Chương 4
She had kept it in the top drawer of her dresser for almost a year.
Then Hannah asked for it.
Margaret had given it to her.
If this was Thomas’s real ring, Hannah had been wearing someone else’s father’s wedding band on a chain around her neck.
Margaret walked into the bathroom and vomited.
Emily followed but did not touch her.
That kindness mattered.
When Margaret finished, she sat on the closed toilet lid.
Emily handed her a wet washcloth.
“I’m sorry.”
Margaret wiped her mouth.
“You didn’t do it.”
“No.”
“Then don’t apologize.”
Emily nodded.
After a moment she said, “My mother does that.”
“What?”
“Tells people not to apologize for things they didn’t do.”
Margaret looked at her.
“Your mother sounds irritating.”
“She is.”
Margaret laughed.
It came out unexpectedly.
Then she began crying.
Not dramatically.
No sobbing.
Just tears sliding down her face while she held a hotel washcloth against her mouth.
Emily looked toward the doorway, giving her privacy without leaving.
Margaret wiped her eyes.
“I hate this.”
“I know.”
“I spent five years learning how not to wait for him.”
Emily said nothing.
“That sounds stupid.”
“No.”
“I stopped buying his cereal after eight months. Took me eight months. It tasted like cardboard. I didn’t even eat it.”
Emily leaned against the sink.
Margaret stared at the floor.
“Then one morning I was standing in the grocery aisle and thought, why am I buying cereal for a dead man?”
Her voice broke on the last word.
She pressed the washcloth against her eyes.
“And now apparently the bastard was alive somewhere eating whatever he wanted.”
Emily waited.
Margaret lowered the cloth.
“I’m sorry. You’re working.”
“It’s been a slow night.”
Margaret looked at her.
Emily shrugged.
“Until you assaulted a guest.”
“He deserved it.”
“I’m reserving judgment.”
That almost made Margaret laugh again.
When they returned to the room, Hernandez was examining the prepaid phone.
It contained one saved number.
Margaret’s.
There was also an unsent text.
DON’T TRUST CROSS UNTIL HE TELLS YOU ABOUT OWENS.
Daniel saw Hernandez’s expression.
“What?”
She showed him.
His face changed.
Margaret noticed.
“Who’s Owens?”
Daniel said nothing.
Hernandez repeated the question.
Daniel looked toward the window.
“Robert Owens.”
“Who is he?”
“My former business partner.”
Margaret stared at him.
Daniel rubbed his jaw.
“He’s also the reason Thomas hired me.”
The room seemed smaller.
“You knew the people looking for him.”
“I knew one of them.”
“And you neglected to mention that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I knew exactly how it would sound.”
Margaret stepped closer.
“How does it sound?”
“Bad.”
“Try catastrophic.”
Daniel nodded.
“Fair.”
Hernandez told him to sit down.
This time there was nothing casual about it.
Daniel sat.
His explanation came slowly.
Years earlier, Daniel and Owens had worked corporate investigations together. Their firm specialized in internal fraud, employee theft and executive protection. Owens had eventually taken private contracts Daniel considered questionable.
One involved tracing Thomas Collins.
“When?” Margaret asked.
“Five years ago.”
Her face went blank.
Daniel looked at her.
“Two weeks before your husband supposedly died.”
Margaret lowered herself into the desk chair.
Daniel continued.
Owens had asked him to help locate a sales representative suspected of stealing company funds. Daniel had done preliminary database work. Nothing illegal, he insisted. Addresses, business registrations, travel records.
Thomas Collins had been the target.
“I gave Owens an address in West Virginia,” Daniel said.
“The place where Thomas died?”
“Near it.”
Margaret stared at him.
Daniel’s voice dropped.
“I didn’t know what Owens intended.”
“But Thomas knew.”
“Eventually.”
“And he hired you anyway?”
“He wanted to know whether I was still working with Owens.”
“Are you?”
“No.”
“Convenient again.”
“Yes.”
Daniel seemed tired now.
Not threatening.
That made Margaret more cautious, not less.
Hernandez asked, “Where is Owens?”
“I don’t know.”
“Try harder.”
“I haven’t spoken to him in almost four years.”
“Phone number?”
Daniel provided one.
Beck left to make calls.
Margaret looked at the wedding ring inside the metal box.
“You helped someone find my husband. Then my husband disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“And five years later he contacted you.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Daniel looked directly at her.
“I think he wanted me to fix what I helped start.”
Margaret shook her head.
“That sounds like something guilty men tell themselves when they want to feel useful.”
Daniel’s eyes dropped.
“Probably.”
For the first time, Margaret believed him.
Not about Thomas.
Not about Owens.
About his guilt.
People lied beautifully about innocence.
Guilt usually came out uglier.
By two in the morning, the hotel room had become a temporary evidence scene.
Margaret was moved downstairs.
Emily brought coffee.
It was terrible.
Margaret drank it anyway.
She called Hannah.
Her thumb hovered over the name for almost a minute.
Hannah lived in Philadelphia with her husband, Mark, and their two-year-old son.
Thomas had never met his grandson.
Or perhaps he had.
That thought made Margaret physically ill.
Had he watched them too?
Had he stood across streets?
Had he looked at photographs online?
Had he known Hannah was pregnant?
Margaret pressed call.
Hannah answered on the fourth ring.
“Mom?”
“Hi, honey.”
“Are you okay?”
Margaret looked around the lobby.
Daniel was speaking with Hernandez near the entrance.
Emily pretended not to listen.
“No.”
Hannah sat up. Margaret could hear bedding move.
“What happened?”
“I need you to listen before you say anything.”
“Mom, you’re scaring me.”
“I know.”
“What happened?”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“Your father may be alive.”
Silence.
Then Hannah laughed.
It was almost exactly the sound Margaret had made.
“Mom.”
“I’m serious.”
“Where are you?”
“At the Beaumont Hotel.”
“What are you doing at a hotel?”
Margaret had almost forgotten the original reason.
She had come to Washington for her sister-in-law’s retirement dinner the following evening. Her bus had been canceled because of weather, and the Beaumont had been the nearest hotel with a room she could afford only because the airline-style booking site had offered a last-minute discount.
May you like
That coincidence now frightened her.
“Someone knew I was coming here.”
