She called him directly.
"The name," she said, when he answered. "The person who hired you fourteen months ago. I need it now."
A pause. "Elara—"
"There's a leak inside the police investigation. Someone has been feeding Victoria information. And until I know the full picture of who knew what and when, I cannot trust anyone." She kept her voice even. "You've protected that name for over a year. I understand there were reasons. But we are past reasons now. Tell me."
A longer pause.
"Diana Reid," Garrett said.
Elara sat back in her chair.
"Callum's mother hired you," she said.
"Fourteen months ago. She suspected something was wrong with Victoria's account of the accident from early on. She didn't have evidence — she had instinct and one overheard comment from Marcus Webb. She hired me to find out if her instinct was correct." He paused. "She specified that if I found evidence, I was to hold it until the right moment. She didn't want it going to Callum before he was stable enough to handle it. She didn't want it going to the police before it was airtight. She was—" Another pause. "She was very precise about it."
"Diana," Elara said again, processing it.
"She's been protecting him from the beginning," Garrett said. "And protecting you, in her way. She felt responsible for not stopping it earlier."
"Why didn't she tell me?"
"She said—" He stopped. "She said you'd already been through enough and she didn't want you carrying the weight of knowing someone was investigating until there was something concrete to carry."
Elara pressed her fingers against her eyes.
"Is she the leak?" she asked. She needed to ask it.
"No," Garrett said, with certainty. "I've worked with Diana for fourteen months. She is not the leak. She is the reason we have as much as we have."
"Then who is?"
"I don't know yet. But I will."
— ✶ —
She went to Diana that evening.
The older woman opened the door and took one look at Elara's face and said, "Come in. I'll make tea."
They sat in Diana's kitchen — a different kitchen from the Reid house, Diana's own small terraced house that she'd moved to after Callum had taken the main property. It smelled like Earl Grey and old wood and something baking she hadn't got around to finishing.
"Garrett told you," Diana said.
"Yes."
"I'd have told you myself, eventually."
"When?"
Diana looked at her tea. "When it was over. When it was safe." She looked up. "I know how that sounds. I know you've had enough people making decisions about what's safe for you to know."
"You were trying to protect him," Elara said. "The same reason Richard gave."
"It is not the same," Diana said sharply — the first sharp thing Elara had ever heard from her. "Richard took action. I gathered evidence. I did not decide your fate. I tried to help you change it." She met Elara's eyes. "Those are not the same things."
Elara sat with that.
It was true. It was not the same.
"The leak," Elara said. "Someone inside the police investigation."
Diana's expression shifted. Something tightened. "I'd heard a suggestion of that," she said carefully.
"From who?"
Diana set her cup down. "From Callum. Three days ago." She looked at Elara. "He's been doing his own investigating."
"His own—" Elara stopped. "He didn't tell me."
"No," Diana said. "He said he didn't want to worry you until he was certain." She paused. "He has a name, Elara. He told me yesterday. He said he was going to tell you at the next session."
"Tell me now," Elara said.
Diana looked at her steadily.
"Helena Cross," she said.
Elara went completely still.
Helena Cross. Callum's attorney. The small, precise woman who had reviewed the documents at Elara's kitchen table and said, in her clear professional voice, that the evidence was extraordinarily helpful. Who had filed the injunctions. Who had been present for every significant legal conversation in the last three weeks.
Who knew everything.
"Are you certain?" Elara asked.
"Callum intercepted a message from her phone," Diana said. "To a number that traces back to Victoria Ashford's second attorney. Information about the document Diana found. Sent the morning after Callum received it."
Elara thought about the document on her kitchen table. The profit-sharing agreement. The evidence that had upgraded the charges.
Victoria had known about it within hours.
"She's been inside his legal team the whole time," Elara said.
"Yes."
"Every move we made—"
"She knew."
Elara stood up.
"Where is Callum now?" she asked.