The Reckoning

Cedar Hollow made Claire Bennett its hero. Brookfield has not forgotten what she did. The State indicts her on two counts of manslaughter and two counts of falsifying medical records, and the hero's ending gives her something to lose: her coroner's post, her standing, and the trust she spent a year earning one true signature at a time. Dan Walsh testifies to what he saw. Bennett admits what she did — and what she did not mean. She pleads guilty: five years, three inside, two on parole, her license and her coroner's post lost for good. What she keeps is Jonah Hale, her house, and a town that will sit beside her on a curb but never again hand her its dead to sign for. The Reckoning closes The Corvanta Trilogy — resolved.