Chương 7
“Scott.”
He stopped.
“If there is money at Harbor Ridge with my name on it, do not move it.”
He looked over his shoulder.
“I’m not stealing from you.”
“I didn’t use that word.”
His face hardened.
Then he left.
The garage door opened and closed.
Rebecca waited until his car had backed into the street.
“He’s lying.”
“Yes.”
“You know that?”
“I know he’s lying about something.”
We stood in the kitchen listening to the refrigerator hum.
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I almost ignored it.
Then I answered.
“Ms. Ellison?”
“Yes.”
“This is Andrea from Willow Glen.”
The leasing agent’s voice was no longer cheerful.
“I’m calling because our manager reviewed the application after your report.”
I put the call on speaker.
Rebecca leaned closer.
Andrea continued.
“We have a problem with the identity documents that were uploaded.”
“What kind of problem?”
“The driver’s license image appears legitimate, but our system also retained metadata from the upload.”
I did not understand.
“What does that tell you?”
“There was a filename attached.”
She paused.
“It was not labeled with your name.”
My fingers tightened around the phone.
“What was it labeled?”
Another hesitation.
“JennaCole_ClientDocs.”
Rebecca’s eyes widened.
I stared at the empty doorway where Scott had been standing seconds earlier.
Andrea kept talking.
“There is something else.”
I swallowed.
“What?”
“The lease application did not come from Mr. Ellison’s email address.”
For one irrational second, relief tried to enter.
Then Andrea said, “It came from Ms. Cole’s.”
For a few seconds, nobody in my kitchen moved.
Andrea’s voice came through the speaker as if she were standing very far away.
“Ms. Ellison?”
“I’m here.”
“I want to be careful about what I say because our compliance department is reviewing the file.”
“Did Jenna submit everything?”
“The account used to upload the application is registered to her email address.”
Rebecca folded her arms tightly across her chest.
“Can you send that information to Claire in writing?”
Andrea hesitated.
“I can send confirmation that the application was submitted through that account.”
“Please do,” I said.
“There’s also an IP record, but I’m not authorized to interpret it.”
“Don’t interpret anything.”
Maya’s voice had begun living in my head.
“Just preserve it.”
Andrea promised the management company would freeze the lease and refund the deposit to the original account once their fraud review was complete.
I thanked her and ended the call.
Rebecca immediately reached for her phone.
“Do not call Jenna.”
She looked offended.
“I wasn’t.”
“You absolutely were.”
“I was going to look her up.”
“That counts.”
She lowered the phone.
“Fine.”
I stared at the box in the dining room.
The ceramic bowl was visible between two sweaters.
“Scott told her I signed the lease.”
“And she submitted it anyway.”
“Yes.”
“So either she knew he was lying or she believed something completely insane.”
“Those aren’t mutually exclusive.”
Rebecca gave me a tired look.
“You’re making jokes now?”
“I think my brain is trying to keep me from throwing up.”
That quieted her.
She filled two glasses with water.
We sat at the kitchen table where Scott and I had once spent three weekends choosing cabinet colors from samples that all looked exactly the same to me.
Rebecca pushed a glass toward me.
“Call your lawyer.”
Maya answered from home.
I could hear dishes in the background and a child asking someone where the red marker was.
For the first time, it occurred to me that she had a life that continued after I left her office.
I told her what Andrea had said.
“Good,” Maya replied.
“Good?”
“Not good morally.”
A cupboard closed on her end.
“Good evidentially.”
She asked me to forward any email from the property manager and to write down everything I remembered while it was fresh.
Then she told me something I disliked.
“Do not assume Jenna and Scott acted together in the same way.”
“But the application came from her account.”
“That tells us something happened through her account.”
“It tells us she sent it.”
“Possibly.”
I frowned.
“You sound like you’re defending her.”
“I’m protecting you from deciding the answer before we have the facts.”
I hated how reasonable that was.
Maya continued.
“Scott may have used her computer.”
“She could have done it herself.”
“Yes.”
“She knew my name was on the lease.”
“Yes.”
“She knew she was moving into my house.”
“Yes.”
“Then why should I care which one of them clicked upload?”
“Because one version may matter more than another later.”
Rebecca mouthed, She’s annoying.
I almost smiled.
Maya told me she had requested records concerning the pending distribution and would contact Harbor Ridge directly the next morning.
Before ending the call, she asked where Scott was.
“A hotel, supposedly.”
“Do you know which one?”
“No.”
“Don’t chase him.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“Good.”
Rebecca waited until I hung up.
“I like her.”
“You called her annoying thirty seconds ago.”
“Those things coexist.”
We cleaned the kitchen because neither of us wanted to go upstairs.
At nine thirty, Rebecca insisted on staying.
I gave her the guest room without mentioning that Scott had slept there the previous night.
She discovered the locked door.
“Why is this locked?”
I stared at it.
Scott had locked it from inside when he went to sleep.
He must have unlocked it in the morning.
Now the handle would not turn.
Rebecca crouched and examined the knob.
“Did he lock this before leaving?”
“I don’t know.”
“What’s in there?”
“Nothing important.”
Then I remembered the nightstand.
Six months earlier, Scott had started keeping an old laptop there because he said his work computer was too restricted for personal travel bookings.
I called Maya again.
She did not sound pleased.
“Do not break into the room.”
“It’s my house.”
“Yes, and that does not make every possible action smart.”
“So I leave it locked?”
“For tonight.”
Rebecca raised both hands as if surrendering to a judge.
We went to bed.
May you like
I lasted twenty-three minutes.
Then I got up, walked downstairs, and checked every exterior door.
