Chương 11
“I hate her,” Madison said.
Simon assumed she meant Vanessa.
Rachel did not.
“Caroline?”
Madison nodded.
The admission embarrassed her.
“She’s dead. She did nothing. I know.”
Rachel leaned against the wall.
“You can know that and still hate seeing her face.”
“I hate that he knew her first.”
Simon looked uncomfortable.
Madison laughed bitterly.
“What? Too human for legal counsel?”
“I’m trying to decide whether I should leave.”
“No. Stay.”
She pressed her forehead carefully against the cool glass.
“I hate that she gets to be dead and perfect.”
Rachel’s eyes softened.
“She probably wasn’t perfect.”
“I know.”
“She probably left dishes in the sink.”
“Rachel.”
“What? Dead women rarely get to keep their bad habits.”
Madison closed her eyes.
The sentence was strange enough to help.
They learned more about Caroline from people rather than records.
That mattered.
Bishop interviewed her family. Simon’s investigators spoke to former classmates with police approval to avoid interfering with witnesses.
Caroline had been engaged to Ethan for eleven months.
Their relationship had been troubled.
Not violent, as far as anyone knew.
Not ideal either.
Ethan had been possessive.
Caroline had twice postponed the wedding.
Three weeks before her death, she told a friend she planned to end the engagement.
That information made Madison’s imagination dangerous.
Bishop warned her.
“The crash investigation found no evidence Ethan was involved.”
“I heard you.”
“Caroline had alcohol in her system above the legal limit.”
“I heard you.”
“She was driving too fast in heavy rain.”
“I know.”
Bishop looked at her.
Madison looked away.
She wanted Ethan to have killed Caroline.
The thought disgusted her.
But if he had, then the story became simple.
He had always been a monster.
Madison had simply failed to see it.
If he had not, then she had to confront something more complicated: a man could grieve genuinely, love imperfectly, lie repeatedly, commit financial crimes, manipulate a new partner, and perhaps later participate in something even worse.
People did not progress cleanly from good to evil.
Sometimes they decayed.
Sometimes they compartmentalized.
Sometimes they justified one wrong decision until the next seemed smaller.
Vanessa’s connection to Caroline was simpler than Madison expected.
They had been friends in graduate school.
Close friends.
After Caroline’s death, Vanessa remained in contact with Ethan for several years.
Eventually she introduced him to Madison.
When Bishop told her that, Madison sat without speaking.
Rachel was changing the sheets.
She stopped.
Madison asked, “Did Vanessa know I resembled Caroline?”
“Yes.”
“Did Ethan?”
“Presumably.”
“Did everyone?”
“No.”
“Did Vanessa introduce us because of it?”
“We don’t know.”
Madison picked at a loose thread on the blanket.
The question bothered her more than the money.
Money had grammar.
It moved from one account to another.
It could be traced.
But why had Vanessa introduced Ethan?
Because she thought they would like each other?
Because Ethan had asked?
Because Madison resembled a dead friend?
Because Vanessa enjoyed some private cruelty?
Because none of those possibilities were mutually exclusive?
On the fifth day, Vanessa sent Madison a letter through her attorney.
Simon advised her not to read it.
Madison read it.
The letter was three pages and mostly useless.
Vanessa denied altering the medical consent.
Denied forging Madison’s insurance signature.
Denied conspiring to harm her.
Admitted she had known Ethan before introducing them.
Admitted Caroline had been her friend.
Claimed she had not understood the altered surgical image until the day of Madison’s procedure.
Then came one sentence Madison read six times.
Ethan had been increasingly fixated on the possibility that your procedure could correct features he believed had been “wrong” since your accident.
Wrong.
Madison knew Ethan had used that word.
Not about her face.
About the accident.
He once said the crash had “changed things that should never have been changed.”
At the time she assumed he meant her pain.
Now she was not sure.
The letter continued.
Vanessa claimed Ethan had asked her to help obtain a copy of Madison’s surgical plan because he believed Madison was hiding details about the procedure.
Vanessa admitted accessing corporate systems to locate files related to Madison’s recovery reservation but denied modifying the medical portal.
She also admitted knowing Ethan’s fund was under financial pressure.
She denied knowing Carter House money had been diverted.
Madison lowered the letter.
“This is bullshit.”
Simon, sitting across from her, nodded.
“Parts probably are.”
“Which parts?”
“That is why investigations exist.”
“I am becoming violently opposed to investigations.”
“I’ve noticed.”
She looked at the last paragraph.
Vanessa wrote that she had gone to the penthouse the night before surgery because Ethan told her he needed help updating Madison’s continuity records in case the procedure became complicated.
Vanessa claimed she believed the updates were legally authorized.
Madison laughed.
“No.”
Simon looked up.
“No what?”
“She would never believe that.”
“Why?”
“Because she wrote the original rules.”
“That is useful.”
Madison looked at him.
“You know what else?”
“What?”
“Vanessa would never use the phrase legally authorized.”
Simon blinked.
“She’s a lawyer.”
“Exactly. She’d write duly authorized or validly executed or pursuant to. Legally authorized sounds like someone trying to sound like a lawyer.”
Simon took the letter.
“You think someone helped draft it?”
“Of course someone helped draft it. Her attorney sent it.”
“That’s not what you mean.”
“No.”
Madison looked toward the ocean.
“I think she is trying to sound less precise than she is.”
“Why?”
“To make herself look careless instead of deliberate.”
Simon was quiet.
Madison almost smiled.
For the first time since the slap, she had done something other than react.
It felt good.
That frightened her too.
She did not want the investigation to become a puzzle she enjoyed solving.
The evidence represented people she loved.
Her own body.
Her company.
Still, the mind needed tasks.
By the end of the week, swelling had begun to subside.
Rachel removed part of the dressing.
Madison studied her face in the mirror.
May you like
Her jaw looked puffy and bruised. The incision was healing.
“You’ll have residual swelling for a while,” Rachel said.
