Chương 9
I could hear only her side.
“Yes.”
A pause.
“No, do not search it based solely on this message.”
Another pause.
“Can you prevent evidence destruction if you have probable cause, yes, but I’m not telling you how to do your job.”
Despite everything, I smiled.
Samantha saw it and frowned at me.
“What?”
“You sounded exactly like Lucas.”
Her face changed.
Only for a second.
Then she turned away and continued the call.
That tiny reaction told me more about her grief than anything she had said since the funeral.
She ended the call.
“Harrison says Charles left with another deputy for an interview.”
“Arrested?”
“No.”
“Courtney?”
“Still at the house.”
“His car?”
“Parked in your driveway.”
“So what happens?”
“Harrison is going to talk to Courtney.”
I looked at her message again.
“There is something in his car.”
The words felt staged.
Too convenient.
“Why would Courtney suddenly help me?”
Samantha sat back down.
“Maybe she’s scared.”
“Of Dad?”
“Of what happens to her.”
“That sounds more likely.”
The doctor arrived before we could discuss it further.
Dr. Patel had delivered enough babies to treat my family catastrophe as an inconvenience occurring near the interesting medical part.
She checked me, watched the monitor, and announced that I had progressed to six centimeters.
“Today?” I asked.
She looked amused.
“Almost certainly.”
The room shifted.
Not literally.
Everything else simply became smaller.
The money.
The forged signature.
My father.
Lucas’s memorandum.
Somewhere inside me, my daughter had made a decision the rest of us were going to obey.
Dr. Patel discussed pain management and neonatal assessment because of the early delivery.
I heard about half of it.
When she asked whether my partner was coming, silence spread across the room.
Samantha looked down.
“My husband died three weeks ago.”
Dr. Patel’s expression changed without collapsing into pity.
“I’m sorry.”
“Thank you.”
“Who do you want with you?”
I looked at Samantha.
Her eyebrows rose.
“That is not in my retainer agreement.”
“You’re already billing me for today.”
“I absolutely am not.”
“Then congratulations.”
She stared at me.
“You want me in the delivery room?”
“I don’t want my father.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
“I know.”
Another contraction started.
This one took longer to leave.
When I opened my eyes, Samantha was still sitting there.
“All right,” she said quietly.
Then my phone rang.
Courtney.
Samantha and I looked at each other.
“Answer it.”
I did.
Courtney was whispering.
“I can’t stay at your house.”
“Why?”
“Because I found what Charles left in the car.”
“What did you find?”
Her breathing came fast through the phone.
“A second phone.”
Samantha reached for a pen.
Courtney continued.
“It has messages with Lucas.”
Every muscle in my body went still.
“What messages?”
There was a sound on her end like a door shutting.
Then Courtney whispered the sentence that erased every trace of relief I had managed to find.
“They were meeting secretly before he died.”
“What do you mean, meeting secretly?”
Courtney lowered her voice even further.
“There are texts from Lucas asking Charles to meet him after hours.”
“Where?”
“Different places.”
“Courtney, where?”
“A diner near Liverpool, a parking lot by the airport, once at some warehouse.”
Samantha was already writing.
“When are the messages dated?”
I asked.
“Mostly the last two months before the accident.”
The room seemed to narrow around me.
“Read one.”
Courtney hesitated.
“Charles said not to use names in the messages.”
“Read one anyway.”
Paper rustled somewhere near her.
Then she said, “L says, ‘I found the Rochester discrepancy, and I need to know whether you authorized it.’”
My pulse kicked.
“What did Dad answer?”
“He wrote, ‘Not by text.’”
Samantha looked up from her notes.
“Keep going.”
Courtney continued.
“Then Lucas says, ‘Tomorrow, seven-thirty, same place.’”
“And?”
“That’s all for that thread.”
“Read another.”
There was a pause.
“I don’t know if I should.”
“You already called me.”
“I know.”
“Then finish what you started.”
Courtney breathed out sharply.
“Okay.”
She scrolled.
“This one says, ‘If you are covering for someone, you need to tell me now.’”
“From Lucas?”
“Yes.”
“What did Dad say?”
“‘You don’t understand what happens if this gets out.’”
Samantha stopped writing.
“What was the date?”
Courtney read it.
Samantha checked Lucas’s memorandum.
“That was four days before he revised the trust.”
My skin went cold.
“What else?”
Courtney took longer this time.
“There’s one from Charles.”
“Read it.”
“‘You keep digging and you are going to destroy everything your wife thinks she has.’”
I stopped breathing.
The fetal monitor accelerated slightly.
Kayla looked in from the doorway, saw my face, and came inside.
“Everything okay?”
“No.”
“That was not a medical question.”
“Then yes, medically.”
She checked the monitor anyway.
Samantha leaned toward my phone.
“Courtney, do not delete anything.”
“I’m not.”
“Do not send screenshots unless Deputy Harrison instructs you to.”
“Why?”
“Because if this becomes evidence, I do not want five versions of it bouncing between phones.”
Courtney sounded irritated.
“I’m trying to help.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
Samantha’s expression hardened.
“I know enough to tell you not to contaminate a chain of custody.”
There was silence.
Then Courtney said, “Fine.”
I pressed my palm to my forehead.
“Why did you take the phone?”
“I didn’t take it.”
“You said you found it.”
“In his car.”
“That is taking it.”
“He told me to get his charger from the console.”
“And you found a second phone.”
“Yes.”
“Was it locked?”
“No.”
“Dad leaves his second secret phone unlocked?”
“It was open to the messages when I found it.”
Samantha and I looked at each other.
Too easy.
Too convenient.
“Courtney,” I said, “did he know you were going to his car?”
“Yes.”
“Did he know you might see the phone?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where exactly was it?”
“Under the driver’s seat.”
“Not in the console?”
“No.”
“And you just happened to look under the seat?”
“I dropped the charger.”
May you like
Samantha put down her pen.
The coincidence sat between us like a bad smell.
