Chương 12
I failed.
Every footstep outside my hospital room sounded like news.
Every vibration from a nurse’s phone made my stomach tighten.
At seven fifteen, Emily brought me soup I did not want.
“You have to eat.”
“I have been eating.”
“You moved a cracker around a plate for ten minutes.”
“That counts as engagement.”
“It does not.”
She set the tray in front of me.
I looked at the soup.
“What is it?”
“Chicken.”
“It looks beige.”
“Hospital chicken has low self-esteem.”
I smiled despite myself.
Emily pulled the curtain halfway across the window because darkness had turned the glass into a mirror.
I caught sight of my face before it disappeared.
The woman looking back at me had a bruise along one temple, cracked lips, and hair that still seemed permanently tangled from snow.
I barely recognized her.
Maybe Michael would not either.
That thought came with a pulse of satisfaction so immediate that I felt ashamed of it.
Emily noticed my expression.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Want me to pretend I didn’t ask?”
“Yes.”
She nodded.
“Excellent.”
She left me with the soup.
I ate six spoonfuls because Noah needed me healthy, and that had become the only argument my body consistently accepted.
At eight forty-three, Brooks returned with another detective I had not met.
He was broad-shouldered, maybe forty, with a tired face and an expensive-looking tie that did not match his wrinkled shirt.
“This is Detective Marcus Hale.”
Hale nodded.
“Mrs. Carter.”
“Claire.”
“Claire.”
Brooks closed the door behind them.
My heart began pounding.
“Did you find the phone?”
Hale glanced at Brooks.
She answered.
“We found a phone.”
The wording mattered.
“Where?”
“In your house.”
I gripped the blanket.
“Michael’s?”
“Possibly.”
“Possibly again.”
Hale spoke this time.
“The device was concealed behind a loose panel inside a built-in cabinet in your home office.”
I stared at him.
“A loose panel?”
“Yes.”
“There is no loose panel.”
“There is now.”
My skin prickled.
“Who found it?”
“Search team.”
“You got a warrant?”
Brooks nodded.
“Based on the recovered message, the burner data, the cousin’s statement, and additional supporting evidence.”
“What happened when you arrived?”
Hale shifted his weight.
“Michael was home.”
“And Ashley?”
Brooks said, “Also there.”
I sat straighter.
“They were together.”
“In the house.”
“What were they doing?”
Brooks gave me a look.
“Claire.”
“I want to know.”
“They were eating dinner.”
The ordinary answer landed harder than something dramatic would have.
Dinner.
They had been eating dinner in my house.
Maybe at my table.
Maybe using the plates I bought in Santa Fe because Michael complained our old ones looked cheap.
“What did they cook?”
Hale looked genuinely confused.
Brooks understood.
“We don’t know.”
I stared at the blanket.
“I’m sorry.”
“You don’t need to apologize.”
“No, I do.”
I rubbed my hands together.
“I keep asking stupid things.”
“They’re not stupid.”
“They are.”
Brooks pulled a chair close.
“When people lose control of something large, they often focus on small things they can picture.”
I looked at her.
“That sounded suspiciously like therapy.”
“Don’t tell anyone.”
Hale almost smiled.
Then his expression hardened.
“The concealed phone was powered off.”
“Can you access it?”
“Forensics is working on it.”
“Was Michael arrested?”
“No.”
The answer struck like a slap.
“You found a hidden phone in my house after a message planning my murder.”
“We found a phone.”
“It was hidden.”
“Yes.”
“In his office.”
“Your shared office.”
“He uses it.”
“We know.”
“And you left him there?”
Brooks leaned forward.
“We detained him during the search.”
“That is not the same.”
“No.”
“Why is he still free?”
“Because we are not going to turn a strong case into a rushed one.”
I stood.
Pain pulled across my abdomen.
Hale moved instinctively toward me.
I held up one hand.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
“He tried to kill me.”
Brooks’s voice stayed quiet.
“I know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because it remains true even when I don’t give you what you want.”
I stared at her.
For once, I did not have an answer.
Hale cleared his throat.
“There’s more.”
I sat slowly.
“What?”
“Michael attempted to call an attorney while we were executing the warrant.”
“That’s not suspicious.”
“No.”
“What is?”
“The person he called was not an attorney.”
My pulse changed.
“Who?”
“A man named Victor Lane.”
I frowned.
“I don’t know that name.”
“Neither did we.”
Brooks opened a folder.
“Lane owns a small private investigations company in Denver.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“We’re finding out.”
Hale added, “Your husband has paid him sixteen thousand dollars over the past four months.”
The room went still.
“For what?”
“Michael says personal security.”
I laughed once.
“He hates security.”
Brooks looked at me.
“What do you mean?”
“He refused to let the company security team install cameras at our house because he said cameras made him feel watched.”
Hale wrote that down.
“Any threats recently?”
“Against Michael?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Against you?”
“Nothing serious.”
Brooks asked, “What does serious mean?”
“People send awful emails.”
“Because of the company?”
“Yes.”
“Specific threats?”
“Occasionally.”
“And did Michael handle those?”
“No.”
“Our corporate security team did.”
Hale looked at Brooks.
She nodded.
“He had no reason to hire a private investigator?”
“Not for security.”
“Could there be another reason?”
I almost said affair.
Then something colder occurred to me.
“Maybe he was following me.”
Neither detective reacted visibly.
That frightened me.
“You already thought of that.”
Brooks closed the folder.
“We found photographs.”
My throat tightened.
“Of me?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“On a laptop seized from Lane’s office after we obtained a separate warrant.”
I stared at her.
“You searched his office tonight?”
“We had people moving quickly.”
“What photographs?”
Hale answered.
“You leaving work.”
“You at medical appointments.”
“You meeting your attorney.”
“You visiting your sister last spring.”
I stopped breathing for a second.
“Rebecca?”
“Yes.”
“What else?”
“You walking near your house.”
“You shopping.”
“You at a coffee shop.”
May you like
My hands began to shake.
“When did he start?”
