Chương 7
“You didn’t tell me that.”
I turned slowly.
“I thought you were dead.”
He looked away.
“Right.”
Ruiz wrote the name down.
“Anyone else?”
“Delivery driver around noon.”
“For?”
“Food.”
“You ordered?”
“No.”
Daniel looked back at me.
“What food?”
“Soup.”
“Soup?”
“Three containers.”
“From who?”
“There wasn’t a card.”
Ruiz stopped writing.
“You ate it?”
“One bowl.”
Daniel straightened.
“You ate food delivered anonymously while somebody was trying to kill me?”
I stared at him.
“Interesting how quickly you’ve become an advocate for disclosure.”
He closed his mouth.
Ruiz rubbed her temple.
“Did you feel sick afterward?”
“No.”
“What happened to the rest?”
“In the refrigerator.”
“Good.”
Daniel said, “Why good?”
“Because I can test it.”
He went quiet.
I continued.
“The florist called at one forty-three saying there was a problem with the arrangement.”
Ruiz looked at me.
“They called you?”
“Yes.”
“After Margaret suggested it?”
“Yes.”
“Who was on the line?”
“A woman.”
“Name?”
“She said Emily.”
“Did you recognize the voice?”
“No.”
“Did you call the florist back using the number from their website?”
I looked at her.
“No.”
She made a small mark on the legal pad.
I hated that mark.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“That was a judgmental pen stroke.”
“It was a note.”
“It was absolutely a judgmental pen stroke.”
Daniel almost smiled again.
Ruiz ignored both of us.
“How long were you gone?”
“Forty-two minutes, maybe forty-five.”
“Alarm system?”
“Disarmed.”
Daniel turned toward me.
“Why?”
“I thought the cleaning service was coming.”
“They come Thursdays.”
“Yesterday was Thursday.”
He blinked.
The fatigue was making him stupid.
“Yes.”
“Thank you.”
Ruiz said, “Did they come?”
“No.”
“Did they cancel?”
“I got a text around two fifteen.”
“Show me.”
I opened my messages.
The cleaning company’s name was listed three conversations down.
I handed Ruiz the phone.
She read silently.
Then she looked at me.
“What?”
“This number.”
“Yes.”
“Is it the usual one?”
“I think so.”
“Think?”
“I don’t memorize the cleaning company’s phone number, Elena.”
“Open an older message.”
I scrolled back three weeks.
The earlier text thread showed appointment reminders.
Different number.
My skin prickled.
Daniel leaned closer.
“Let me see.”
I handed him the phone.
The fake cancellation read, Family emergency, we need to reschedule today.
Nothing else.
No greeting.
No company name.
No suggestion for a replacement appointment.
I had read it while driving and never thought twice.
Daniel put the phone down.
“They cleared the house.”
Ruiz nodded.
“Or tried to.”
I said, “Margaret knew I’d be gone.”
“The florist got you out.”
“The cleaning message kept anyone else from coming in.”
“And Beckett had already visited.”
Ruiz underlined his name.
Daniel said, “Beckett wouldn’t break into our house.”
I looked at him.
“You sound very sure.”
“He’s been the family attorney for twenty years.”
“That is not a character reference.”
“He handled my father’s estate.”
“Still not a character reference.”
“He helped me when I bought my first condo.”
I stared at him.
“Daniel.”
He rubbed his forehead.
“Fine.”
Ruiz said, “What did Beckett do while he was at the house?”
“He sat in the living room.”
“Only there?”
“As far as I saw.”
“Did you leave him alone?”
I hesitated.
Daniel noticed.
“How long?”
“I went upstairs.”
“For what?”
“To get the waiver he had emailed me.”
“You printed it upstairs?”
“Yes.”
“How long were you gone?”
“Maybe three minutes.”
Ruiz wrote something.
Daniel stared at the table.
I could see him resisting the urge to defend Beckett again.
“What?”
I asked.
“He knows the house.”
“So?”
“He designed the estate plan.”
I waited.
Daniel looked at me.
“He knows where we keep documents.”
The three of us sat with that.
Above us, footsteps crossed the chapel floor.
A door slammed.
Someone laughed outside, too loudly and for no apparent reason.
Ruiz’s phone vibrated.
She checked the screen and stood.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
“Claire.”
“I am done staying in rooms while people decide what I’m allowed to know.”
“This is operational.”
“That phrase has ruined my week.”
Ruiz stared at me.
Then she looked at Daniel.
“Can you keep her here?”
He shook his head immediately.
“No.”
“Smartest thing you’ve done today.”
Ruiz answered the call.
“Ruiz.”
She listened.
Her face went still.
“When?”
Another pause.
“Secure it and touch nothing.”
She ended the call.
Daniel stood.
“What happened?”
Ruiz looked at him first.
Then at me.
“They found the backup drive.”
Relief passed across Daniel’s face.
“Where?”
Ruiz did not answer immediately.
That was answer enough.
“Where?”
I repeated.
“Margaret’s storage unit.”
Daniel let out a breath.
I did not.
“That’s too easy.”
Ruiz watched me.
Daniel frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“Margaret stages narratives.”
“She stole the drive.”
“Maybe.”
“You just yelled at Elena for saying maybe.”
“I’m growing.”
Daniel ignored that.
“Claire, it was in her storage unit.”
“Which the police searched because of evidence you already had against her.”
“Yes.”
“So whoever put it there knew it would be found.”
Ruiz’s gaze sharpened.
Daniel shook his head.
“You think she was framed?”
“No.”
I stood.
“I think Margaret is guilty of something.”
“Something?”
“Probably several things.”
“Then what are you saying?”
“I’m saying guilty people can still be framed for crimes they didn’t commit.”
Ruiz slowly closed her notebook.
“That would require someone else to know about the drive, the search warrants, and the storage unit.”
Daniel looked at her.
“One of your investigators?”
“Or someone who had access to Daniel’s information before the operation.”
I thought of the phone hidden inside the coffin.
The anonymous food.
The false cleaning cancellation.
Beckett sitting in our living room while I went upstairs.
A detail came back so suddenly I felt it physically.
When I returned with the waiver, Beckett had not been sitting where I left him.
He had been standing beside the bookshelf near the hallway.
At the time, he had smiled and said his back was bothering him.
“Ruiz.”
She looked at me.
“Beckett asked me a strange question yesterday.”
May you like
“What question?”
“He asked whether Daniel still kept paper backups.”
