Chương 6
Camille watched them go.
“I thought you destroyed the packet,” she said.
“I put it in the desk.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Valeria could have offered deployment, grief, probate deadlines, or Camille’s refusal to speak with her. All were true. None were the whole truth.
“Because I was angry.”
Camille blinked.
Valeria had surprised herself.
“At me?”
“Yes.”
“For what?”
“For making me the villain because Grandma left me the house. For telling relatives I manipulated her. For skipping the memorial at Arlington because you said being around me made you sick. For sending me a photograph of the empty seat with my name card at your wedding.”
Camille’s cheeks colored. “That was Richard.”
“You sent it from your phone.”
“He took it.”
“And you let the silence stand.”
Camille looked toward the dark window over the sink.
“I hated you for getting the house.”
“I know.”
“I also hated myself for caring that much.”
Valeria loosened the necktie another inch.
“Those feelings can share a room.”
“You would know.”
The sentence came with an edge, but neither of them sharpened it further.
Camille looked at the counter where the washed glass dried.
“What if the letter says she meant to leave it to me?”
“The deed is still the deed.”
“What if it says you promised to share it?”
“I didn’t.”
“What if she says you did?”
“Then she was mistaken, or I failed to understand her.”
Camille rubbed her thumb across a scratch in the table.
“You can admit that?”
“I can admit anything that is true.”
“No. You admit things that don’t change the outcome.”
Valeria straightened.
Camille continued before she could answer.
“You admit you were angry because the house is still yours. You admit you didn’t deliver the packet because you can say grief made you human. But if there was something in it that cost you this place, you’d become very interested in procedure.”
“That’s unfair.”
“Yes.”
They both sat with that.
Unfair did not mean useless.
At nine, Martin found signs that a window sensor upstairs had been bypassed with a magnet. He also found a small wireless camera behind a vent in the private room.
The device was no larger than a coin.
Its battery had died.
The memory card was missing.
Deputy Ruiz returned with a detective named Samuel Price, a tired-looking man in a wrinkled sport coat who apologized for arriving late, then spent two hours documenting the room.
Price asked Camille whether Richard owned similar equipment.
She said he used cameras on construction sites.
Price asked whether Richard knew the house alarm system.
Camille said Martin had once explained the guest procedures to both of them.
Price asked whether Richard had access to her email.
“Yes.”
“Your phone?”
“Yes.”
“Your finances?”
She hesitated. “Some.”
“Does he know you’re speaking with us?”
“He knows I stayed.”
“Do you feel safe going home?”
Camille’s instinctive answer was visible before the word came.
“Yes.”
Price looked at Valeria, then back at Camille.
“That wasn’t a test. I’m asking about tonight.”
Camille folded her arms.
“He has never hit me.”
Price nodded. “That’s not the only question.”
“He gets loud. He breaks his own things sometimes. A phone. A cabinet door. But not me.”
“Any firearms in the house?”
“No.”
“Any threats?”
“No.”
“Does he control transportation or money?”
“We share accounts.”
“Can you access them now?”
Camille took out her phone.
The banking app rejected her password.
She tried again.
Then she stared at the screen.
Price asked her not to attempt further logins until she spoke with the bank’s fraud department. Richard might simply have changed the password. He might also be moving funds.
Camille sat on the edge of the daybed, the blue flowers on her dress wrinkled beneath her hands.
“I need to call him.”
“You can,” Price said. “But I recommend you decide what information you want him to have.”
“He’s my husband.”
“That doesn’t answer the question.”
She called.
Richard answered on the first ring.
His voice was loud enough for Valeria to hear from across the room.
“Where are you?”
“At the house.”
“You need to leave.”
“The bank password changed.”
“I froze the account because your cousin is threatening us.”
“She found the website.”
Silence.
Then Richard said, “You showed her?”
“She had the password.”
“You gave her the password.”
“It was my email.”
“Camille, listen to me. Do not sign anything. Do not give them your phone. Come home, and we’ll handle this with a lawyer.”
“What did you take from the room?”
“Nothing.”
“They found a camera.”
Another silence.
Richard’s breathing changed.
“Put me on speaker.”
“No.”
“Who’s there?”
Camille looked at Price.
The detective shook his head once.
“Richard,” she said, “did you take Grandma’s packet?”
“You need to stop talking.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“You’re upset.”
“Did you take it?”
“Come home.”
Camille ended the call.
Her hand shook after the screen went dark.
“He didn’t deny the camera,” she said.
Price did not agree or disagree. “Forward me any messages he sends. Don’t delete anything.”
Richard sent fourteen texts in the next six minutes.
The first three asked where she was.
The fourth accused Valeria of manipulating her.
The fifth said the business was legal.
The sixth said no one could prove otherwise.
The seventh said Camille had known everything.
The eighth reminded her that the idea had originally been hers.
Camille stopped reading aloud.
“What idea?” Valeria asked.
Camille locked the phone.
“Not now.”
Price looked at her. “That phrase will become harder to use.”
By midnight, the investigators left with the hidden camera, photographs, copies of the contracts, and a list of items that might be missing. Valeria formally trespassed Richard from the property. She did not trespass Camille.
She told herself this was because Camille was cooperating.
May you like
Owen did not challenge the explanation.
Leah drove Camille to a hotel under a reservation Martin created. Camille refused to stay at the beach house. She said the walls felt as though they had been listening.
