Chương 6
Laura folded her arms.
“He asked me if I understood what this could do to him.”
Rachel’s mouth went dry.
Laura continued.
“I said, ‘What about what it did to Emma?’”
She looked at Rachel.
“He didn’t answer.”
Emma was staring at the hard drive.
Rachel crouched beside her.
“You don’t have to look at that.”
“I’m not scared of the hard drive.”
“I know.”
Emma looked at Laura.
“Are you mad at me?”
Laura covered her mouth again.
This time she turned away before answering.
“No, sweetheart.”
Emma waited.
Laura lowered her hand.
“No. I’m mad at a lot of things. You are not one of them.”
Detective Bell arrived with another officer and took photographs before collecting the drive.
She did not promise it would prove anything.
She did not promise an arrest.
She did not call it stolen property until Michael produced an old purchase record and a photograph from the previous year in which the drive happened to be visible on Rachel’s garage shelf.
Rachel appreciated Bell more every time the detective refused to make the story easier.
Derek was arrested that evening.
Not at Laura’s house.
Not dramatically.
He turned himself in with an attorney after Bell contacted him and told him investigators wanted to speak with him regarding the garage entry and the recovered property.
Michael learned first.
He called Rachel.
She was folding laundry on her bed.
Emma was in the shower.
“They booked him.”
Rachel sat down.
“For what?”
“Burglary and theft-related charges. Bell said the exact charging decisions can change.”
Rachel pressed a T-shirt flat across her knees.
“Okay.”
Michael was silent.
Then he said, “I thought I would feel better.”
Rachel looked at the half-folded pile beside her.
“Do you?”
“No.”
“Me neither.”
Neither of them knew what to say after that.
Michael cleared his throat.
“I’m going to tell Mom.”
Rachel almost corrected him—your mom, not Mom—but stopped.
Eighteen years had made language stubborn.
“Okay.”
“She’s going to lose her mind.”
“She gets to.”
“That’s what Bell said about Laura.”
Rachel smiled despite herself.
“Detective Bell said your mother gets to lose her mind?”
“No. Laura.”
“Right.”
He was quiet again.
“Rachel?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry.”
“For which part?”
He made a sound that might have been a laugh if the week had been different.
“I’m still organizing the list.”
After they hung up, Rachel finished folding Emma’s shirts.
One had a faint orange stain near the collar from spaghetti sauce.
She considered treating it.
Then she put it in the drawer.
For once, she did not want to fix one more thing.
The hard drive created a second investigation.
That was when the family stopped being able to pretend Derek’s entry into the garage had been some private, inexplicable act.
Michael’s accountant found inconsistencies in the company records recovered from the drive.
Not one.
Dozens.
Carter Restoration had been a small business for nearly twelve years. Michael handled estimates, site crews and most client work. Derek handled purchasing, vendors and office administration because he was better at paperwork and, more importantly, seemed to hate fieldwork.
For years that division had functioned.
Then a construction slowdown, two bad contracts and an expensive dispute with a commercial client squeezed the company’s cash.
Michael knew that part.
He had not known Derek had created several fake subcontractor invoices and routed payments through an account connected to an acquaintance’s defunct landscaping business.
At first the amounts were small.
Then they were not.
The total was large enough to threaten payroll and the company’s line of credit, though neither the accountant nor the lawyer Michael hired would give Rachel a firm number while records were still being reviewed.
The backup drive contained old email exports and accounting snapshots that made the irregular payments harder to explain away.
Derek had not broken into Rachel’s garage because of her.
He had broken in because he believed evidence was still there.
That should have made Rachel feel safer.
It did not.
One Thursday afternoon, Detective Bell sat at Rachel’s kitchen table and explained what investigators believed had happened.
Derek had apparently become worried after Michael questioned two vendor payments.
He knew Michael kept old backups.
He also knew, from helping with the separation move, that at least one storage bin of company material had remained in Rachel’s garage.
“So he came while Emma and I were sleeping.”
“Yes.”
“He knew we were here.”
Bell hesitated.
“We believe he knew the house was occupied.”
Rachel stared at the table.
“Does that make a difference legally?”
“That’s something the prosecutor will evaluate. I don’t want to give you a legal conclusion I don’t control.”
Rachel nodded.
Bell had become familiar enough with her by then to recognize when Rachel’s silence meant she was trying not to ask ten questions at once.
“He said he was only going to retrieve company property,” Bell added.
Rachel looked up.
“He admitted entering?”
“In a statement through counsel, he acknowledged being on the property and entering the garage. He disputes parts of what investigators allege about his intent.”
Rachel laughed once.
Bell waited.
“Sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize.”
“He broke the lock.”
“There is evidence the lock was forced.”
“He came at one in the morning.”
“Yes.”
“He wore a hood.”
“Yes.”
“He took something and hid it under rags in his garage.”
Bell folded her hands.
“I understand why the distinction feels ridiculous.”
Rachel looked toward the hallway.
Emma’s bedroom door was shut.
“She saw him look up at her window.”
Bell’s face changed slightly.
“Emma told the interviewer that.”
Rachel’s breath caught.
“She did?”
Bell nodded.
“She said she couldn’t tell whether he saw her.”
Rachel pressed her fingers together.
“Did he?”
“We don’t know.”
After Bell left, Rachel stood at the kitchen sink for several minutes without turning on the water.
That night she checked Emma’s window lock three times.
On the fourth visit, Emma woke.
“Mom.”
Rachel froze.
Emma sat up.
“You’re doing it again.”
“What?”
May you like
“Checking.”
Rachel looked at her hand on the latch.
