Chương 6
Ryan’s voice hardened for the first time.
“You want me to be a monster because that would make this easier.”
Nathan said nothing.
“You want one person to hate,” Ryan continued. “I understand that.”
“Stop.”
“I’m not telling you what you want to hear.”
“I said stop.”
“Claire let me into the house.”
Nathan ended the call.
He stood in the garage staring at a pegboard of tools.
A red-handled screwdriver was missing from its outline.
He had no idea why that bothered him.
Then he remembered Sophie had borrowed it to tighten a loose wheel on her scooter.
He walked outside.
The scooter leaned against the shed.
The screwdriver sat in its basket.
Nathan laughed.
It turned into something else.
He sat on the driveway until the reporter at the road finally lowered her camera.
Two days later, police found Sophie’s tablet.
Not in Ryan’s house.
Not in Claire’s car.
In a storm drain three blocks from the Cole home.
A county maintenance crew had discovered it while clearing debris after a thunderstorm.
The screen was shattered.
Water had destroyed most of the device.
Nathan learned this from Vasquez in an interview room at the county police station.
He stared at the clear evidence bag.
“That’s hers.”
“You’re sure?”
“There’s a purple sticker on the case.”
It was a small cartoon planet Sophie had stuck over a scratch.
Vasquez nodded.
“We’re sending it to the lab.”
“Can they recover anything?”
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
“Fingerprints?”
“The rain complicates things.”
“DNA?”
“Same problem.”
Nathan looked at the bag.
“How did it get there?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“Ryan.”
“We don’t know.”
“He took it.”
“Mr. Cole.”
“He followed her for it. Then it disappears. Now it’s in a drain.”
Vasquez leaned back.
“I understand why you’re making that connection.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
“Then arrest him.”
“No.”
Nathan stared.
She did not look away.
“We have evidence he was at the house. We have evidence Mrs. Cole gave a false initial statement. We have a bracelet recovered from your dog’s collar, which is consistent with some kind of physical interaction around the time of Sophie’s death. We have Mr. Mercer leaving before emergency responders arrived. That creates suspicion.”
“Suspicion?”
“It does not prove he pushed her.”
Nathan stood.
“Sit down.”
“I’m done.”
“Then hear this standing.”
He stopped.
Vasquez folded her hands.
“If I arrest him before I can support the charge, I help him.”
Nathan said nothing.
“If you confront him, threaten him, follow him, post about him, or make public accusations that give him an argument we were pressured by a grieving father, you help him.”
Nathan’s jaw tightened.
“Everybody keeps telling me what not to do.”
“That’s because what you want to do right now is probably understandable and probably bad for the case.”
He looked at her.
“Do you have children?”
Vasquez paused.
“One.”
“How old?”
“Fourteen.”
Nathan looked at the evidence bag again.
“Then don’t say understandable.”
She accepted that.
At home, Claire had packed two suitcases.
Nathan found them beside the front door.
“You leaving?”
“My sister said I can stay there.”
He nodded.
Claire waited.
Nathan walked into the kitchen.
“Nathan.”
He opened a cabinet and took out a coffee mug.
It was four in the afternoon.
He did not want coffee.
He put the mug back.
“What?”
“I need you to know I didn’t throw away the tablet.”
He looked at her.
“Okay.”
“I didn’t.”
“I heard you.”
“You don’t believe me.”
“I don’t know what I believe.”
She swallowed.
“Ryan took it.”
“You saw him?”
“No.”
Nathan laughed without humor.
“Then maybe stop stating things like facts.”
She stared at him.
“I know how that sounds.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
He leaned against the counter.
Claire looked older than she had a week earlier.
He wondered whether he did too.
“Why did you have the affair?”
She flinched as though he had struck the counter.
Nathan almost told her not to answer.
Instead he waited.
Claire sat.
“I was angry at you.”
“For what?”
“For leaving.”
“I didn’t leave.”
“You were never home.”
“I worked.”
“I know.”
“We had a mortgage. Sophie’s school. Your mother’s care. The company was—”
“I know what the company was.”
Nathan stopped.
Claire rubbed her thumb over a seam in her jeans.
“That’s not a defense,” she said. “I’m not trying to make it one.”
“Good.”
“You asked.”
“So answer.”
She nodded.
“I felt invisible.”
Nathan looked away.
“I was tired of being somebody’s wife and somebody’s mother and the person who remembered everyone’s dentist appointments.”
“So Ryan saw you.”
“Yes.”
Nathan’s throat tightened.
“That simple?”
“No.”
“Sounds pretty simple.”
“It was stupid.”
“Don’t make it smaller because you’re embarrassed.”
Claire’s eyes filled.
“It was selfish.”
“Yes.”
“It was cruel.”
“Yes.”
“I loved you.”
Nathan laughed.
Claire did not.
“That’s the worst part,” she said. “I did.”
He looked at her then.
She wiped under one eye with the side of her hand.
“I kept waiting to become the person who would never do something like that,” she said. “Apparently I wasn’t.”
Nathan wanted to say something that would hurt her.
He had many options.
Instead he asked, “Did Sophie know before that night?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Did Ryan ever come here when I was away?”
Claire hesitated.
Nathan closed his eyes.
“How many times?”
“Three.”
“Was Sophie home?”
“Once.”
Nathan’s head snapped up.
“She was asleep.”
“You don’t know that.”
“She was in bed.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
Claire started to speak.
Nathan pointed toward the door.
“Go to your sister’s.”
She stood.
“Nathan—”
“Please.”
That word moved her faster than anger had.
She took the suitcases.
At the door, she stopped.
“Bruno’s collar.”
Nathan looked at her.
“What about it?”
“The night Sophie died, there was blood on his fur.”
Nathan straightened.
“What?”
“Just a little. Under his neck.”
“Whose?”
“I thought it was Sophie’s.”
“Did you tell police?”
“No.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“I was barely functioning.”
May you like
“You were functioning well enough to lie.”
Claire flinched.
