Chương 10
Ruiz rose too.
“We cleared it first.”
“That’s not the point.”
Victoria said, “Martin didn't know Rachel kept using it.”
“You don't know that.”
“No.”
Daniel paced once.
Then stopped.
“Where is he?”
Ruiz answered.
“We found him this morning.”
Daniel turned.
“You said it took six hours to find Victoria.”
“It did.”
“You found Martin and didn't tell me?”
“He’s in a motel outside the city.”
“Why isn't he arrested?”
“Because, again, suspicion is not a charge.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
Ruiz continued.
“But we searched his room with consent.”
“Why would he consent?”
“Because he wants us to believe him.”
That made sense.
“What did you find?”
“Copies of records. Notes about Jack. Notes about Rachel. Notes about you.”
“And Sophie?”
Ruiz paused.
“One photograph.”
Daniel’s chair scraped backward.
“What photograph?”
“Taken at Rachel’s funeral.”
His hands began shaking.
“Was he there?”
“Apparently.”
Daniel remembered the funeral as fragments.
Rain.
Black umbrellas.
Sophie refusing to let go of his hand.
Victoria standing near the back.
People saying Rachel had been brave, as though bravery were something cancer asked permission to consume.
Martin had been there.
Watching.
“Arrest him.”
“We need evidence of a crime.”
“He photographed my daughter.”
“In a public place.”
“He was in my car.”
“Yes.”
“He told her to get inside.”
“Yes.”
“He knew her nickname.”
“Yes.”
Ruiz’s patience remained intact.
“We are building a case, Daniel.”
“And while you build it?”
“We have officers watching your house and Sophie’s school. Martin knows he’s being watched.”
“That's supposed to comfort me?”
“No.”
Daniel looked at Victoria.
“What does Martin want?”
“The accident file.”
“Why?”
“To prove Jack killed Linda.”
“Why does he care anymore?”
Victoria looked at him.
“Because he believes Linda was going to expose Jack and save him.”
Daniel frowned.
“Save Martin?”
“Yes.”
“From what?”
“Prison.”
The financial scheme had been collapsing before Linda died.
Martin had wanted to cooperate with federal investigators.
Linda had records that could show Jack controlled much of the money.
After Linda died, the records vanished.
Jack blamed Martin publicly.
Martin fled.
“He spent eleven years believing your father killed the only witness who could clear him,” Victoria said.
“Did he commit the crimes?”
“Some.”
“So clear him is generous.”
“Yes.”
Daniel sat.
The shape of Martin changed slightly.
Not innocent.
Not a monster invented in darkness.
A man who had done bad things beside worse men, then spent a decade arranging his life around grievance.
That was more frightening.
“Why come back now?”
Victoria looked at Rachel’s letter.
“Because Rachel died.”
Daniel's eyes narrowed.
“She was keeping him away?”
“In part.”
“How?”
“She convinced him she was still investigating.”
“Was she?”
“Yes.”
“Even while she was sick?”
“Yes.”
Daniel looked down.
Of course she had.
Rachel once answered work email during labor until a nurse took her phone away.
“What did she find?”
Victoria said, “That Jack probably did not kill Linda.”
Silence.
Daniel stared at her.
“Probably?”
“The mechanic’s payment was real. But it appears to have been repayment of a personal loan.”
“How do you know?”
“Rachel found the mechanic’s widow. She had the original loan note.”
“Then why not tell Martin?”
“We did.”
“And?”
“He said it was fabricated.”
Daniel understood Rachel’s letter.
Uncertainty is betrayal.
Martin did not want evidence anymore.
He wanted confirmation.
Ruiz’s phone buzzed.
She looked at it.
Then stood.
“What?”
She looked at Daniel.
“Your sister-in-law just called 911.”
Daniel was already moving.
“Sophie?”
“She’s safe.”
He stopped.
“What happened?”
“Someone broke into Melissa’s house.”
They reached the house in twenty minutes.
The front door was damaged.
A downstairs window had been broken.
Sophie sat inside a patrol car wearing headphones and holding a blanket around her shoulders.
Daniel opened the door.
She looked up.
“Dad.”
He pulled her against him.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
“Did you see anyone?”
“No.”
Melissa came down the walkway with an officer.
She had a cut on one hand.
Daniel looked at it.
“I’m fine.”
“What happened?”
“I heard glass. I took Sophie upstairs and locked us in the bathroom.”
“Did they come upstairs?”
“No.”
“Anything missing?”
Melissa looked at him.
“Rachel’s laptop.”
Daniel froze.
“What laptop?”
“The old one.”
“You had her laptop?”
“In the closet.”
He stared at her.
Melissa lifted her uninjured hand.
“Before you yell, I forgot.”
“How do you forget a laptop belonging to your dead sister when somebody is looking for her records?”
“Because my sister died and left me approximately nine thousand objects, Daniel.”
He shut his mouth.
Fair.
Ruiz approached.
“Only the laptop?”
“So far,” Melissa said.
“Jewelry?”
“Still there.”
“Cash?”
“Still there.”
“Other electronics?”
“Still there.”
Daniel looked at Ruiz.
“Martin.”
“Maybe.”
“He knew Rachel had records.”
“So did other people now.”
She was right.
The lawsuit had made the dispute public.
Reporters had published descriptions of missing evidence.
Daniel swore under his breath.
Sophie removed one headphone.
“Dad?”
He crouched.
“What?”
“Can we go home?”
He almost said yes.
Then looked at the broken window.
Home no longer meant what it had three days ago.
“We’re going somewhere safe tonight.”
“Where?”
He looked at Victoria.
She had arrived behind them.
“No,” Daniel said immediately.
Victoria raised an eyebrow.
“I didn't speak.”
“You were about to.”
“My house has private security.”
“No.”
Melissa said, “Actually—”
“No.”
Sophie looked between them.
“Can we get a hotel?”
Daniel laughed softly.
Hotels had not performed well for them recently.
“We'll figure it out.”
Ruiz arranged for them to stay at a protected location for the night.
It was not dramatic.
It was a furnished apartment used by the department for vulnerable witnesses, with beige walls, mismatched plates, and a refrigerator that made a clicking noise every fourteen minutes.
Sophie counted.
Daniel tried to sleep on the couch.
At 1:10 a.m., she came out carrying a blanket.
“Can I stay here?”
“Yeah.”
She curled at the opposite end.
After a while she said, “Mom lied to you.”
Daniel looked at the ceiling.
“Yes.”
“Are you mad?”
May you like
“Yes.”
“Even though she died?”
