Detective Reyes
Chapter 10 - Detective Reyes
Detective Naomi Reyes had built a considerable reputation over her fourteen-year career for exactly this kind of patient, methodical investigation, cases involving wealthy families and sophisticated conspiracies that required considerably more careful evidence-gathering than straightforward street crime typically demanded.
She met with Julian weekly throughout the following month, walking him through each new development as her team continued building what had become, by this point, one of the more complex cases she'd personally overseen.
"I want to prepare you for the timeline ahead," she told him, during one such meeting. "Given the scope of evidence, financial records, digital forensics, Victor Lang's cooperation, the stable records regarding the accident itself, I expect the district attorney's office to pursue the most serious available charges, attempted murder, conspiracy, and child endangerment, at minimum."
"What about Victor Lang," Julian asked. "Given his cooperation."
"His attorney is negotiating a plea agreement in exchange for his full, continued cooperation," Reyes said. "Given that he didn't initiate the conspiracy and has provided substantial, verified testimony against Lauren, I'd expect a considerably reduced sentence, though he won't avoid consequences entirely for his role in actually building and implanting the device."
"And Bridget Cole," Julian asked, thinking of the young riding instructor who had unwittingly facilitated Oliver's fall.
"Our assessment is that she was manipulated without full awareness of Lauren's actual intent," Reyes said. "I don't believe she'll face charges, though I understand you may have your own decisions to make regarding her continued employment, given the role she inadvertently played."
Julian considered that question carefully over the following days, eventually meeting with Bridget directly, finding a young woman genuinely devastated by her unwitting role in Oliver's suffering, entirely unaware at the time that Lauren's simple request about which pony to saddle had been anything other than ordinary household instruction.
"I should have questioned it," Bridget told him, tears falling freely. "Something felt slightly off about the request, and I ignored that feeling because she was your wife, and I assumed she knew Oliver's needs better than I did."
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"You trusted someone you had every reasonable expectation to trust," Julian said, echoing, without fully realizing it, the same reassurance Dr. Kapoor had offered him weeks earlier. "I don't hold you responsible for what happened. I'd like you to stay, if you're willing, and continue working with Oliver once he's ready to ride again."
Bridget accepted, grateful for a second chance she hadn't been certain she deserved, and Julian found, in extending that grace to someone equally deceived by Lauren's careful manipulation, a small measure of relief from the specific, corrosive guilt that had been consuming him since the night Colette broke open his son's cast.
