Chương 3
“Someone impersonated you inside your house.”
“We have a confused observation from a six-year-old and an abandoned shoe.”
“Who recognized the shoe before any of us did.”
Margaret’s jaw shifted.
Michael continued. “The west study was accessed. You ordered the house locked. So either you know there is something in that room worth stealing, or you are much more comfortable imprisoning twenty people in a house than calling law enforcement.”
“Don’t use absurd language.”
“The doors are locked.”
“Security lockdown is not imprisonment.”
Claire looked at Daniel.
Daniel very carefully studied the control panel.
Michael’s phone remained in his hand.
“What’s in the study?”
Margaret stared at him for several seconds.
“Foundation records.”
“You have an office downtown.”
“Older records.”
“What kind?”
“Michael.”
“What kind?”
The old chandelier gave a faint metallic tick overhead as the air-conditioning started.
Margaret finally said, “Original board resolutions. Property documents. Some personal papers.”
“Cash?”
“No.”
“Jewelry?”
“No.”
“Art?”
“No.”
“Anything portable that would justify this?”
Margaret’s eyes flicked toward Claire.
Claire understood.
“I can take Ethan to the kitchen.”
“No,” Ethan said immediately.
Margaret said, “That might be best.”
“I’m staying.”
Michael crouched again.
“Buddy.”
“I found it.”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t believe me.”
“I believe that you saw something.”
“That’s not the same.”
Michael’s lips pressed together.
Claire looked at Margaret.
“Maybe he should stay until he finishes telling us.”
Margaret lifted an eyebrow.
It was not approval.
Claire had already spoken.
Eight months in Margaret Hale’s house had taught her that words could not be retrieved once they were in the air. Apologies often made that worse.
Ethan leaned closer to her.
Michael said, “He stays.”
Margaret turned toward Daniel.
“Get evidence bags from the security office. Nobody touches the shoe or the bucket.”
Claire looked at the wet cloth she had abandoned near the spill.
“I already touched the shoe.”
Michael looked at her.
“When?”
“When I found it.”
“With gloves?”
“No.”
“Where did you touch it?”
“The heel and the side.”
Margaret said, “Tell Daniel exactly.”
Daniel approached, taking notes on his phone.
Claire felt heat rise into her face.
This was what frightened her about wealthy houses. A mistake could remain an ordinary mistake for ten minutes and then become evidence.
She explained how she had picked up the shoe, placed it near the bucket, and started wiping the wet mark beneath it. She had not cleaned the sole. She had not noticed the red stain until Ethan yelled. She had handled the cloth, bucket and shoe with bare hands.
Daniel nodded.
“No problem.”
His tone said there was, in fact, a problem, but not an irreversible one.
Michael noticed Claire’s expression.
“You were cleaning.”
“I understand.”
“No, I mean nobody thinks you did anything wrong.”
Margaret said nothing.
Claire hated that she noticed.
Luis’s voice came through Daniel’s radio.
“West service corridor clear. Pantry team accounted for. Kitchen staff present. Two catering vendors in loading bay, doors secured.”
Daniel answered.
“Hold everyone where they are.”
Ethan whispered, “Am I in trouble?”
Claire looked down.
“No.”
Michael said at the same time, “No.”
Margaret said nothing.
Ethan looked at her.
“Grandma?”
Margaret’s face softened with visible effort.
“No.”
It was not convincing.
But she added, “You were right to stop Claire from cleaning the shoe.”
Ethan’s shoulders dropped.
Claire felt him breathe properly for the first time.
Daniel returned with gloves and clear evidence bags.
Michael watched him isolate the shoe.
“Can we check the study?”
Margaret nodded.
“Not Ethan.”
“I’m going.”
“No.”
“But—”
Michael touched his shoulder. “You did your part.”
“I can tell you if something’s wrong.”
“That is exactly what you’ve been doing since six thirty.”
“It wasn’t six thirty.”
Michael almost smiled.
Claire said, “I’ll stay with him.”
Margaret looked at her. “In the breakfast room. Keep him away from the hall.”
The order irritated Claire, though she could not have said why. Maybe because Margaret had spoken as if Ethan were a contaminant rather than the reason they knew to look.
She took his hand.
He resisted for one second, then came with her.
Halfway to the breakfast room, he looked over his shoulder.
Michael, Margaret and Daniel were walking toward the west study.
Luis remained near the service door.
The brown shoe was gone, sealed inside a transparent bag.
Only the overturned bucket and the wide irregular puddle remained.
“Claire.”
“What?”
“I didn’t mean to kick it at you.”
“I know.”
“I meant to kick it away from the shoe.”
“I figured that out.”
“I could’ve hit you.”
“You didn’t.”
“But I could’ve.”
Claire pushed open the breakfast-room door.
“Then next time try words first.”
“I did.”
She stopped.
He had.
That was the uncomfortable part.
“Yes,” she said. “You did.”
The breakfast room overlooked the east lawn, where two groundskeepers were kneeling beside a hedge as though nothing had changed. Silver chafing dishes waited on the sideboard. Someone in the kitchen had sent out pancakes, scrambled eggs, berries and bacon fifteen minutes earlier. The eggs were beginning to shine under their cover.
Ethan climbed onto a chair.
Claire poured him orange juice.
He did not drink it.
“What was on the shoe?”
“I don’t know.”
“It looked like blood.”
“It looked red.”
“Blood is red.”
“So are ketchup and paint.”
“Grandma doesn’t eat ketchup.”
Claire sat across from him.
“That may be the strongest evidence we have.”
He looked at her.
A laugh escaped before he could stop it.
Then he covered his mouth, as if laughing in the middle of a locked-down mansion might be another offense.
Claire smiled.
It lasted only a second.
“Did the person you saw look exactly like Grandma?”
“I told you.”
“You told Grandma what you saw. I’m asking what it felt like.”
He picked at the edge of a paper napkin.
“What do you mean?”
“Did anything seem weird before you saw the shoe?”
He thought.
“The smell.”
Claire leaned forward.
“What smell?”
“Grandma smell.”
“Her perfume?”
“No.”
“What, then?”
May you like
He wrinkled his nose.
“Hair place.”
