Chương 6
I had known her long enough to recognize the tightening at the corner of her mouth.
She looked at Daniel.
“Was that there when you got into the coffin?”
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“I spent an hour lying in that thing before they brought me upstairs.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“No, Elena, I didn’t see a phone.”
I looked at the coffin.
The interior cushion had been lifted just enough to expose a narrow gap in the satin.
“Could somebody have put it there after?”
Daniel frowned.
“Maybe during the viewing.”
Ruiz looked toward the rear of the chapel.
“How many people had access?”
Daniel gave a tired laugh.
“At my fake funeral?”
“Yes.”
“Apparently more than I’d like.”
Ruiz ignored that.
She handed the phone back to the officer.
“Bag it.”
He nodded and moved away.
I said, “The message wasn’t sent to that phone.”
“No.”
“So whoever left it there expected someone to find it.”
“Possibly.”
“Someone specific.”
Ruiz looked at me.
“Possibly.”
Daniel stepped closer to the coffin.
“Or they wanted the police to find it.”
I looked at him.
“Why?”
“To keep Claire here.”
The question had occurred to me too.
I did not like hearing it from him.
Ruiz walked toward the front doors and spoke briefly with one of the officers.
I watched people through the stained-glass panels.
Some relatives still lingered outside.
Margaret’s sister stood near the curb crying into a tissue while a cameraman tried to get a shot over her shoulder.
Victor was nowhere in sight.
Neither was Margaret.
A black sedan idled at the corner of the parking lot.
When I looked directly at it, the driver pulled away.
“Did you see that?”
Daniel turned.
“What?”
“The car.”
“What car?”
Of course.
Ruiz returned.
“No one leaves until we sort out who had access to the coffin.”
Aunt Louise, who had apparently been listening from the vestibule, appeared with her hat crushed against her chest.
“You cannot keep us here.”
Ruiz faced her.
“I can keep witnesses on scene while I determine whether there’s an immediate threat.”
“I have a dog.”
Ruiz blinked.
“I’m sorry?”
“My dog has been alone since eight this morning.”
Daniel looked at the floor.
I knew that look.
He was trying not to laugh.
Louise pointed at him.
“And you.”
Daniel looked up.
“You frightened ten years off my life.”
“You told Claire I was better off dead.”
Louise stiffened.
“I was emotional.”
“You were surprisingly articulate for emotional.”
Her face reddened.
“That is not fair.”
“No, Aunt Louise, this entire day has had a fairness problem.”
She opened her mouth, closed it, and marched toward the vestibule.
Ruiz watched her go.
“I’m going to regret letting anyone in this family testify.”
“You should hear Thanksgiving.”
Daniel looked at me.
I did not return the smile he tried to offer.
Ruiz said, “Claire, your phone.”
I handed it to her.
“Call log first.”
She scrolled.
“Margaret called at one twenty-seven yesterday.”
“Yes.”
“Duration six minutes.”
“That sounds right.”
“What did she say?”
“She complained that the florist had used too many lilies.”
Daniel frowned.
“My mother hates lilies.”
“I know.”
Ruiz looked up.
“What else?”
“She said the arrangement should look expensive but restrained.”
Daniel rubbed his face.
“Of course she did.”
“She also asked whether I had signed the waiver.”
“Did she ask where you were?”
“Yes.”
Ruiz’s eyes sharpened.
“How exactly?”
I closed my eyes for a moment.
The conversation came back in fragments.
Margaret’s clipped tone.
A delivery truck reversing outside.
The kettle screaming because I had forgotten I was boiling water.
“She asked why I sounded distracted.”
“And you said?”
“That I was looking for my keys.”
“For the florist?”
“Yes.”
“Did you tell her which florist?”
“I don’t think so.”
Daniel said, “She knew which one.”
I turned.
“How?”
“My mother chose them.”
“Then why was I the one fixing the arrangement?”
Neither of us needed to answer.
Ruiz did anyway.
“To get you out of the house.”
The anger arrived cleaner this time.
Not grief.
Not confusion.
Something cold and useful.
“She created the errand.”
“Looks that way.”
“And someone entered while I was gone.”
“Possibly.”
“Stop saying possibly.”
Ruiz met my eyes.
“I say possibly because I have a badge, not a crystal ball.”
That irritated me enough to calm me.
I took my phone back.
“Fine.”
Daniel leaned against the front pew.
His color was improving, though one side of his face still carried the faint red mark from my hand.
I tried not to look at it.
“Who knew about the drive?” I asked.
“Me,” Daniel said.
“Ruiz.”
She nodded.
“Two investigators on my team.”
“Victor?”
“He knew I kept backups.”
“Margaret?”
Daniel hesitated.
“I don’t know.”
I folded my arms.
“You don’t know, or you don’t want to answer?”
“I genuinely don’t know.”
“Where exactly was the drive?”
“In the false bottom of the blue document box in our office.”
I stared at him.
“The blue box.”
“Yes.”
“The one with our mortgage papers.”
“Yes.”
“I opened that box last month.”
He said nothing.
I stepped closer.
“You put evidence tied to a possible murder conspiracy underneath our mortgage documents.”
“I thought it was secure.”
“In our house.”
“You’re making the same point repeatedly.”
“Because it keeps being terrible.”
Ruiz lifted a hand.
“Both of you.”
We stopped.
She pointed toward the side room.
“Sit.”
“I’m not five.”
“Then make the mature choice voluntarily.”
Daniel pushed himself away from the pew.
“She uses that on everyone.”
“I learned it from public school teachers.”
We returned downstairs.
This time Ruiz closed the door.
She placed a legal pad on the table.
“Let’s work the access problem.”
I sat across from her.
Daniel took the chair beside me, leaving enough space that our shoulders did not touch.
“Who entered the house yesterday?”
Ruiz asked.
“Margaret’s attorney came at eleven.”
“Name?”
“Charles Beckett.”
Daniel looked at me.
“Beckett came to the house?”
“Yes.”
May you like
“What did he want?”
“The waiver.”
