Chương 7
Door locks.
Garage codes.
Passwords.
The spare key under the fake rock Daniel mocked me for keeping even though he had been the one who put it there.
Hale seemed to read enough of that from my face.
“Do you have somewhere else you can stay tonight?”
“I can stay here.”
“That wasn’t exactly what I asked.”
I looked toward the hallway.
“This is my house.”
“I understand.”
He kept his voice neutral.
“But until we know whether anyone connected to those debts has made credible threats, staying somewhere else might be smart.”
Patricia said, “You can stay with me.”
We both looked at her.
Her expression said she knew how absurd the offer sounded.
“I have a guest room,” she added.
“I know.”
“I’m not saying we have to talk.”
That almost made me laugh.
Before I could answer, Daniel came back carrying a duffel bag.
Ruiz followed several steps behind him.
Daniel had changed his shirt.
That bothered me more than it should have.
He had put on the navy button-down he wore when he wanted to look respectable.
He had also combed his hair.
In the middle of possible fraud charges, family betrayal, and a collapsing marriage, he had taken thirty seconds to fix his hair.
That was Daniel.
Ruiz handed Hale something written on a small notepad.
Hale read it without comment.
Daniel noticed.
“What’s that?”
“Nothing you need to worry about right now.”
Daniel gave a short, humorless laugh.
“I’m getting pretty tired of that phrase.”
Hale ignored him.
Daniel turned to me.
“I need my laptop.”
“No,” Hale said.
“It’s mine.”
“I advised you not to remove or alter anything potentially relevant.”
“I work on that laptop.”
“Then speak with your attorney before you decide what to do.”
Daniel looked at Ruiz.
“You went into my bedroom.”
“With you.”
“You saw my computer bag.”
“I saw a bag.”
“This is insane.”
Hale said, “Mr. Carter, you are free to leave.”
Daniel stood still.
Being free to leave clearly felt different when nobody was asking him to stay.
He looked at Patricia.
She stared at her water.
He looked at me.
I was still holding the ring.
Finally he picked up his car keys from the counter.
“I’ll call you later.”
“No.”
He stopped.
“What do you mean no?”
“I mean don’t.”
His face tightened.
“Emily, we need to talk.”
“We just did.”
“No, we didn’t.”
He gestured at Hale and Ruiz.
“This is not talking.”
“That’s true.”
My throat felt dry.
“This is finding out.”
Daniel’s eyes hardened.
“You don’t know everything.”
“Then tell your lawyer everything.”
For once, he had nothing to say.
He walked toward the front door.
Patricia whispered, “Daniel.”
He turned.
She looked at him for several seconds.
I expected her to say something maternal and devastating.
Be safe.
I love you.
Please get help.
Instead she asked, “Where are you going?”
Daniel blinked.
“I don’t know.”
It was the first answer he gave that morning that I completely believed.
He left.
The front door closed without slamming.
That somehow made it worse.
Through the window, I watched him put the duffel bag in the back seat of his car.
Mrs. Delaney suddenly became fascinated with the nozzle on her garden hose.
Daniel backed out too fast, clipped the curb, corrected, and drove away.
Patricia sat down again.
Hale waited until the car disappeared before speaking.
“Do either of you have access to his location through a family account or shared app?”
I did.
The answer came with an immediate knot of shame.
We had enabled location sharing years earlier after Daniel lost his phone at a county fair.
I had checked his location more often during the past month.
Not obsessively.
That was the lie I told myself.
Not obsessively enough to call it surveillance, only often enough to know that he had spent three Tuesday nights somewhere other than the gym.
“Yes,” I said.
“Don’t track him for us.”
Hale was firm.
“If investigators need location information, they’ll handle it through proper channels.”
I nodded.
My phone suddenly felt heavy in my pocket.
I had spent weeks trying to solve Daniel privately.
Hale’s warning made me see how much I had turned myself into an amateur detective because admitting I no longer trusted my husband felt worse than snooping.
Patricia said, “Am I in trouble?”
Hale sat across from her again.
“I can’t make charging decisions, ma’am.”
Her face tightened.
“You participated in reporting money as stolen when you knew your son had access to it.”
“I know.”
“What matters now is being completely truthful.”
She nodded.
“No more protecting him by changing details.”
“I won’t.”
Hale held her gaze.
“Even if the truth makes him look worse.”
Patricia looked toward the closed front door.
“That part may take practice.”
Hale’s expression softened by a fraction.
“Then start practicing.”
He spent another twenty minutes taking basic statements.
The process was less dramatic than I expected.
Names.
Dates.
Account numbers I had to retrieve.
Whether Daniel had access to my cards.
Whether anything else was missing.
Whether I had seen threatening messages myself.
I had not.
When Hale asked about the attempted login to my bank, I opened the security email on my phone.
He asked me to preserve it.
The login had come from a device the bank described only as unrecognized.
Daniel had denied trying.
At the time, I had almost believed him.
Now the denial sat beside everything else.
Not proof.
Just weight.
After Hale and Ruiz finally left, the house became horribly quiet.
The patrol cars pulled away.
Mrs. Delaney went inside.
A dog barked somewhere behind the row of houses.
Patricia remained at the kitchen table.
I stood at the sink and stared at a coffee mug Daniel had left there that morning.
There was a brown crescent drying along the bottom.
I rinsed it.
Then I became furious at myself for rinsing it.
I set it down too hard.
Patricia jumped.
May you like
“Sorry.”
She shook her head.
