Chương 12
“Because Vanessa had been there.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“With the man in the photograph?”
“I think so.”
“Think?”
“I only saw the pictures for a minute.”
“And Claire?”
“She said someone had been using the property to coordinate the transfers.”
“That doesn’t explain murder.”
“She thought the money wasn’t the real problem.”
“What was?”
Rachel’s voice became very quiet.
“She thought the accounts were being used to hide payments.”
“To who?”
“She didn’t know yet.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel nearly snapped at the phrase again.
Then Rachel added, “But she said one payment matched the week a county employee disappeared.”
He froze.
“What employee?”
“A records clerk.”
“Name?”
“I don’t remember.”
“You remember everything except the useful parts.”
“Daniel.”
“I’m sorry.”
The apology surprised both of them.
Rachel’s voice softened.
“He disappeared about a month before Claire died.”
“Was he found?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel heard movement behind the curtain.
Megan appeared and gestured toward Sophie.
“We’re ready to discharge her soon.”
Daniel nodded.
Rachel heard the exchange.
“Is she really okay?”
“She’s scared.”
“I mean physically.”
“Yes.”
Rachel began crying quietly.
Daniel closed his eyes.
The sound made his anger harder to hold.
“Rachel.”
“I should have told you.”
“Yes.”
“I thought I was protecting what Claire asked me to protect.”
“What exactly did she ask?”
“To keep the key and never give it to you unless something happened.”
Daniel’s eyes opened.
“What?”
Rachel stopped crying.
“She said if she disappeared, I should wait.”
“Wait for what?”
“For someone to contact me with a phrase.”
“What phrase?”
Rachel hesitated.
Daniel almost shouted.
“Rachel.”
“‘The roof was never the problem.’”
Daniel leaned against the wall.
He knew the phrase.
Claire had used it after receiving the inheritance.
They had argued about whether to replace the roof.
She had laughed two days later and said the roof was never the problem, that Daniel simply enjoyed worrying about expensive things.
He had remembered it as a stupid marital argument.
Apparently Claire had turned it into a signal.
“Did anyone ever say it?”
“No.”
“Not until now?”
“No.”
Daniel stared at the unknown message.
“Why wait?”
“She believed contacting the police too early would warn someone.”
“Someone inside law enforcement?”
“She didn’t say.”
Daniel looked toward Megan.
“Call Ortiz,” he said.
Megan nodded.
Rachel immediately said, “What are you doing?”
“Telling the police about the unit.”
“No.”
Daniel straightened.
“What?”
“Don’t.”
“You just told me Claire might have evidence there.”
“That’s exactly why.”
“You sound like the person texting me.”
“What texts?”
Daniel read her the last message.
Rachel swore.
“Do not go there.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Daniel, listen to me.”
“I am.”
“If Vanessa has the key, someone may already have been inside.”
“Police can secure it.”
“What if Claire was right about someone in law enforcement?”
Daniel stared at the hospital floor.
He had no answer.
Ortiz appeared at the far end of the corridor before Megan even finished dialing.
She walked quickly toward him with a second detective beside her.
Daniel ended the call with Rachel.
Ortiz stopped in front of him.
“You received another message.”
It was not a question.
Daniel looked at Megan.
She shook her head.
“I only told her about Sophie’s statement.”
Ortiz held out her hand.
“Phone.”
Daniel did not give it to her.
“How did you know?”
Ortiz’s expression changed.
“Know what?”
“That I got another message.”
“I didn’t.”
Daniel stared at her.
The second detective looked between them.
Ortiz said, “I came because forensics opened the memory card.”
Daniel forgot everything else for half a second.
“What’s on it?”
Ortiz glanced toward Sophie’s bay.
“Not here.”
“Tell me.”
“There are several files.”
“Video?”
“Yes.”
Daniel’s mouth went dry.
“Claire?”
Ortiz nodded once.
“And Vanessa?”
“Yes.”
Daniel stared at her.
“What happens in the video?”
Ortiz did not answer immediately.
That delay frightened him more than anything she had said.
“Daniel, the main recording was made four days before Claire died.”
He waited.
“She’s speaking directly to a camera.”
“What does she say?”
Ortiz looked him in the eyes.
“She says if the recording is being watched, someone has already tried to kill her.”
Daniel felt the wall against his back.
Ortiz continued.
“She identifies three people she believed were involved in moving the money.”
“Vanessa?”
“Yes.”
“Who else?”
“One is a county employee.”
“And the third?”
Ortiz’s face tightened.
“She names you.”
For a moment Daniel thought he had misunderstood her.
Then Ortiz repeated his name more quietly, as if volume might somehow change its meaning.
Daniel looked toward the treatment bay where Sophie was sitting with her crayons.
“No.”
Ortiz did not argue.
“That’s what Claire says.”
“No.”
The second detective shifted his weight.
Daniel pointed at Ortiz’s phone.
“Play it.”
“I can’t do that here.”
“You just told me my dead wife accused me of helping steal her money.”
“She said she believed you were involved.”
“I want to hear her.”
“You will.”
“When?”
“After we establish what the recording actually shows and whether it was edited.”
Daniel laughed sharply.
“So now you care whether evidence is reliable.”
“I cared five minutes ago too.”
His anger had nowhere useful to go.
He turned away and pressed both hands against the back of his neck.
Claire had suspected him.
That fact hurt in a place the murder itself had not yet reached.
“What exactly did she say?”
Ortiz opened her notebook.
“She said Vanessa Price, county records supervisor Martin Vale, and Daniel Mercer had access, opportunity, or financial connections she could not explain.”
Daniel turned back.
“Financial connections?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t touch her inheritance.”
“That may be true.”
“It is true.”
Ortiz’s expression remained steady.
“She also says she wasn’t certain about you.”
He stopped.
“What?”
“She says you might not know.”
Daniel stared at her.
Ortiz continued.
“There were transfers authorized through an account carrying your electronic signature.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Did you ever sign financial documents Claire gave you without reading them?”
May you like
Daniel opened his mouth.
Closed it.
