Chương 8
“If either of them comes up alive, do not let them reach Baltimore.”
More static.
Then the sentence Penelope had already repeated.
“My father handled the parents, and I’m handling the children.”
The recording ended.
Nobody moved.
I had expected hearing it myself to create certainty.
Instead it created nausea.
Voices could be challenged.
Recordings could be disputed.
But Garrett’s tone was the thing I could not explain away.
He sounded annoyed.
Not panicked.
Not frightened.
Annoyed that murder had become complicated.
Tobias replayed the final ten seconds.
Evelyn stopped him.
“Enough.”
He looked at Penelope.
“Who is the other man?”
She folded her arms around herself.
“Does that matter?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Garrett may know about him.”
“He doesn’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
Penelope laughed bitterly.
“That seems to be tonight’s theme.”
I sat back down.
“Tell us.”
She looked at me.
“I don’t want to.”
“I didn’t want to drown.”
Her eyes closed.
His name was Julian Mercer.
I knew it.
Not personally.
Everyone at the shipyard knew Mercer Marine Logistics because they handled specialized transport for oversized hull components along the East Coast.
Julian was the founder’s son.
Thirty-three.
Divorced.
A man Garrett had once described at dinner as a peacock with a business degree.
“You’ve been seeing Julian Mercer?”
“For eight months.”
Tobias’s eyebrows lifted.
“That baby is nineteen weeks.”
“I can count.”
“So can Garrett.”
Penelope’s face drained.
I saw the exact second the same thought reached her.
“He never asked for a paternity test.”
“No,” Tobias said.
“He asked about inheritance.”
Penelope put one hand over her mouth.
“Oh God.”
I was too tired to be surprised anymore.
“Is Julian the father?”
“I don’t know.”
The words barely came out.
“You don’t know?”
“I slept with both of them within the same week.”
There were sentences a person could hear about her husband that should have produced screaming.
I only stared at the kitchen table.
A nick in the wood ran beneath my thumb.
Somebody had once chopped vegetables there too hard.
The ordinary mark helped.
“Does Julian know?”
Penelope nodded.
“He knows he could be.”
“And he still sees you?”
“Sometimes.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It is the only one I have.”
Tobias moved to the window and shifted the curtain a fraction.
The borrowed car remained outside.
No headlights approached.
Evelyn picked up Penelope’s second phone.
“Why was this hidden from Garrett?”
“Julian gave it to me.”
“For what?”
“So Garrett couldn’t monitor our messages.”
I looked up.
“Monitor?”
Penelope rubbed her arms.
“He knew things.”
“What things?”
“Where I went.”
“That’s not difficult if you told him.”
“I didn’t always tell him.”
Tobias turned from the window.
“Did you ever check your regular phone for tracking apps?”
“I wouldn’t know what to look for.”
“Location sharing?”
“I turned it off.”
“Shared account?”
“No.”
Evelyn said, “Car.”
Penelope frowned.
“What?”
“Does your car have connected services?”
“Yes.”
“Who set up the account?”
“Garrett helped me when I bought it.”
There was another silence.
Penelope whispered a curse.
Tobias almost smiled.
Not because anything was funny.
Because sometimes discovering the mechanism behind fear gave you one stupid second of relief.
“Which car did you drive to the creek?” he asked.
“Mine.”
“And you left it there?”
“Yes.”
“Then Garrett can probably see you’re no longer with it.”
“I know.”
“No, you just learned that.”
Her expression sharpened.
“I am trying very hard not to fall apart.”
“So are we.”
“I noticed the gun.”
He looked down at it as though he had forgotten he was still holding one.
Then he holstered it.
Evelyn sat across from Penelope.
“Julian’s company does business with Rosalind’s shipyard.”
“Yes.”
“How close is he to Garrett?”
“They hate each other.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
Penelope blinked.
“They’ve had contracts together.”
“Recently?”
“I think so.”
Tobias looked at Evelyn.
“What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking the Aldridges have spent fifteen years trying to get control of a shipyard that has become more valuable because of government and commercial repair contracts.”
She looked at me.
“And I’m thinking Garrett may not be the only person making plans around ownership.”
I stiffened.
“You think Julian is involved?”
“I think affairs are excellent places to hide information exchanges.”
Penelope stood.
“Julian is not using me.”
Evelyn’s face remained neutral.
“People rarely know they’re being used while it feels like affection.”
That sentence landed on me too.
I looked away.
Penelope noticed.
Her anger disappeared.
“Rosalind.”
“Don’t.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Not now.”
“I am.”
“You can be sorry quietly.”
She did.
Tobias picked up the guardianship draft again.
“Why would Garrett need control of Penelope’s child?”
Evelyn answered slowly.
“If he could establish himself as the child’s legal father, and if something happened to Penelope after Rosalind and Tobias were gone, he might argue for whatever inheritance interest Penelope possessed.”
“She doesn’t possess one,” I said.
“Not under your father’s will.”
“Then this makes no sense.”
“Unless there is another instrument.”
My stomach tightened.
“There isn’t.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Because Dad showed me the estate documents after Mom died.”
Tobias turned.
“He showed you?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The year before Garrett and I married.”
My brother’s face changed.
“What?”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“Dad was already dead.”
“I meant the trust revision.”
“No.”
His voice was very quiet.
“Rosalind, Dad died with Mom.”
I opened my mouth.
Nothing came.
Of course he had.
I knew that.
I had known it every day for fifteen years.
Yet for a second the memory had arrived incorrectly and my mind had accepted it.
The room tilted again.
Tobias crossed to me.
“Sit.”
“I am sitting.”
“Look at me.”
I did.
“How much coffee did you drink?”
“Two sips.”
“Any medication today?”
“No.”
“Before the crash?”
“No.”
Penelope stared between us.
“What is happening?”
I pressed my fingertips against my forehead.
“I meant the family attorney showed me.”
“Which attorney?”
“Martin Hale.”
Evelyn swore softly.
That frightened me.
“Who is Martin Hale?”
May you like
Tobias asked.
“Was,” Evelyn said.
