Chương 9
Claire stared at Michael.
He felt the floor tilt beneath the facts.
“When?” he asked.
“She didn’t provide dates.”
Claire whispered, “I have never gone into that house without you or the kids inviting me.”
Michael knew of two times.
Once when Noah left a science project behind.
Once when Ella forgot medication after an ear infection.
Both times Michael had texted Claire the garage code.
His mouth went dry.
“Detective.”
“Yes?”
“She has entered the house.”
Claire’s face went white.
Michael kept going.
“I gave her permission.”
Harris paused.
“That’s important.”
Claire looked furious.
“You scared the hell out of me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Stop apologizing before you know what you’re apologizing for.”
Michael lowered the phone slightly.
Detective Harris said, “There may be another issue.”
Michael raised it again.
“What issue?”
“The footage we’ve previewed appears to have been edited into separate clips.”
Claire stopped breathing.
Michael looked at her.
“Edited how?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Harris’s voice remained careful.
“But some clips begin after entry and end before departure.”
Michael understood before Claire did.
Vanessa had not merely been recording.
She had been selecting what the recordings seemed to say.
“What was she trying to prove?” Michael asked.
“That,” Harris said, “is one of the things we need to find out.”
Michael lowered the phone after Harris gave him an approximate arrival time.
Claire stood with her arms folded so tightly that her knuckles had gone pale.
“What exactly did you tell Vanessa about me?”
Michael looked toward Noah.
Dana had moved him a few chairs away and was asking whether he wanted juice or water.
He chose water even though the untouched cup from before still sat near his foot.
“Not here,” Michael said.
Claire’s eyes sharpened.
“You don’t get to decide when.”
“No, but Noah doesn’t need to hear us do this.”
“He’s already heard worse.”
“I know.”
Her expression hardened at the phrase.
Michael corrected himself.
“You’re right.”
“That isn’t better.”
He glanced toward the treatment room.
“Then tell me what is.”
Claire looked away.
For a moment, the hospital corridor returned to its ordinary noises.
Rubber soles squeaked.
A monitor beeped behind a closed door.
Someone laughed quietly at the nurses’ station and immediately lowered their voice.
“I want facts,” Claire said.
Michael nodded.
“What did you tell her?”
“That you sometimes changed pickup times.”
“I work in a clinic.”
“I know.”
“She knew that?”
“Yes.”
“What else?”
“That you’d forgotten the dentist appointment.”
Claire stared at him.
“Once.”
“Yes.”
“What else?”
Michael rubbed his thumb against the edge of his phone case.
“That you were late on the summer camp payment.”
Her face changed.
“You paid it.”
“Yes.”
“Because your card was already saved in the portal.”
“Yes.”
“And Vanessa knew that?”
“I guess.”
“No.”
Claire stepped closer.
“Did you tell her?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Michael searched for an answer that was not insulting.
None existed.
“We talked about things.”
“You complained about me.”
“Yes.”
Claire laughed under her breath.
“Good.”
“Good?”
“At least that was an actual answer.”
Michael swallowed.
“I complained.”
“Did you tell her I was unstable?”
“No.”
“Careless?”
“I don’t remember using that word.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
He looked at the floor.
“I might have said you could be scattered.”
Claire nodded slowly.
“Scattered.”
“I shouldn’t have.”
“You’re missing the point.”
“I know.”
She closed her eyes.
Michael stopped talking.
When she opened them again, the anger had shifted into something colder.
“She didn’t invent all of this by herself.”
He looked at her.
“She used whatever you handed her.”
“That doesn’t make what she did my fault.”
“No.”
The answer came quickly.
Then Claire added, “But it makes some of it possible.”
Michael looked toward Noah.
He was staring at Dana while she spoke.
His feet did not reach the floor.
“Yeah,” Michael said.
Claire seemed almost disappointed that he did not argue.
She sank into a chair.
Michael sat two seats away.
Neither of them spoke for several minutes.
A vending machine dropped a bottle somewhere around the corner with a hollow bang.
Claire rubbed both hands over her face.
“I thought she disliked me because I was your ex.”
“She did.”
Claire looked at him.
“That simple?”
“No.”
“Nothing about this is simple.”
Michael nodded.
“I think she needed me to believe you were the problem.”
Claire’s mouth tightened.
“Needed?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re guessing.”
“Yes.”
“Then stop.”
He looked at her.
She leaned back and stared at the ceiling.
“I have spent two years wondering whether I was imagining things.”
“What things?”
“The way she’d repeat something I told you privately.”
Michael frowned.
Claire looked at him.
“Once I told you I was worried Noah was having trouble sleeping.”
“I remember.”
“Three days later Vanessa asked him at pickup whether he was still waking up scared.”
Michael’s stomach tightened.
“I thought maybe you’d told her because she was helping with bedtime.”
“I probably did.”
“Probably.”
Claire exhaled.
“Another time I told you I was short on money because my car needed a new transmission.”
Michael remembered.
“You covered the soccer registration.”
“Yes.”
“And a week later Vanessa asked me whether I was sure I could afford Ella’s birthday gift.”
Michael looked at her.
“I didn’t know she said that.”
“No.”
“She told me you were embarrassed about money.”
Claire laughed once.
“She told you that?”
“Yes.”
“She made me sound ashamed.”
“You weren’t?”
“I was annoyed.”
Michael almost smiled.
That sounded like Claire.
She saw it.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You smiled.”
“I was remembering how mad you were at the mechanic.”
“He charged me nineteen hundred dollars.”
“You accused him of rebuilding the car by hand.”
“He deserved it.”
The moment vanished almost as soon as it appeared.
Claire looked down at her hands.
“She was collecting things.”
Michael thought of the black pouch.
The edited clips.
The hallway camera.
“Maybe.”
“She was.”
“You just told me not to guess.”
Claire looked at him.
“Fine.”
May you like
Michael let the silence stand.
Dana walked over after a few minutes.
