Chương 13
“Anything from the office?”
“No.”
“Did you enter it?”
“Yes.”
Another pause.
“I need you to understand how this sounds.”
“I do.”
“If this were anyone else—”
“You would tell them not to explain further without counsel.”
“Yes.”
“Then don’t treat me differently.”
Hill exhaled.
“Fair.”
I looked at Evelyn.
“I’m going to hand you to Maya’s attorney.”
Evelyn took the phone after I explained.
Her expression darkened within seconds.
She moved into the kitchen and shut the door.
Maya watched her.
“What did Mark do?”
“He reported a burglary.”
Her face went still.
“He called the police on you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Pressure.”
The answer came too quickly.
I corrected myself.
“Or because he believes something is missing.”
“You didn’t take anything.”
“No.”
“We photographed the office.”
“Yes.”
“Did we get the laptop?”
I opened the photographs.
The laptop itself had not been there.
Only the charger.
My stomach tightened.
“I thought I saw it.”
“What?”
“I remembered the charger as the laptop.”
Maya stared at me.
That small mistake embarrassed me more than it should have.
Thirty-two years of training did not make memory perfect.
Sometimes it merely made you overconfident about being wrong.
“There was no laptop in the photographs,” I said.
“So it was already gone.”
“Probably.”
“Can we prove that?”
“We can prove it was not visible when we photographed the room.”
Maya’s mouth hardened.
“He’s setting you up.”
“I don’t know that.”
She gave me a look that said she had inherited more of me than either of us liked.
Evelyn returned.
“Mark told police Claire stole documents because she was angry about his marriage.”
“I didn’t take documents.”
“I know.”
“He also claimed the security recordings were accessed illegally.”
I laughed again.
“That system is mine.”
“Not exactly.”
“What?”
“The account is yours, but the cameras are installed in their residence.”
“That doesn’t make my access illegal.”
“I did not say it did.”
Maya looked between us.
“Can he use this to stop us?”
“No,” Evelyn said.
“Can he make it annoying?”
“Yes.”
“How annoying?”
“Police may want statements.”
“I’ll give one.”
“Not today.”
Maya opened her mouth.
Evelyn raised a hand.
“That is legal advice, not a parental command.”
Maya looked at me.
“I wasn’t going to say anything.”
“You were thinking loudly.”
I almost smiled.
Then Evelyn turned serious.
“Mark’s report changes something else.”
“What?”
“He is no longer just trying to explain himself to Maya.”
“He’s building a competing record.”
I said it before she could.
Evelyn nodded.
“Exactly.”
Maya frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“It means he may start documenting his own version of events.”
“Like what?”
“That Claire interfered with your marriage.”
“She did interfere.”
Maya’s honesty surprised all of us.
Then she added, “After he stole money.”
Evelyn sat across from her.
“He may say you were unstable after childbirth.”
Maya’s face changed.
“He already says that.”
“In messages?”
“Yes.”
“Save them.”
“He says I’m anxious.”
“Are you?”
Maya looked offended.
“Of course I’m anxious.”
“Good answer.”
“It is?”
“It’s human.”
Evelyn leaned closer.
“Do not start performing wellness for anybody.”
Maya stared at her.
“You were in pain, sleep deprived, recovering from surgery, and under financial pressure.”
She pointed toward Liam.
“You also have a newborn.”
Maya’s eyes dropped.
“Being overwhelmed is not evidence that you are incapable of caring for him.”
The sentence seemed to release something in her shoulders.
I looked away because watching relief on her face made my own guilt harder to contain.
At five thirty, Maya’s mother-in-law called.
Her name was Susan Ellison.
Maya hesitated before answering.
Susan had always been kind to her, sometimes almost aggressively kind, as if friendliness could erase the fact that Mark rarely called his mother unless he needed something.
“Maya?”
Susan sounded breathless.
“Where are you?”
“At Mom’s.”
“Oh, thank God.”
Maya looked at me.
“What happened?”
“Mark called.”
Maya closed her eyes.
“What did he tell you?”
“That your mother broke into the apartment.”
I nearly said something.
Evelyn shook her head.
Susan continued.
“He said you’re not thinking clearly.”
Maya’s fingers whitened around the phone.
“He said that?”
“He said you were having some kind of postpartum crisis.”
Maya stood.
This time she did not seem to feel the pain.
“And you believed him?”
“No.”
Susan answered so quickly that Maya stopped.
“No, honey.”
“Why not?”
“Because he asked me for money yesterday.”
The room changed.
Maya sat back down.
“How much?”
“Fifty thousand dollars.”
I leaned closer.
Maya put the call on speaker.
Susan’s voice filled the room.
“He said Harbor Point had a temporary cash-flow problem and he needed a bridge loan.”
Aaron’s head came up.
“When did he ask?”
Maya said.
“Yesterday morning.”
“Did you give it to him?”
“No.”
Susan hesitated.
“I was going to.”
Maya stared at the phone.
“What stopped you?”
“He sent me wiring instructions.”
Aaron stood.
“Ask her where the money was going.”
Maya did.
Susan rustled papers.
“The account name is C.A. Lifestyle Holdings.”
Maya’s face went cold.
Across the table, Aaron closed his eyes.
Susan said, “Who is that?”
Maya looked at Liam.
Then at me.
“A woman named Chloe Avery.”
Silence came through the speaker.
When Susan spoke again, her voice had changed.
“I know Chloe.”
Maya stopped breathing for a second.
“How?”
“She used to work with Mark.”
“At Hammond Pierce?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Years ago.”
Susan sounded uncertain now.
“He brought her to Thanksgiving once.”
Maya looked at me.
I had not been there that year.
My husband had been in the hospital.
Susan continued quietly.
“That was before you and Mark got serious.”
Maya swallowed.
“How serious were they?”
Another silence.
Longer this time.
“Maya, I think Chloe is the woman he was engaged to before you.”
Maya stared at the phone as if Susan had spoken in another language.
“Engaged?”
“Yes.”
Susan’s voice had gone thin.
“I thought you knew.”
“No.”
“Oh, God.”
“When?”
“They broke it off maybe a year before you met him.”
May you like
Maya looked toward Aaron.
He had already opened his laptop again.
