Chương 7
"Some were ours."
Evan went still.
Imani felt her stomach drop again.
"Your family's?"
Claire nodded.
"Old footage from the house I grew up in."
Evan stared at her.
"Why would anyone duplicate that?"
"My mother didn't know."
"Or didn't say."
"She said she was going to find out."
Imani asked, "Did she?"
Claire's eyes shifted to her.
"She died four days later."
The room seemed to lose sound.
Even Sophie went quiet, absorbed in fitting a yellow ring over a wooden peg.
Evan spoke carefully.
"Your mother died in a car accident."
"Yes."
"Claire."
"I know what you're thinking."
"What am I thinking?"
"That I'm turning grief into a conspiracy."
"I didn't say that."
"You didn't have to."
Evan rubbed a hand over his face.
"I'm trying to understand why you kept any of this from me."
"Because six years ago everybody told me I was grieving."
"Who is everybody?"
"My father."
"Of course."
"My therapist."
Evan looked away.
"The police."
Imani watched Claire's hands.
They had begun to shake.
It was the first uncontrolled thing about her since the argument began.
Claire closed them into fists.
"The investigator said the brakes were fine, the road was wet, and my mother was driving too fast."
Her mouth twisted.
"Very normal."
Evan softened slightly.
"Claire."
"Don't."
She took a breath and forced her fingers open.
"I spent a year looking for meaning where there probably wasn't any."
"Probably?"
"I stopped."
"When?"
"When Dad begged me to."
That answer bothered Imani more than the rest.
"Begged you?"
Claire nodded.
"He said I was destroying myself."
Evan looked at the tablet.
"And then three weeks ago someone sends you your mother's recording."
"Part of it."
"What part?"
"The part about duplicate archives."
"Nothing about the accident."
"No."
"Nothing naming anyone."
"No."
"So the sender wanted you to start looking again."
"Yes."
Imani said, "And you did."
Claire looked at her.
"Wouldn't you?"
Imani thought of her younger brother calling at two in the morning twelve years earlier, asking for a ride because he was too drunk to drive.
She had ignored the first call because she had an early shift.
By the second, he had already gotten into someone else's car.
She still remembered the police officer saying the word median as if it were a perfectly ordinary object.
"Yes," she said.
Claire looked away first.
Evan returned to the practical problem.
"The missing phone has the full recording?"
"A copy."
"Where is the original?"
Claire hesitated.
"Safe-deposit box."
"Which bank?"
"Does it matter right now?"
"It matters if somebody is stealing evidence from our driveway."
"It's secure."
"So was this house."
That shut her up.
Imani walked toward the window.
The front drive was partly obscured by magnolia trees, but the empty stretch where Claire's vehicle had been was clear.
A gardener moved near the hedge, pushing a wheelbarrow.
He appeared entirely unconcerned.
"Someone had to walk up here or already be here."
Evan looked at her.
"Unless they had a second key."
Claire shook her head.
"The spare is in my desk."
"Which desk?"
"Office."
"Unlocked?"
"Locked."
Imani turned.
"Who has the cleaning key?"
"I do."
Claire looked at her.
Imani felt the implication before Claire could speak.
"Don't."
"I didn't say anything."
"You didn't have to."
Evan stepped between them verbally before the argument could restart.
"Who else has access to that office?"
Claire answered, "Mrs. Alvarez has the emergency ring."
Imani said, "She doesn't use it unless something spills or leaks."
"Anyone else?"
"The property manager."
"James?"
"Yes."
"Security?"
"Technically."
Evan frowned.
"Meaning?"
Claire sighed.
"The company can override interior locks in an emergency."
Imani turned fully toward her.
"So the people you suspect could enter your office."
"In theory."
"And take the spare key."
"Yes."
"And you left the phone in the car."
"I wasn't planning to have a hostage situation in the nursery before breakfast."
Imani stared at her.
Claire's expression changed.
"That came out wrong."
"It came out like you."
Evan pinched the bridge of his nose.
"For once, can both of you stop trying to win?"
Neither woman answered.
Sophie pushed herself upright using the basket and immediately sat back down.
The gray rabbit toppled onto her lap.
She laughed.
All three adults looked at her.
The sound was so ordinary that Imani felt something inside her pull tight.
Evan crouched and picked Sophie up.
She complained, reaching for the toys.
"I know, bug."
He kissed her temple.
"You hate being included in adult bad decisions."
Claire looked at him sharply.
"Is that supposed to be funny?"
"No."
"Because it sounded like a joke at my expense."
"It was a joke at all our expense."
"I didn't invite anyone to surveil our daughter."
"No, you just investigated it alone for three weeks."
Claire's eyes flashed.
"Because every time my family is involved, you assume the worst."
"Your father once had my background checked after we'd been married eighteen months."
"He checks everyone."
"I'm your husband."
"Exactly."
Evan stared at her.
Imani almost laughed despite herself.
Claire noticed.
"This isn't funny."
"No," Imani said.
"It really isn't."
She looked down at her phone.
Mrs. Alvarez had sent another message.
A delivery man was at the back entrance asking for Claire.
Imani's pulse jumped.
She held up the screen.
"Someone's here."
Claire read the message from where she stood.
"What delivery?"
"She doesn't say."
Evan immediately said, "Don't let him in."
Imani typed.
Mrs. Alvarez answered before she finished.
Too late.
He says he has a signature-required package.
Imani showed them.
Claire frowned.
"I'm not expecting anything."
Evan shifted Sophie higher.
"Tell Mrs. Alvarez to keep him in the kitchen."
Imani typed again.
Three dots appeared.
Then stopped.
Started.
Stopped.
Finally Mrs. Alvarez replied.
He won't come inside.
Says recipient has to meet him at the door.
Claire looked at Evan.
"Could be normal."
"Nothing is normal right now."
"You can't trap a delivery driver in the kitchen."
May you like
"I didn't say trap."
Imani looked toward the hallway.
