Chương 6
She had changed out of the cream coat.
Now she wore Garrett’s navy sweatshirt over black leggings, and the sweatshirt stretched around the curve of her belly.
Mud darkened one knee.
There was blood on the side of her left hand.
For one second, nobody said anything.
Then she looked at my face and started crying.
I hated her for it.
“You don’t get to do that.”
She wiped at her eyes.
“I know.”
“No, I don’t think you do.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that.”
Her mouth closed.
Tobias stepped into view behind me.
Penelope stared at his legs.
Her crying stopped completely.
“Oh my God.”
“Not tonight,” Tobias said.
She made a small, shocked laugh that vanished almost immediately.
“You can walk.”
“Apparently everybody’s evening is full of surprises.”
Evelyn pulled Penelope inside and shut the door.
“Did anyone follow you?”
“No.”
“That was not a question you can answer casually.”
Penelope flinched.
“I changed cars at the marina.”
Evelyn’s expression sharpened.
“With whose car?”
“A woman named Denise gave me her keys.”
“Who is Denise?”
“She runs the bait shop.”
“You involved a civilian?”
“I told her Garrett hit me.”
I looked at the blood on Penelope’s hand.
“Did he?”
“No.”
The answer landed badly.
Penelope saw it.
“I needed her to help me.”
“You lied about being abused to steal a car.”
“I didn’t steal it.”
“She voluntarily lent a pregnant stranger her vehicle because you told her your boyfriend hit you.”
“Husband,” Penelope said automatically.
I stared at her.
She shut her eyes.
“Sorry.”
The word sat between us like something rotten.
Tobias motioned toward a chair.
“Sit down.”
Penelope obeyed.
I noticed she lowered herself carefully, one hand under her stomach.
That human gesture made me angrier.
Garrett’s child moved beneath that sweatshirt.
My niece or nephew.
A person who had done nothing.
I wanted the pregnancy to stop existing because it complicated my hatred.
I hated myself for that too.
Evelyn brought a first-aid kit.
“What happened to your hand?”
“Broken glass.”
“Whose?”
“Garrett’s phone.”
Tobias crouched across from her.
“Start talking.”
Penelope looked at me instead.
“I didn’t know he was going to leave you in the car.”
“You were waiting on shore.”
“Yes.”
“Pregnant with my husband’s baby.”
Her face folded.
“Yes.”
“You watched us sink.”
“I thought he was getting you out.”
The kitchen went silent.
I almost admired the audacity.
“You thought he drove us into a river so he could rescue us?”
“No.”
Penelope’s hands tightened over each other.
“I thought the crash was staged.”
“It was staged.”
“I mean staged for witnesses.”
Tobias leaned forward.
“What witnesses?”
“Garrett told me there was going to be an accident near the creek and that you and Rosalind would get out on the far side, under the dock.”
I stared at her.
“He told you we were part of it?”
“Yes.”
“Why would I agree to drive my own car into a river?”
“He said it had to do with an insurance investigation.”
I laughed.
Penelope recoiled.
“Please don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Make that sound.”
“What sound?”
“Like I’m the stupidest person you’ve ever met.”
“You slept with my husband, got pregnant, stood under an umbrella while he drove me into a river, and you would like me to protect your feelings about your intelligence?”
Penelope looked down.
“No.”
“Good.”
Evelyn cleaned the cut across her hand.
Penelope winced but did not pull away.
Tobias spoke more quietly.
“What exactly did Garrett tell you?”
Penelope swallowed.
“That somebody at the shipyard was stealing from a marine insurance account.”
Evelyn stopped moving.
“What account?”
“I don’t know.”
“Try.”
“I don’t know.”
Tobias said, “Keep going.”
“He said Rosalind had found out and wanted to trap the person responsible.”
I stared at her.
“Me?”
“He said you couldn’t tell me because you didn’t trust me.”
“That part was convenient.”
Penelope nodded miserably.
“He said he needed me on the shore because someone had to photograph the vehicle going into the water, then call it in after you were clear.”
“Did you photograph it?”
“Yes.”
“With what?”
“My phone.”
“Where is the phone?”
She looked toward Evelyn.
“In the river.”
Nobody spoke.
Penelope rubbed her stomach with both hands.
“Garrett came out alone.”
Her voice changed.
It lost its defensive edge.
“He was smiling.”
I remembered that smile.
My chest tightened.
“I asked where you were.”
She looked at me.
“He said you had gone under the dock.”
“No.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
“What changed your mind?”
“He hugged me.”
The answer was so ordinary that for a moment I thought I had misheard.
Tobias frowned.
“What?”
Penelope wiped her nose with Garrett’s sleeve.
“When he hugged me, I could feel something in his jacket pocket.”
She looked embarrassed now.
“A little plastic handle.”
Evelyn said, “What kind?”
“I didn’t know then.”
Her eyes moved to Tobias.
“But I saw the same kind of cutter in your hand when you got out from under the pier.”
Tobias’s face hardened.
Penelope continued.
“Garrett had one too.”
I felt the kitchen shrink around us.
“He cut the restraint.”
“No.”
Penelope shook her head.
“He had blood on his fingers, and there was a short piece of silver wire stuck to his cuff.”
My hand went instinctively to the bruise across my chest.
Tobias stood.
“He wired her in and kept the cutter in case he needed to free himself from something.”
“Or destroy evidence,” Evelyn said.
Penelope nodded.
“I asked him why he had wire.”
“What did he say?”
“He said it came from the guardrail.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“I know.”
“Now you know.”
She accepted that without argument.
I looked at her stomach.
“When did you find out you were pregnant?”
“Seven weeks ago.”
“How far along are you?”
“Nineteen weeks.”
The arithmetic made me nauseated.
“So you hid it for three months.”
“I was scared.”
“Of me?”
“Yes.”
That answer surprised me.
Penelope looked at her knees.
“And of him.”
May you like
“Garrett?”
“He was happy at first.”
