Chương 5
Normal privacy was already disappearing.
The first officer returned without Vanessa.
“She’s downstairs with my partner.”
Daniel nodded.
“Is she free to leave?”
“Not right now.”
The officer looked at Ethan.
“Start with why you came here.”
Ethan touched the gauze at his temple.
“Because Claire gave me something before she died.”
Daniel’s body went rigid.
“What?”
“A phone.”
Daniel stared at him.
“Claire’s phone was recovered from the car.”
“Not her personal phone.”
Daniel looked toward the officer, then back.
“She had another one?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Ethan hesitated.
“That’s complicated.”
Daniel laughed once.
It had become a phrase he hated.
“Try me.”
Ethan glanced at Sophie.
Daniel understood the reason for the pause.
“Say what you can.”
Ethan rubbed his wrists where the restraints had marked them.
“I worked for a private security company.”
“Doing what?”
“Mostly corporate investigations.”
“Mostly?”
Ethan looked uncomfortable.
“Sometimes people paid us to find things they weren’t supposed to have.”
The officer said, “That could mean a lot of things.”
“It does.”
Daniel felt Sophie shift.
He lowered his voice.
“How did you know Claire?”
“She hired us.”
Daniel stared at him.
“For what?”
“To find out who was following her.”
The room became very quiet.
Daniel looked down at Sophie.
She had not reacted.
He was grateful she probably did not understand the implications.
“Someone was following my wife?”
“For about two months before she died.”
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
Ethan did not argue.
“She would have told me.”
Ethan’s expression held something Daniel immediately disliked.
Pity.
“Apparently she didn’t.”
Daniel stood so quickly Sophie slid from his lap.
He caught her.
“Careful.”
She clung to his arm.
Daniel forced himself to sit again.
Ethan looked away.
That tiny act was worse than if he had challenged him.
Daniel began searching his memory for signs.
Claire checking the rearview mirror more often.
Claire changing grocery stores.
Claire asking once whether the side gate locked properly.
He had laughed and told her they lived in a neighborhood where people left bicycles outside.
The memory came back with humiliating clarity.
Claire had not laughed.
Daniel rubbed his forehead.
“What did your company find?”
“Not enough.”
“Who was following her?”
“We got partial plates, photographs, times.”
“Who?”
“One vehicle was registered to a shell company.”
The officer said, “Name?”
Ethan gave it.
The officer wrote it down.
Daniel had never heard of it.
“The other car belonged to Vanessa.”
Daniel looked at him.
Sophie’s fingers stopped moving against his sleeve.
Daniel said, “Vanessa knew Claire.”
“I know.”
“They were friends.”
“I know that too.”
“They worked together on the school fundraiser.”
Ethan nodded.
Daniel heard himself defending something he no longer understood.
“That doesn’t mean she was following her.”
“No.”
Ethan’s answer was almost gentle.
“That alone doesn’t.”
Daniel looked toward the open bedroom door.
He could hear muffled voices downstairs.
Vanessa’s voice rose once, then dropped again.
“What does?”
Ethan lowered his eyes.
“The video.”
Daniel touched his jacket pocket.
The memory card waited there.
The officer noticed.
“Is that the card?”
Daniel nodded.
“I need you not to handle it anymore.”
Daniel removed it carefully.
The officer took a small evidence envelope from a pouch.
“Put it in here.”
Daniel hesitated.
Ethan said, “Make a copy first.”
The officer’s expression hardened.
“No.”
“If that disappears—”
“It’s not disappearing.”
“You don’t know that.”
“And you don’t get to direct evidence handling.”
Ethan leaned back against the wall.
“I learned that lesson already.”
The officer looked at him for a moment.
“What happened when you went to county?”
“I told them Claire’s crash might not have been an accident.”
“And?”
“They asked for proof.”
“You didn’t give them the video?”
“I didn’t have it then.”
Daniel dropped the memory card into the evidence envelope.
The officer sealed it.
“Where did you get it?”
Ethan looked toward the wardrobe.
“From a camera Claire installed.”
Daniel stared at him.
“Where?”
“Her office.”
“She didn’t have an office outside the house.”
“Yes, she did.”
Daniel felt the old humiliation again.
Another piece of his wife’s life he apparently had not known.
Ethan saw it.
“It wasn’t that kind of office.”
“What kind was it?”
“A rented room above a dental practice.”
“That sounds exactly like an office.”
“She used it for privacy.”
Daniel’s anger flared.
“Privacy from who?”
Ethan did not answer immediately.
Daniel’s stomach tightened.
“From me?”
Ethan looked at him.
“From everyone.”
Daniel turned away.
Through the windows, another police vehicle pulled up.
The porch silhouette across the street had become two people.
Someone held a phone.
Daniel closed the curtain completely.
Behind him, Ethan said, “Claire thought somebody close to her was passing information.”
Daniel faced him again.
“Information about what?”
“Money.”
The word landed strangely.
Daniel almost laughed.
“Claire didn’t have money.”
Ethan raised an eyebrow.
“She had more than you knew.”
Daniel felt irritation overwhelm fear for a moment.
“No, she didn’t.”
“Daniel.”
“You don’t know my finances.”
“I knew hers.”
The statement was so direct that Daniel had no immediate response.
Ethan shifted as the paramedic checked his blood pressure.
“Claire inherited money from her aunt.”
“I know.”
“Not the amount.”
Daniel said nothing.
He had thought it was around sixty thousand dollars.
Claire had called it enough to replace the roof and put something aside for Sophie.
They had replaced the roof.
“How much?”
“Just over eight hundred thousand.”
Daniel stared at him.
Sophie leaned against his side.
The paramedic paused with the cuff around Ethan’s arm.
Even the officer looked up from his notebook.
Daniel’s mouth went dry.
“That’s impossible.”
Ethan shrugged faintly.
“Maybe.”
“Where is it?”
“That’s what somebody else wanted to know.”
Daniel looked toward the hallway again.
“Vanessa?”
“I don’t know.”
“You just accused her of following Claire.”
“I told you what we documented.”
Ethan winced as the paramedic touched his ribs.
“I’m trying not to give you more certainty than I actually have.”
May you like
That restraint made Daniel believe him more than certainty would have.
He hated that too.
