Sandra Koval

Sandra Koval is Jack Lawson’s sister and a criminal-defense lawyer whose private conversations and incomplete disclosures make her an important, contested figure in the investigation into Jack’s disappearance. She tells Jack what she knows about Geri Duncan’s death, but initially denies to Grace Lawson that she spoke with him. Later, Grace confronts Sandra about the fate of her brother, John Lawson, and the possibility that his identity was replaced. Sandra’s story is therefore shaped by a persistent question: what does she know, and what has she chosen not to tell?

Identity and Introduction

Sandra is established through her connection to Jack and through her legal work. She is an attorney at Burton and Crimstein, and her professional identity becomes especially consequential when she represents Wade Larue. Her occupation gives her a clear explanation for taking Larue’s case, but it also places her in the middle of a story where legal representation, personal history, and withheld information repeatedly overlap.

Her family relationship to Jack is the thread that brings her into Grace’s search. Grace learns that Jack called Sandra’s office and asks about that call. Sandra had told Grace that she was not there and that the two had not spoken. The discrepancy matters because Sandra is not merely a distant relative being checked as part of a search: Jack had reached her, and she possessed information about his past that Grace did not have.

The Call and Geri Duncan

The duration of Jack’s call changes Grace’s understanding of Sandra’s denial. The call lasted nine minutes, a specific detail that makes the claim that they never spoke untenable. Grace recognizes the contradiction and phones Sandra directly, telling her that she lied and stating that the call lasted nine minutes. Sandra offers no reply in the moment described. The scene does not supply her explanation, so her silence leaves the concealment established but its reason unknown.

Sandra later describes why Jack had called. She says she had given him an old photograph in which Geri’s face was crossed out. After receiving it, Jack searched online, apparently using the Boston Globe archives, and discovered that Geri had been dead for years. He wanted to know what had happened to her, and Sandra told him what she knew: that Geri had died in a fire. This account gives the call a concrete subject and shows Sandra as a source of information about a past Jack had not understood. It also distinguishes what she claims to have known from the much larger questions surrounding Geri’s death; the supplied account does not establish that Sandra knew more than she told him.

Legal Work and Personal Conflict

When Sandra represents Larue, she presents the choice as part of her ordinary work as a criminal-defense lawyer: he has been charged with a crime, and defending accused people is what she does. Grace rejects this as a sufficient personal explanation and tells Sandra not to patronize her. The exchange does not prove that Sandra’s representation is motivated by anything other than professional duty, but it shows how little trust remains between the women. In Grace’s view, Sandra’s role in Larue’s case sits alongside a history of concealment that makes a simple professional explanation difficult to accept.

The conflict sharpens when Grace asks about John. She tells Sandra she was never married to her brother, then asserts that John was shot during the Boston concert chaos and that Sandra and Sheila Lambert helped drag him out. Grace says his wounds were lethal, while also confronting Sandra with the possibility that he survived the shooting and was killed afterward. These are allegations made by Grace, not an account confirmed by Sandra in the scene. Grace’s reasoning is that taking John to a hospital would have exposed the shooting and invited an investigation; she speculates that Sandra and Sheila may have feared the consequences. The passage presents that explanation as Grace’s theory, not as an established account of Sandra’s motive or conduct.

Exposure and Aftermath

After Grace leaves, Sandra chooses to call Captain Stuart Perlmutter and then obtains legal representation from Hester Crimstein. The decision to contact the captain is a concrete action, but the available account does not give Sandra’s full statement or establish what she admitted. Her choice to lawyer up likewise does not resolve the accusations: it marks the beginning of a formal legal response, not a verdict. The district attorney believes the case can be made in light of developments, while recognizing that it will be difficult.

One such development is Sheila Lambert’s return. After reading about Sandra’s arrest and the appeal for her help, Sheila comes forward. She identifies Martin Brayboy as the man who shot her husband and says he matches the description of the man who threatened Grace at the supermarket. Brayboy has been caught and agrees to testify for the prosecution. Sheila also says Shane Alworth was at the concert but decided at the last minute not to go backstage and confront Jimmy X. She offers a possible reason: Shane may have realized that John was too impaired and volatile to be trusted in the confrontation. These revelations add important testimony and context to the case, but they do not, in themselves, establish every part of Grace’s accusation against Sandra.

Uncertainty and Narrative Role

The final discussion of the concert photograph further complicates the suspicions surrounding Sandra. Scott Duncan says that the barely visible woman on the far right, whom Grace had thought might be Sandra, could instead be Grace herself. He also suggests that the young woman who distracted Gordon MacKenzie while the others reached Jimmy X was not Sandra, Sheila, or Scott’s sister. The possibility is raised rather than proved, but it loosens the photograph’s apparent identification of Sandra and redirects the question toward Grace’s own forgotten connection to that night.

Sandra consequently occupies a position between evidence and inference. The nine-minute call and her account of telling Jack about Geri are presented as facts within the narrative; Grace’s theory about John’s death and Sandra’s role in hiding what happened remains an accusation that the available scenes do not fully settle. Sandra’s legal response advances the investigation without supplying a complete confession or exoneration. Her significance lies in that unresolved boundary: she is both a witness to Jack’s questions and a person whose own account of the past is under scrutiny.