometimes those duties were difficult to separate.

Her phone vibrated. Reid had replied.

Your summary is accurate. I am willing to explain my actions to the appropriate authorities. I do not know where Claire Morrison is now.

Emma read the final sentence again. Reid had said nothing about whether he knew where Claire had been in 2011.

She saved the message. Tomorrow she would try to speak to James Morrison, Claire's brother. After the articles Emma had written fifteen years earlier, he had every reason not to trust her.