Chương 10
Patricia’s expression softened.
“You don’t have to leave forever.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
I looked toward the living room.
The lamp Daniel had knocked crooked earlier still leaned against the wall.
“I don’t want to be scared of my own house.”
Patricia touched my shoulder.
I let her.
“You shouldn’t have to be.”
A car horn sounded outside.
Joan had arrived.
Patricia gathered her purse and paused at the door.
“If he calls me, what do I do?”
“Save everything.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
I knew.
She wanted permission to answer.
Or permission not to.
“I don’t know.”
She nodded slowly.
“That may be the first useful thing anybody has said today.”
Joan climbed out of her car before Patricia reached the driveway.
She was a tiny woman with silver hair and the suspicious expression of someone prepared to fight a pharmacist over a coupon.
She hugged Patricia, looked at me, then at the house.
“Do I need to know something?”
“Yes,” Patricia said.
“Later.”
Joan nodded once.
“Good.”
No questions.
I liked her immediately.
After they left, I locked the door.
Then I unlocked it and went back inside because I had forgotten my phone charger.
Then I locked it again.
At the hotel, the woman at the desk asked if I wanted one key card or two.
“One.”
The word landed harder than expected.
She handed me two anyway.
“They come in pairs.”
I almost told her marriages did too.
Instead I thanked her.
My room was on the fourth floor beside an ice machine that groaned every few minutes.
I sat on the bed without taking off my shoes.
The beige walls held framed photographs of bridges from cities nowhere near us.
I opened my laptop.
For almost twenty minutes, I did nothing useful.
Then I logged into our joint credit account.
The balance made my stomach turn.
Eleven thousand eight hundred and forty-six dollars.
I knew about four thousand of it.
The rest had accumulated in increments small enough to hide among groceries, utilities, and ordinary spending.
Two hundred.
Four hundred.
Seven hundred.
I downloaded statements.
My phone rang.
Nina.
I answered.
“You okay?” she asked.
“I’m in a hotel.”
“That sounds not okay.”
“I’m safe.”
“Different category.”
I leaned back against the headboard.
“My husband has been gambling.”
Nina was quiet.
“How bad?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Do you need money?”
The question almost broke me.
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.”
She paused.
“I’m going to say one thing, and you can tell me to mind my business.”
“Go ahead.”
“Don’t protect your job more carefully than you protect yourself.”
I stared at the spreadsheets open on my screen.
“I wasn’t.”
“You emailed Malik six minutes ago.”
I closed my eyes.
“Damn it.”
“He showed me.”
“That traitor.”
“He was worried.”
“I told him where the files were.”
“You also corrected a formula.”
“It was wrong.”
Nina laughed softly.
“Take tomorrow off.”
“I might need something to do.”
“Then do laundry.”
“I’m at a hotel.”
“Perfect.”
I smiled despite myself.
After the call, I shut the laptop.
My phone buzzed almost immediately.
This time the number was unfamiliar.
I stared at it until the ringing stopped.
A voicemail appeared.
I did not play it.
I forwarded the number to Hale.
Thirty seconds later, a text arrived from the same number.
Tell Daniel the deadline has not changed.
My skin went cold.
Another message followed.
Friday means Friday.
I stood so quickly the laptop slid sideways on the bed.
Then a third message came.
And tell him hiding behind his wife is embarrassing.
I stopped breathing.
They knew my number.
Worse, they knew who I was.
I called Hale again.
He answered immediately.
“Emily?”
“I got a message.”
“From Daniel?”
“No.”
I read it to him.
Hale’s voice hardened.
“Lock your hotel room.”
“It is locked.”
“Use the deadbolt.”
I crossed the room and slid it into place.
“Done.”
“Do not answer the number.”
“I won’t.”
“Did the message mention your location?”
“No.”
“Any personal detail other than identifying you as his wife?”
“No.”
“Good.”
That did not feel good.
“I’m going to have someone contact you.”
“Who?”
“An investigator.”
“Tonight?”
“Yes.”
I pressed my palm against the door as if I could feel danger through it.
“Sergeant, what did Daniel get us into?”
“I don’t know yet.”
For once, I heard anger beneath his professional calm.
“But this just stopped being only about three thousand dollars.”
Someone knocked on my hotel door.
Every muscle in my body locked.
Hale heard it through the phone.
“Emily, do not open that door.”
The knock came again.
Three measured taps.
I backed away.
“Who is it?” I called.
A woman’s voice answered from the hall.
“Front desk.”
I looked at the phone.
Hale said, “Call the desk from the room phone and verify.”
I did.
The clerk downstairs sounded confused.
“We didn’t send anyone up.”
My mouth went dry.
The person outside knocked a third time.
Then a woman said my name.
I stared at the door.
The woman outside said my name again, softer this time.
“Emily Carter?”
Hale’s voice came through my phone.
“Do not respond.”
I backed toward the bathroom.
The peephole was across the room, but walking toward the door felt impossible.
Another knock came.
Not urgent.
Not angry.
Patient.
That frightened me more.
“Emily?”
The woman sounded older than I expected.
Hale said, “Can you see the hallway through the peephole without opening anything?”
“Yes.”
“Keep me on the line.”
I moved toward the door one step at a time.
The carpet beneath my shoes had a blue geometric pattern that suddenly seemed important enough to memorize.
At the peephole, I leaned forward.
A woman stood in the hall wearing hotel housekeeping clothes.
She was maybe fifty, with dark hair tied back and a stack of folded towels in her arms.
A plastic name tag read ROSA.
She looked annoyed rather than threatening.
May you like
“There’s a housekeeper,” I whispered.
“Does the hotel know she’s there?”
