Chương 6
“I stopped.”
“That may feel like abandonment to someone who depended on you.”
“I know.”
He said nothing.
I looked at him sharply.
“You don’t need to sound sympathetic.”
“I’m not.”
“Good.”
“I’m trying to understand what she believes.”
That was worse.
Because Rebecca’s beliefs had always been the dangerous part.
She could take a late rent payment, a missed call, a boyfriend leaving, or a hospital bill and arrange it into proof that everyone else had failed her.
Nothing was ever entirely invented.
That was what made arguing with her exhausting.
She built lies out of recognizable pieces.
Gabriel’s phone rang again.
He answered and listened without speaking.
Then he looked directly at me.
“Your car is gone.”
I stared at him.
“No.”
“Men at the cottage say the driveway is empty.”
“I parked it there this morning.”
“Keys?”
“In my kitchen drawer.”
Gabriel asked the person on the phone another question.
“Any sign of forced entry?”
He waited.
“Understood.”
He ended the call.
“Door wasn’t forced.”
“My cottage key was on my work ring all day.”
“Any duplicate?”
“Rosa has one.”
Rosa nodded.
“Locked in the housekeeping office.”
Dominic looked at Gabriel.
“Check it.”
Gabriel was already moving toward the door.
“Wait.”
He turned back.
“What?”
I looked at Rosa.
“Who has access to that office?”
“Supervisors.”
“Which supervisors?”
“Me, you, Marta, Daniel.”
Daniel.
The name sat strangely in my head.
Not because it meant anything yet.
Because it almost did.
Dominic saw my face.
“Who is Daniel?”
“Assistant facilities manager.”
Gabriel stopped with his hand on the door.
“What about him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Claire.”
“He was the one who recommended the catering company.”
Silence.
Rosa frowned.
“No, he wasn’t.”
“Yes, he was.”
“Marco chose them.”
“Marco approved them.”
I looked at Dominic.
“Daniel brought the proposal to me last month because the usual company was booked.”
Gabriel’s hand dropped from the door.
“Did Daniel know Ethan’s allergy requirements?”
“Everyone involved in the food service did.”
Dominic took out his phone.
“Where is he now?”
Rosa answered.
“I saw him near the generator room around five.”
“Since then?”
She shook her head.
Gabriel opened the door.
“I’ll find him.”
Dominic caught his arm.
“No radio.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Too many people listening.”
He left.
Dominic locked the door again.
I could feel my heartbeat in my throat.
“Daniel has worked here for two years.”
“So?”
“So I hired him.”
Dominic’s eyes stayed on mine.
“I signed off on the background check.”
“He had references.”
“I called them.”
“Then if he is involved, he fooled you.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better.”
“It wasn’t intended to.”
Lily looked up from her book.
“Mommy.”
“Yes?”
“Why Aunt Becca here?”
Every muscle in my body went still.
Dominic turned toward her.
I crouched in front of Lily.
“What did you say?”
“Aunt Becca.”
“You saw her?”
She nodded.
“When?”
“Before cake.”
“Where?”
She pointed toward the door.
“Hall.”
My mouth went dry.
“What did she say to you?”
Lily hugged the rabbit under her chin.
“She said surprise.”
Dominic came closer but did not interrupt.
“What else?”
“She said don’t tell Mommy.”
A cold pressure spread through my chest.
“Why?”
Lily shrugged.
“She bring present.”
“For you?”
“No.”
“For who?”
“Mommy.”
I swallowed.
“What present?”
“She didn’t show me.”
“Where is Aunt Becca now?”
Lily’s face changed.
The certainty disappeared.
“She went with the man.”
“What man?”
“The cake man.”
Dominic crouched beside me.
“Lily, did Aunt Becca see the man touch the cake?”
Lily nodded.
“Did she help him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did she talk to him?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
Lily squeezed the rabbit harder.
“She said, ‘You promised nobody gets hurt.’”
Dominic and I looked at each other.
For the first time, Rebecca’s presence inside the house stopped looking like proof that she had come to kill Ethan.
It became something messier.
Something worse.
Dominic’s phone vibrated in his hand.
He checked the message.
His face hardened immediately.
“What?”
I asked.
He turned the screen toward me.
Gabriel had sent only five words.
Daniel found unconscious in basement.
“Is he alive?”
Dominic was already moving toward the door.
“Gabriel says yes.”
I stood.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“Daniel may know where Rebecca is.”
“Which is exactly why you’re staying here.”
“He may also know why she was here.”
Dominic reached for the lock.
I stepped between him and the door.
“You don’t get to decide when I’m involved.”
“I think the poisoned cake settled that for us.”
“My sister is in your house.”
“My son was almost killed in my house.”
“And my daughter saw the people who did it.”
His face tightened.
“Which is why Lily stays behind a reinforced door.”
“That is not the same as me staying.”
For a second neither of us moved.
Then Rosa cleared her throat.
“I can stay with Lily.”
I turned.
“No.”
Rosa gave me the expression she usually reserved for employees who tried to hide broken stemware.
“Claire, you are not taking a three-year-old into a basement where a man has been found unconscious.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Then stop arguing about the wrong thing.”
Lily looked from one adult to another.
“Mommy mad.”
“Yes.”
“At Mr. Moretti?”
“Yes.”
Dominic glanced at her.
“I noticed.”
Lily considered him.
“You mad too.”
“Yes.”
“At Mommy?”
“No.”
“At bad cake man?”
Dominic’s expression changed.
“Yes.”
Lily nodded as if this seemed acceptable.
“Okay.”
Rosa held out her arms.
“Come sit with me, little detective.”
“I’m not detective.”
“No?”
“I’m Lily.”
“I stand corrected.”
Lily climbed onto the bed beside her, still carrying the pink rabbit.
I looked at Dominic.
“I’m coming.”
He opened the door.
“Stay beside me.”
It was the closest thing to agreement I was going to get.
The hallway outside was empty except for one guard stationed near the stairs.
Dominic spoke to him quietly.
“No one enters that room except Gabriel, Harris, or me.”
The guard nodded.
May you like
“And if someone says I sent them?”
“You confirm directly.”
