Chương 6
"So the company investigating the breach might be part of the breach."
Claire nodded once.
"Yes."
The room went quiet again.
Sophie squirmed in Evan's arms and pointed toward the floor.
He set her down carefully.
She stood between his shoes, slightly unsteady, then toddled toward a woven basket of stuffed animals near the crib.
All three adults watched her.
She picked up a gray rabbit by one ear and sat down hard on the rug.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
The child made a soft humming sound to herself.
Imani suddenly became aware of how warm the nursery was.
Sunlight lay across the rug.
A plastic stacking ring had rolled beneath the dresser.
One of Sophie's socks was inside out.
The whole room looked painfully normal.
Evan crouched beside his daughter.
"Hey, bug."
Sophie held out the rabbit.
He took it, made the ears flop once, then handed it back.
His face softened automatically.
When he stood again, the softness disappeared.
"Claire, show me every message you exchanged about this."
Her expression closed.
"Some were through a secure app."
"Fine."
"They may have expired."
"Show me what hasn't."
"Evan."
"Now."
She reached for her phone.
Then stopped.
Imani saw her thumb freeze above the screen.
Evan saw it too.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"What?"
Claire looked up.
"The phone I used isn't this one."
Evan stared.
"You have another phone."
"It was temporary."
"Where is it?"
Claire glanced toward the dressing room attached to the nursery.
"Not here."
"Where?"
"In my car."
Imani felt something cold move through her.
Claire noticed.
"What?"
"Your car isn't here."
Claire frowned.
"Yes, it is."
"No."
"I parked in the front drive."
"I was outside at eight."
"It was there."
"A black Range Rover?"
"Yes."
Imani shook her head.
"It left."
Claire went still.
"When?"
"Maybe twenty minutes ago."
"Who was driving?"
"I didn't see."
Claire was already moving toward the window.
She pulled the curtain aside.
The front curve of the drive was visible through the trees.
Her parking space was empty.
"My keys."
She turned around.
"They were downstairs."
Evan said, "Where downstairs?"
"Kitchen counter."
Imani shook her head again.
"Mrs. Alvarez clears that counter every morning."
"Then the bowl by the mudroom."
"Who knows you keep them there?"
Claire's face drained for the second time that morning.
"Everyone."
Evan picked up his phone.
"Don't call the car."
Claire snapped the command so quickly that he stopped.
"Why?"
"If whoever took it has my other phone, calling anything connected to the car tells them we noticed."
"They stole your car."
"They didn't steal it for the car."
Imani looked at the tablet.
"The phone."
Claire nodded.
Evan's eyes narrowed.
"What is on that phone besides the messages?"
Claire looked at him.
"Photos of the device from Sophie's room."
"Anything else?"
"A recording."
Imani felt her pulse jump.
"Of Daniel?"
Claire shook her head.
"Of the person who warned me not to trust anyone in the house."
Evan's expression hardened.
"Your father."
Claire's eyes stayed on him.
"No."
"Then who?"
She swallowed.
"My mother."
Evan stared at Claire as though the name of her mother had opened a second trapdoor beneath the first.
"Your mother has been dead for six years."
Claire looked toward Sophie on the rug.
"I know."
Imani felt the back of her neck tighten.
"What kind of recording?"
Claire rubbed both hands down the front of her robe.
"A voice memo."
Evan's expression flattened.
"From six years ago."
"Yes."
"And you somehow decided six years later that it was about this house."
"I didn't decide that."
"Then what happened?"
Claire glanced toward the window again, as if expecting the missing Range Rover to reappear merely because the truth had become inconvenient.
"Three weeks ago I received an email."
"From who?"
"I don't know."
"You keep saying that."
"Because I don't know."
Evan stepped closer.
"What was in it?"
"A sentence."
Claire swallowed.
"And an audio file."
Imani said, "Your mother's recording."
Claire nodded.
Evan's mouth tightened.
"What did the sentence say?"
Claire hesitated.
Evan waited.
The silence became a kind of pressure.
Finally Claire said, "You missed what she was trying to tell you."
Sophie dropped the gray rabbit and crawled toward the stacking rings.
Nobody moved to stop her.
Evan looked at his wife with a confusion so personal that Imani suddenly felt like an intruder again.
"What was your mother trying to tell you?"
Claire's voice dropped.
"She thought someone inside my father's company was using private residential surveillance for things that had nothing to do with security."
"What things?"
"Leverage."
Imani frowned.
Claire continued before either of them could interrupt.
"Affairs, addictions, business meetings, family fights, medical conversations."
Evan's face changed.
"Blackmail."
"My mother never used that word."
"Because she was recording a voice memo, not writing an indictment."
Claire looked irritated.
"She was scared."
"Of your father?"
"No."
The answer came too fast.
Evan noticed.
"Claire."
"She was scared of what would happen if she accused the wrong person."
"That's not what I asked."
Claire looked at him.
"No, I don't think she was scared of Dad."
"You don't think."
"She loved him."
"That wasn't the question either."
Claire's jaw flexed.
Imani watched the old machinery of their marriage grind into motion.
Evan knew where Claire evaded.
Claire knew which questions he asked when he already believed the answer.
Neither seemed aware that Imani could see all of it.
She wished she could not.
"What exactly did your mother say in the recording?"
Claire looked at the red memory card.
"She said the company had become too large for one family to understand everything done in its name."
Evan gave a small nod.
"That sounds like Marianne."
Claire looked surprised.
"You barely knew her."
"I knew her enough to know she hated vague language."
A flicker of something almost affectionate passed over Claire's face.
It disappeared quickly.
"She said she'd found duplicate archives."
"Duplicate of what?"
"Private household footage."
"From clients?"
"Some."
May you like
"Some?"
Claire looked at him.
