Chương 5
Claire liked her immediately.
They spent two hours going through the night.
Rachel did not gasp at the trust.
She did not celebrate it.
She asked whether Claire had signed a prenuptial agreement.
“Yes.”
“Do you have a copy?”
“Somewhere.”
“Find it.”
Rachel asked about custody arrangements.
“There aren’t any. We’re married.”
“Were you planning to stay that way yesterday?”
Claire rubbed her eyes.
“That feels like a trap.”
“It’s not. It affects what I tell you to do next.”
“I was thinking about leaving.”
“Did Grant know?”
“I don’t know.”
“That means probably.”
Claire frowned.
Rachel lifted one shoulder.
“You may think you’re subtle. Spouses usually aren’t.”
“What should I do about Emma?”
“Keep her with you for now. Don’t hide her. Don’t block reasonable communication from Grant unless police or a court tells you to. Do not put her on social media. Do not discuss evidence with her. Do not ask her to repeat the yacht story.”
“I know that.”
“Good. Then you’re ahead of many adults.”
Claire looked toward the bedroom door.
Emma was inside with a sitter from the hotel’s vetted childcare service, coloring mermaids.
“What about Grant seeing her?”
Rachel’s expression changed.
“Do you believe he would hurt her?”
Claire wanted an easier question.
“I don’t know.”
“Has he ever?”
“No.”
“Threatened?”
“No.”
“Used her to control you?”
Claire looked away.
Rachel waited.
“He told me after the accident that Emma needed stability.”
“That’s not control by itself.”
“He said if I pushed rehab too hard and fell while holding her, somebody could ask questions about whether I was being responsible.”
Rachel stopped writing.
“How often did he say things like that?”
“Not often.”
“Enough that you remember the wording eight months later.”
Claire disliked Rachel slightly less after that.
“Maybe.”
Rachel put down her pen.
“Claire, I’m going to say something unpleasant. You are going to be tempted to turn every bad moment in your marriage into evidence of one enormous hidden plan. Don’t. Some bad marriages are just full of ordinary bad behavior. We separate what was cruel from what was criminal.”
Claire nodded.
“And if it was criminal?”
“Then we let evidence do the work.”
At ten thirty, Detective Keene called.
Celeste had retained counsel.
Grant had retained separate criminal counsel in addition to family counsel.
The transfer pages were real, but they did not say what the money purchased.
The sealed envelope contained a draft nondisclosure agreement and a letter from Grant demanding repayment of “unauthorized expenditures.”
Claire sat up straighter.
“So Celeste brought evidence because she was fighting with him.”
“That’s one interpretation.”
“What are the unauthorized expenditures?”
“We’re working on it.”
“Did Thomas send you the maintenance records?”
“He did.”
“And?”
“Mrs. Mercer.”
“Claire.”
“Claire, I am not going to investigate this by phone with you.”
Claire pressed her lips together.
Keene added, “But I would like to speak with you in person about the earlier boating incident.”
“When?”
“Today.”
Rachel pointed at herself.
Claire said, “My attorney will be there.”
“Good.”
Grant called at 11:07.
Claire let it ring.
He called again.
Then a third time.
Rachel said, “You can answer if you want. You don’t have to.”
Claire surprised herself by answering.
“Hi.”
Grant sounded exhausted.
“Is Emma okay?”
“She’s eating a muffin.”
“Can I talk to her?”
Claire looked at Rachel.
Rachel did not nod or shake her head.
“I’ll ask her.”
“Claire, please.”
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Turn a question into pressure.”
There was a pause.
“I’m asking to speak to my daughter.”
“I said I’ll ask her.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m not telling you that right now.”
His breathing changed.
“Your lawyer told you to say that?”
“No.”
“Of course.”
Claire nearly ended the call.
Then Grant said, “Celeste is lying.”
“About which part?”
“She is trying to protect herself.”
“From what?”
“Things that have nothing to do with you.”
“My daughter was standing beside an open rail while she told her I should be dead.”
“I know.”
“No. You know the sentence. I was there.”
“I wasn’t upstairs.”
“You came very quickly.”
“I heard people shouting.”
“She had your money in her purse.”
“It wasn’t my money.”
“It came from your account.”
“A business account.”
“Six days before I went through a gate on your father’s tender.”
Grant stopped.
Claire could almost picture him.
The hand through his hair.
The jaw working.
He said, “You think I did that to you?”
She looked at her prosthetic beside the chair.
“I don’t know what I think.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“You asked.”
“I sat in the hospital every day.”
“I know.”
“I bathed you.”
“I know.”
“I learned how to change your dressings because you hated the night nurse.”
“I remember.”
“And you think I paid someone to—what? Sabotage the boat and then hold your hand afterward?”
Claire’s throat tightened.
When she answered, her voice stayed level.
“I think you paid Celeste fifty thousand dollars six days before my accident and spent last night trying to take the proof out of my hand.”
Grant said nothing.
“Why?”
“It was a consulting retainer.”
“For what crisis?”
A longer pause.
“You.”
Claire felt Rachel look at her.
“What does that mean?”
“You were talking to auditors.”
“I used to be a claims investigator. Your father asked me why fuel expenses had jumped.”
“You were going through internal documents.”
“Thomas gave them to me.”
“You were making accusations.”
“I asked why three vendors had identical routing information.”
“Do you hear yourself?”
“Yes.”
“You came into my family’s company after being out of the industry for years and started acting like everybody was stealing.”
“I found three vendors with the same bank routing.”
“That happens.”
“No, Grant. It doesn’t happen like that.”
His voice sharpened.
“And this is exactly why I hired Celeste.”
“To do what?”
“To contain it.”
Claire stared ahead.
“Contain me?”
“Contain the situation.”
May you like
“That isn’t an answer.”
“She does reputation work. She was supposed to figure out what you were planning to do with the information.”
