Chương 5
Adrian stood so abruptly the coffee table shifted beneath his knee.
Celeste did not retreat this time.
He forced his hands open. “You will spend tonight at the Weston Hotel. Nora will collect whatever you need from your room. Tomorrow, a professional will supervise you while you remove the rest of your belongings.”
“My passport is in my desk.”
“You’ll receive it.”
“My computer?”
“You’ll receive personal property after my attorney confirms what may need to be preserved.”
“You think I stole from you.”
“I think you accessed a private computer, concealed information, and frightened my children with a leather strap.”
“I did not access your computer.”
“Then why was the photograph facedown?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why was the drawer open?”
“The children opened it.”
“How did they know where to look?”
Celeste’s mouth tightened.
“What did they take?” Adrian asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You demanded that they tell you who entered the library. Not what they took.”
“I knew Oliver entered.”
“How?”
“I saw mud on the floor.”
“There is no mud outside. The ground is frozen.”
Her gaze moved to the window.
It was a small contradiction, but it changed the room.
Adrian picked up his phone. “My driver will take you to the hotel.”
“I will arrange my own transportation.”
“You may.”
He opened the door.
Celeste put on her shoes. At the threshold she stopped. “You should ask Nora where her key was.”
Adrian’s hand remained on the doorknob.
“She keeps it in the pocket of her skirt,” Celeste said. “Oliver knew that. Ask yourself how.”
Nora packed an overnight bag while Mrs. Alvarez watched. Celeste stood in the hall and named each item she wanted. Two dresses. Toiletries. Medication from the top drawer. A gray sweater. Her laptop charger, but not the laptop.
When Nora carried the bag downstairs, Celeste examined it without thanks.
“You’ve wanted this job,” she said.
Nora blinked. “What?”
“You wanted me gone.”
“I wanted the children safe.”
“You wanted my authority.”
“I wanted you to stop scaring them.”
Celeste zipped the bag. “And yet you stayed.”
The cruelty of the line lay in its accuracy.
Nora flushed. “I stayed because someone had to be near them.”
“That’s what everyone says after.”
Adrian stepped between them. “Enough.”
Celeste looked past him toward the staircase. “Tell Oliver I am sorry.”
“No.”
Her eyes sharpened. “You cannot forbid an apology.”
“I can forbid you from using him to feel better.”
The car arrived. Celeste walked through the tall glass doors without looking back. The emerald satin caught the chandelier light once, then vanished into the cold.
Adrian locked the door behind her.
The strap still lay on the console table.
He placed it inside a clear garment bag because it was the only clean plastic he could find. The absurdity of preserving it beneath a dry-cleaner’s logo nearly made him laugh. Instead he wrote the date and time on a note and taped it to the outside.
Nora watched from the stairs.
“I took my key off before dinner,” she said.
Adrian looked up.
“I left it in the staff room. I knew Oliver had been watching where I kept it.”
“Why?”
“He asked me yesterday whether the library had another door.”
“And you didn’t tell me.”
“I was trying to find out why he wanted in.”
“By leaving the key where he could take it?”
“I didn’t leave it for him. I put it in my locker.”
“Was the locker locked?”
“No.”
He shut his eyes.
“I made a mistake,” she said.
“Yes.”
“I know.”
The directness took the anger out of him, though not the fear.
“Did Celeste know where you kept it?”
“Probably.”
“Did anyone else?”
“Mrs. Alvarez. The evening staff. The maintenance people. It opens the service rooms too.”
Adrian looked toward the library.
“Go upstairs,” he said. “I need to check the security system.”
The house had cameras at exterior doors, the garage, and the driveway. Lena had refused interior cameras. She said she would not raise children in a museum that watched them back. Adrian had agreed, then forgotten the conversation until that night.
The system showed Oliver entering the staff corridor at 5:42. He emerged thirty seconds later with one hand inside his pajama pocket. At 5:47, he, Sophie, and Henry crossed the foyer toward the library.
Celeste entered the foyer at 5:54.
She stopped outside the library for twelve seconds before going in.
At 5:57, all four emerged. Oliver held a folded paper. Celeste reached for it. He pulled away. Sophie stepped between them. Celeste took the children toward the velvet bench, then disappeared into the service corridor.
At 5:59, she returned with the strap.
Adrian replayed the sequence twice. The camera had no audio. Without sound, the children’s movements looked theatrical and impossible. Oliver backed toward the bench. Henry stumbled. Sophie raised both hands. Celeste lifted the strap.
At 6:00, Adrian appeared on the staircase.
One minute.
The difference between what happened and what might have happened was one minute and a canceled meeting.
He copied the footage to two drives. He called his attorney, Rebecca Sloan, who answered from a noisy restaurant and immediately went somewhere quieter.
“Do not contact the agency tonight except in writing,” she said after hearing the account. “Do not promise severance. Do not characterize what happened beyond what you personally observed. Preserve the footage, the object, the emails, and the room.”
“I already moved the strap.”
“That’s fine. Document where it was.”
“Dr. Park made a report.”
“Good.”
“You sound pleased.”
“I’m pleased you did not call me first and let me talk you into protecting yourself before protecting them.”
Adrian looked at the dark security monitor.
“Would you have?”
“I’d like to say no.”
The answer made him trust her.
“The children found a printed email about residential treatment.”
“Were you considering it?”
“Yes.”
“Did you tell them?”
“No.”
May you like
“Did you tell the governess?”
“I copied her on the school packet. I may have asked for her opinion.”
