Chương 6
“That is one reason.”
Simone handed her a paper bag for her clothes.
“Do not throw away anything you wore last night if you think it may matter later.”
“I changed.”
“Keep the clothes anyway.”
Audrey nodded.
Simone hesitated at the door.
“Do you want your people in here?”
“My people?”
“The gentleman who looks like he wants to arrest the parking lot and the woman who keeps telling him to sit down.”
Despite the pain, Audrey smiled.
“My father can stay outside.”
“The woman?”
“Mara can come in.”
Simone gave her a look that suggested this was the obvious choice.
“Good.”
The examination took longer than Audrey expected.
Her physician, Dr. Kline, photographed visible injuries with Audrey’s consent and ordered imaging because of the rib pain and tenderness along her left side.
Nothing was broken.
The relief came so quickly Audrey almost cried.
Dr. Kline saw it.
“Not broken doesn’t mean not injured.”
“I know.”
“You’re going to hurt more tomorrow.”
Audrey looked at the ceiling.
“Wonderful.”
“I recommend boring pain management and no heroics.”
“I’m not heroic.”
“Excellent.”
Dr. Kline rolled her stool closer.
“Did he strangle you?”
“No.”
“Put pressure on your neck?”
“He grabbed me.”
“Did you lose consciousness?”
“No.”
“Difficulty swallowing?”
“A little, but my lip hurts too.”
“We’re checking your neck.”
Audrey closed her eyes.
There were more questions.
Some sounded clinical.
Some sounded unbearable.
Did he prevent you from leaving?
Did he threaten to kill you?
Has violence increased?
Does he have access to firearms?
Has he threatened himself?
Has he threatened pets?
There were no pets.
No guns that Audrey knew about.
No direct death threat.
Yet the answers did not comfort her.
When the examination ended, Dr. Kline placed a folded sheet of resources on the counter.
“You do not have to decide everything today.”
Audrey stared at the paper.
“I do have to decide where to sleep.”
“Yes.”
“That feels like everything.”
Dr. Kline gave a small nod.
“Today it might.”
Mara drove her to the firm apartment.
Thomas followed.
The apartment was on the sixth floor of a building above a pharmacy and a bakery.
It contained beige furniture, three framed prints of sailboats, and absolutely no evidence that any human being had chosen to live there.
Audrey loved it immediately.
Nothing in it belonged to Julian.
Thomas carried her suitcase into the bedroom.
Then he stood in the doorway as if uncertain whether he was allowed farther inside.
Audrey sat on the edge of the bed.
Mara placed the trust envelope on the dresser.
“You should read it when you can focus.”
Audrey looked at Thomas.
“Did Julian know the exact amount?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he know the date?”
Thomas hesitated.
“Probably.”
“How?”
“I’m trying to figure that out.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“No.”
His patience thinned.
“It’s the only one I have.”
Audrey nodded.
The irritation helped.
A frightened father was harder to deal with than an irritated one.
“What else did the investigator find?”
Thomas leaned against the wall.
“Nothing that proved Julian had committed a crime.”
“That wording is doing a lot of work.”
“It found lawsuits.”
“Against him?”
“No.”
“Against Eleanor?”
“One.”
“For?”
“Unpaid private debt.”
“How much?”
“About sixty thousand.”
Audrey frowned.
“Recently?”
“Eight years ago.”
“That’s before Julian and I met.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“It was settled.”
“With whose money?”
Thomas looked at Mara.
Mara said, “You don’t know.”
“No.”
Audrey caught something in her father’s face.
“You suspect.”
“I suspect lots of things.”
“That’s what got us here.”
Thomas stiffened.
Mara stepped between them without physically moving.
“Neither of you is going to solve ten years of family history before lunch.”
Thomas looked away.
Audrey noticed the clock on the nightstand.
10:11.
A strange thought came to her.
“They’re there.”
Mara checked her phone.
“What?”
“Julian and Eleanor.”
“At your house?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t know that.”
Audrey did.
Not because of evidence.
Because Julian had spent their entire marriage arriving early whenever he wanted someone else to feel late.
At 10:14, her personal phone rang.
Julian.
No one moved.
It rang until voicemail.
Then again.
Then a text arrived.
Where are you?
A second message followed.
Mom and I are waiting.
Audrey stared at the screen.
Mara said, “Do not answer yet.”
Audrey read the next message.
This is childish.
Thomas swore under his breath.
Mara glanced at him.
“Helpful.”
The phone rang again.
Audrey silenced it.
Another message appeared.
We are trying to help you.
Then another.
You are making this much worse than it needs to be.
Audrey put the phone face down.
Thomas paced once across the room.
“He assaulted you and now he’s annoyed you’re inconveniencing him.”
“Dad.”
“I’m stating a fact.”
“You’re enjoying being right.”
He stopped.
The accusation hung between them.
His face changed.
Audrey immediately wished she could take it back.
Not because it was completely wrong.
Because it was only partly right.
Thomas sat in the chair by the window.
“No.”
His voice was quieter now.
“I spent five years hoping I was wrong.”
Audrey looked at him.
He folded his hands.
“I would give anything to be wrong.”
The room settled.
Traffic moved six floors below them.
Somebody in the apartment overhead dragged a chair across the floor.
Audrey’s phone vibrated again.
This time the message was from Eleanor.
Sweetheart, please come home so we can talk calmly.
Audrey read it twice.
The word sweetheart made her skin crawl.
A photograph arrived beneath it.
Eleanor was sitting at Audrey’s dining room table.
The wedding china was laid out.
Julian stood behind her mother-in-law with one hand resting on the chair.
Both of them were smiling.
Audrey enlarged the photograph.
Mara leaned closer.
“What?”
Audrey pointed.
On the table beside Eleanor’s plate lay a stack of papers.
The top page was partly covered by a napkin, but Audrey could see the first line.
RESIDENTIAL PURCHASE AND SALE AGREEMENT.
Thomas stood.
“They brought a contract.”
May you like
Audrey zoomed in farther.
At the bottom edge of the photograph, barely visible beneath Eleanor’s elbow, another page showed a familiar logo.
