Chương 9
“You left her there.”
“For now.”
“Why?”
“Because arrest is based on evidence available at that moment, not on making the family situation feel balanced.”
Chloe flinched.
Ruiz regretted the phrasing immediately.
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
She turned away.
“It’s accurate.”
Park asked, “Where is Marcus now?”
“Transport.”
“Did he say anything?”
“Plenty.”
“What matters?”
Ruiz glanced at me.
“He says Chloe attacked his mother, stole confidential files, threatened to expose an affair unless he paid her, and injured herself during what he called a tantrum.”
Chloe whispered, “Of course.”
“Anything else?”
“He claims her missing phone and laptop are marital property.”
I stared at Ruiz.
“Her work laptop?”
“He says personal.”
“It’s hers.”
Chloe’s voice was flat.
“My company issued me the laptop I normally use.”
“Then what is the one Marcus took?”
“My personal machine.”
Ruiz nodded.
“Good to clarify.”
Park said, “Did officers locate it?”
“No.”
“Phone?”
“No.”
“His work laptop?”
“Yes.”
“Seized?”
“Not at this stage.”
Park’s jaw tightened.
“Where is it?”
“House.”
“Still?”
“As far as I know.”
Park was already reaching for her phone.
Then Ruiz added, “There’s another issue.”
She stopped.
“What?”
“Mercer left.”
“When?”
“Shortly after Marcus was detained.”
“In his own vehicle?”
“Yes.”
“Did officers speak to him?”
“Briefly.”
“What did he say?”
“That this was a private marital dispute and he had no relevant information.”
Park’s expression went cold.
“Did anyone ask him about Redwood?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Ruiz looked confused.
“Good?”
“If he doesn’t know we care about it yet, I’d like to keep it that way.”
My phone buzzed again.
Everyone looked at it.
Unknown number.
Not Mercer this time.
The message contained no greeting.
You do not know what your daughter took.
If you hand it to the police, she will lose more than her marriage.
Park read it over my shoulder.
“Do you recognize the number?”
“No.”
Chloe’s face drained of color.
Ruiz asked, “Could be Marcus from another phone?”
“He’s in custody,” Park said.
“Could have scheduled something.”
“Possible.”
I read the message again.
The phrasing bothered me.
Not what she found.
What she took.
Whoever wrote it knew Chloe had copied something.
More importantly, they knew she had survived the night with it.
Park held out her hand for my phone.
This time, I did not make a joke.
She photographed the message, then looked at Chloe.
“Who besides Marcus knew you had made a backup?”
“No one.”
“Vanessa?”
“No.”
“Sylvia?”
“No.”
“Mercer?”
“No.”
“Anyone at your firm?”
Chloe shook her head.
“I hadn’t told anybody.”
Park looked toward the evidence cup.
The tiny card sat inside like something absurdly insignificant.
Then Chloe whispered, “Unless Marcus found the folder on my laptop.”
“He did know about that copy,” I said.
“Yes.”
“But he thought it was the only one.”
“That’s what I thought.”
Park looked back at the threat.
“Then either he told someone there might be another copy, or someone knows more about what happened in that house than we do.”
Ruiz’s radio crackled.
He stepped into the hall to answer it.
Chloe rubbed her arms beneath the blankets.
“Mom.”
“I’m here.”
“I don’t want to go home.”
“You’re not going there.”
“I mean my house.”
“I know.”
“I don’t want anything from it.”
“You’ll need clothes.”
“I’ll buy clothes.”
“Your documents.”
“I’ll replace them.”
“Your things.”
“They’re things.”
Her voice broke on the last word.
I stopped arguing.
Ruiz came back through the curtain.
His face had changed.
Park saw it immediately.
“What?”
“The officers at the house just called.”
“About what?”
“Fire department is responding.”
My stomach dropped.
Park straightened.
“What happened?”
“Smoke from the second floor.”
Chloe stared at him.
“My laptop.”
Ruiz held up a hand.
“We don’t know.”
“Marcus’s office is upstairs.”
Park was already moving.
“Who is still in the house?”
“Sylvia, two caterers, four guests, and apparently Vanessa Cole.”
Chloe whispered, “Vanessa stayed?”
Ruiz nodded.
Then his radio crackled again.
He listened.
The room went silent around him.
When he looked up, he was no longer speaking to us as family members waiting for an update.
He was speaking like an officer who had just learned the case had become something larger.
“They found the source.”
Park asked, “Electrical?”
“No.”
“What?”
Ruiz looked at Chloe.
“Someone set fire to a pile of documents in Marcus’s upstairs office.”
Park was out the door before Ruiz finished speaking.
I stayed where I was.
Chloe looked at me as if waiting to see whether I would break my promise within ten minutes of making it.
“I’m not going.”
“You want to.”
“Very much.”
“That counts as progress, I guess.”
Her voice was dry, but her hands were shaking again.
I sat beside the bed and watched the numbers on the monitor settle.
Outside the room, phones rang, wheels squeaked, somebody laughed too loudly at something a nurse had said.
Thanksgiving morning had become fully ordinary for everyone except us.
Chloe stared toward the curtain.
“If the fire destroys his computer, does the card still matter?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know.”
“That answer is becoming everybody’s favorite.”
“It is often the only honest one.”
She looked at me.
“Would you have prosecuted someone based on what I have?”
“Based on what you’ve told me?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
Her face fell.
“I would have investigated.”
“That sounds like a polite way of saying no.”
“It means exactly what I said.”
I leaned closer.
“Suspicious payments, a concealed connection to a vendor, internal messages, approval patterns, an attempt to remove a bloodstained rug, a threat, and now a fire are enough to justify serious questions.”
“But not enough to prove fraud.”
“Not yet.”
“Even with Vanessa owning Redwood?”
“Being a registered agent is not the same as owning it.”
“She was connected to it.”
“Yes.”
“And Marcus knew her.”
“Yes.”
“And he approved payments.”
“Yes.”
“And he was sleeping with her.”
“Yes.”
“That is a pretty ugly coincidence.”
“It is.”
She picked at the edge of the blanket.
May you like
“I hate how you talk.”
“I know.”
