Chương 5
She rubbed her thumb against the bruise.
"And he saw you?"
Clara did not answer.
I looked at her wrist.
This time, she noticed me looking.
"He didn't do this."
The denial came too fast.
"I didn't say he did."
"He didn't."
"Then who did?"
Her mouth opened.
Footsteps approached in the hallway.
Clara stepped back from the table.
Vanessa appeared in the doorway wearing sunglasses and yesterday's expression.
She looked from Clara to me.
Then her gaze dropped to Clara's exposed wrist.
For the first time since the accident, Vanessa looked genuinely afraid.
Vanessa stopped so abruptly that one heel clicked against the doorframe.
Clara lowered her sleeve.
Nobody spoke.
The sunglasses made Vanessa harder to read, but not enough to hide the way her mouth tightened.
"What happened to your wrist?" she asked.
Clara looked at me.
That small movement did more damage than an accusation.
Vanessa took off her sunglasses.
Her eyes were bloodshot.
"I asked you a question."
"She doesn't have to answer you," I said.
Vanessa ignored me.
"Clara."
"I bumped it."
"On what?"
"A cabinet."
"Which cabinet?"
Clara's face went pale.
I looked at Vanessa.
"You seem unusually interested in cabinetry."
She turned on me.
"You don't know what you're doing."
"Then explain it."
Her eyes moved toward the hall.
"Not with staff standing here."
Clara's jaw tightened.
"I can leave."
"No," I said.
Vanessa said, "Yes."
Clara stayed where she was.
For one strange second, all three of us seemed surprised by that.
Then she straightened.
"I was asked a question."
Vanessa's face changed.
Not anger.
Recognition.
"You shouldn't have been in the study."
"I was working."
"You were told not to clean that wing after ten."
"Mrs. Alvarez never told me that."
"I did."
Clara swallowed.
"You aren't Mrs. Alvarez."
Vanessa stared at her.
The silence had weight now.
I watched Vanessa's right hand curl around the sunglasses.
"Tuesday night," I said.
She turned toward me slowly.
"Clara saw Daniel leaving my study after eleven."
Vanessa's nostrils flared.
"Did she?"
"Apparently."
"And now you're building a conspiracy from a maid walking past a door?"
Clara looked at the floor.
The word maid did not bother her.
The tone did.
I had used the same tone with people more times than I cared to count.
"Why were you here Tuesday night?" I asked Vanessa.
"I live here."
"You haven't slept here since the accident."
"That doesn't mean I need permission to enter."
"Nobody said you did."
"You implied it."
"I asked a question."
She laughed softly.
"You're doing it again."
"Doing what?"
"Making the room into a courtroom."
"Then stop giving me testimony."
Clara shifted beside the breakfast table.
"I should go."
This time I let her.
She reached the doorway.
Vanessa spoke before she could leave.
"Clara, wait."
Clara stopped but did not turn.
Vanessa's voice lost its edge.
"If you're going to tell him about Tuesday, tell him the whole thing."
Clara looked over her shoulder.
"I don't know the whole thing."
"Exactly."
Vanessa stepped farther into the room.
"You saw Daniel come out of the study."
"Yes."
"You didn't see what happened before that."
"No."
"You didn't see who let him in."
"No."
"And you didn't see me inside."
Clara hesitated.
"No."
Vanessa looked at me.
"There."
"That was a very specific defense."
"Because I know how your mind works."
"Do you?"
"Better than you think."
She put the sunglasses on the dresser and walked toward the window.
Her confidence had returned, but it looked assembled rather than natural.
"Daniel came here because Martin asked him to retrieve financial projections from your study."
"Why would Martin ask Daniel to steal documents from my house?"
"He didn't steal anything."
"My corporate files are not community property."
"They're company records."
"Some of them are."
Vanessa looked away.
That was enough.
"Which file?"
"I don't know."
"Then how do you know he wasn't stealing?"
"Because Daniel told me."
"When?"
"Wednesday."
"Why?"
"Because I asked why he was here."
"How did you know he was here?"
She paused.
Clara turned around.
Vanessa saw the mistake too late.
I kept my voice level.
"How did you know, Vanessa?"
Her chin lifted.
"I saw his car."
"From where?"
"Outside."
"You just said you weren't here."
"I said Clara didn't see me inside."
"That's not the same thing."
"No."
The admission came quietly.
Something shifted in the room.
Not because Vanessa had confessed to anything important, but because she had finally stopped pretending every question was an insult.
She leaned against the window frame.
"I came by Tuesday."
"Why?"
"To get clothes."
"At eleven at night?"
"I didn't want to see you."
The answer hurt more than I expected.
She saw it.
For a moment, neither of us seemed to know what to do with the honesty.
Then she continued.
"I parked near the side entrance."
"Why?"
"Because I didn't want Owen asking questions."
Owen asked questions because that was his job, but I let it go.
"I saw Daniel's car."
"And?"
"I went inside."
"Did you speak to him?"
"No."
"Did you see Martin?"
"No."
"Who did you see?"
Her eyes moved toward Clara.
"Her."
Clara's expression tightened.
"Where?"
"In the west hallway."
Vanessa folded her arms.
"She was standing outside the study."
Clara shook her head.
"No."
"You were."
"I was coming from the linen room."
"You were listening."
"I heard voices."
"That's called listening."
"I stopped because I heard Mr. Daniel."
"Why did that matter?"
Clara looked at me.
"Because someone else was with him."
The room seemed to narrow.
Vanessa spoke first.
"You said you didn't know who."
"I don't."
"You just said someone else was there."
"I heard another voice."
"Male or female?"
"Male."
My first thought was Martin.
It was too obvious.
"Could you identify it?"
Clara shook her head.
"No."
Vanessa let out a breath.
"See?"
"See what?"
"She heard two voices through a door and now we're treating this like evidence."
May you like
Clara's face flushed.
"I never said it was evidence."
