Chương 3
Coley noticed that too.
“What’s on the memory card?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is it yours?”
“I don’t know that either.”
“You keep memory cards in your office?”
“Sometimes. We had work done on the security system this week.”
That got Coley’s attention.
“What kind of work?”
“One of the hallway camera units had been dropping footage. The company replaced part of the recorder Wednesday.”
“Did they give you a card?”
“I wasn’t home when the technician finished.”
“Who was?”
Ethan looked toward Natalie.
“She was.”
Coley’s pen stopped.
Ethan continued carefully.
“My assistant said the security company left something for me in my office. I assumed paperwork.”
“Did you see it?”
“No.”
“Was your office locked?”
“When I’m away, yes.”
“Who has access?”
“My wife. Me. Our house manager, but she’s off this week.”
“Children?”
“No.”
Coley looked at the purse.
“Your daughter said she saw Mrs. Cole upstairs.”
“Yes.”
“What exactly did she say?”
“That Natalie did something because they saw her upstairs. Then Noah said she took something from my office. Sophie said the memory card was in her purse.”
“You didn’t prompt either of them?”
“No.”
Coley nodded.
When the officers interviewed Sophie, Ethan sat where she could see him but far enough away that he could not hear every word.
That was harder than he expected.
Sophie kept touching the edge of her white collar.
Ramirez spoke quietly.
Once, Sophie pointed upstairs.
Once, toward the handbag.
Once, toward her own cheek.
Natalie watched from across the foyer.
Ethan watched Natalie.
She caught him doing it.
“What?”
He said nothing.
Her mouth tightened.
“This is what you wanted.”
“What?”
“To be the good one.”
Ethan looked away.
He did not trust himself to answer.
Noah’s interview took less time.
He cried halfway through it.
Coley crouched beside him and waited until he could speak again.
Ethan stared at the flower arrangement on the table because looking at Noah felt like an invasion.
White roses.
Green hydrangeas.
Something lavender he could not name.
He had walked past that arrangement three times since coming home and had not noticed it until now.
Natalie had probably ordered it.
She changed the flowers every Thursday.
Ethan had once teased her that the house always looked ready for a real-estate photographer.
She had told him that was preferable to looking like people actually lived there.
At the time, he had thought it was a joke.
Ramirez eventually approached the purse.
“Nobody has touched this since it fell?”
“No,” Ethan said.
Natalie said, “It’s mine.”
“I understand that.”
“You cannot search it.”
“I haven’t said I’m searching it.”
“The card is mine too.”
Sophie looked up.
Ramirez noticed.
Natalie saw Ramirez notice.
“It’s a standard memory card,” Natalie said. “I have dozens.”
Ethan stared at her.
The fear was back.
Smaller this time.
Better hidden.
Ramirez took photographs from several angles.
She did not open the bag.
After a conversation with a supervisor over her radio and another with Natalie out near the portico, the officers separated Ethan and the children upstairs while they dealt with the purse.
Ethan did not ask what legal authority they were using.
He did not want to accidentally transform a family crisis into one of his business meetings, where every uncertainty became a problem to be managed by professionals.
Upstairs, Sophie stopped outside Ethan’s office.
The door was open.
A manila envelope lay torn on the desk.
Ethan saw the logo of the security company in the upper left corner.
Beneath it, in blue pen:
MR. COLE — CAMERA EXPORT / PLEASE RETAIN.
The envelope was empty.
Sophie pointed.
“That’s where it was.”
Ethan did not enter the room.
“Did you touch the envelope?”
She shook her head.
“Noah?”
“No.”
“What happened?”
Sophie looked behind them.
Ethan closed the office door gently, leaving them in the hallway.
“You can tell me later if you want.”
She nodded.
Then she said, “She thought we were downstairs.”
Ethan waited.
“We were looking for Noah’s charger.”
Noah sniffed.
“My blue one.”
Sophie continued.
“She went in your office. We heard the drawer.”
“What drawer?”
“The one by your desk.”
Ethan pictured the narrow side drawer where he kept spare keys, old drives, charging cables, stamps, a box of business cards he never used.
“Then what?”
“She took the little card from the envelope.”
“Did you know what it was?”
“The man from the camera company told her.”
Ethan looked at Sophie.
“What did he say?”
“He said it had the upstairs recordings because the box was broken.”
That tracked with what Ethan had been told about the system.
“Were you there when he said that?”
“We were doing homework at the kitchen island.”
Noah nodded.
“He had a red screwdriver.”
Ethan almost smiled at the detail.
Of course Noah remembered the screwdriver.
Sophie said, “Mom asked what cameras.”
“What did he tell her?”
“The upstairs hall and back stairs. Maybe the study door too. I don’t remember.”
Ethan felt the cold under his ribs return.
“When did she take the card?”
“Today.”
“What time?”
“After school.”
“What happened after she saw you?”
Sophie looked at the floor.
Noah moved closer to her.
Ethan crouched again.
“You’re not in trouble.”
“I know.”
Sophie did not sound as if she knew.
“She told us to go downstairs.”
“And then?”
“We did.”
“And then?”
“She came to my room.”
Sophie touched her cheek.
Ethan’s jaw tightened so hard his teeth hurt.
“She hit you?”
Sophie nodded.
“Open hand?”
Another nod.
“Once?”
She nodded again.
“Did you fall?”
“No.”
“Did she say anything?”
Sophie looked at Noah.
He looked away.
“Soph?”
“She said we were going to ruin everything.”
Ethan sat down on the hallway bench because his legs had become unreliable.
“What did she mean?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t have to guess.”
“She said if you found out, you’d take us away from her.”
Noah’s face folded.
“She said Dad wouldn’t want us.”
May you like
Ethan closed his eyes for one second.
Only one.
