Chương 3
Her phone showed three missed calls from an unknown number and one message from Rachel.
POLICE HERE. PAUL SAYS DON’T COME DOWN WEST STAIRS.
Mara read it twice.
The west stairs descended beside Harrison’s study.
She slipped the brass key into her pocket and took the east staircase instead.
Two patrol officers waited in the morning room. One was a woman with rain darkening the shoulders of her uniform. The other stood near the fireplace, studying the paintings with the neutral expression of someone determined not to appear impressed.
Harrison, Serena, Paul, and Ellen Shaw had gathered there ahead of Mara.
Ellen must have driven from Greenwich through the storm. She wore a navy raincoat over a business suit and carried no umbrella. Her gray-blond hair had flattened on one side, which made her look briefly less formidable than she usually did.
When Mara entered, Ellen’s eyes went immediately to her pocket.
“You have the service key?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Give it to Officer Grant.”
Mara hesitated.
The female officer extended her hand.
Mara placed the key in it. The loss of its small weight made her feel unexpectedly exposed.
Officer Grant set it on a clean handkerchief on the table.
“Who usually has access to this?” she asked.
“Estate manager, security, and whichever household employee is on night duty,” Paul said. “It hangs in a secured cabinet in the west service passage.”
“Secured how?”
“Electronic latch.”
“Which failed during the outage,” Mara said.
Paul glanced at her.
“The latch defaults open during a fire alarm or system failure.”
“So anyone could take it?”
“Anyone who knew where it was.”
Serena sat on the edge of a settee with her hands folded. She had changed nothing about her appearance except her shoes. Her gown remained dry above the knees. The rain had touched her only in scattered dark marks along the hem.
Officer Grant asked Mara to describe what she had seen.
Mara told the story without embellishment. At nine twenty, the entrance lights flickered. Rachel said the west corridor smelled like burned wiring. Mara went to check the electrical panel because Paul was outside with the grounds crew. On the way, she saw Harrison’s study door open and Serena standing beside his desk with the legal packet in her hand.
“What made it a legal packet?” the second officer asked.
“The law firm mark.”
“You recognized it?”
“My mother handled deliveries here for years. I’ve handled them since.”
Serena’s mouth moved slightly.
Mara continued. Serena told her Harrison would not return that night and instructed her to go downstairs. Mara asked her to leave the packet. Serena walked out through the balcony doors instead. Mara took the mechanical key and tried to reach the rear corridor before Serena could leave. Then she heard Harrison’s sedan at the front.
“Why were you barefoot?” Officer Grant asked.
“My shoes slipped on the service stairs. I took them off.”
It sounded foolish in a quiet room.
The officer merely wrote it down.
“Did Mrs. Vale threaten you?”
“No.”
“Touch you?”
“No.”
“Prevent you from leaving?”
“No.”
“Did you touch the packet?”
“No.”
“Enter the study?”
Mara looked at Serena.
“I crossed the threshold when I saw the desk drawer open.”
“That is not what you said outside,” Serena said.
“I said I wasn’t standing in the study when you found me.”
“You crossed into it.”
“One step.”
Officer Grant raised her hand.
“Mrs. Vale will have her turn.”
Mara’s face warmed. She had been exact, but exactness now sounded like evasion.
“What did you see inside the desk?” Ellen asked.
Officer Grant looked toward her.
“Counsel, please let me ask the questions.”
Ellen inclined her head.
Mara tried to remember the room rather than the fear. The brass lamp had been on. Harrison’s green leather writing pad was crooked. The center drawer stood open. A water glass rested beside the telephone.
“There was an empty courier sleeve,” she said. “Brown cardboard. On the desk.”
“Anything else?”
“A blue folder.”
Harrison shifted near the fireplace.
“What blue folder?” Ellen asked.
Mara looked at him.
“The foundation folder. With the harbor seal.”
Serena’s composure thinned.
Officer Grant noticed.
“Mrs. Vale,” she said, “where is the packet now?”
“I don’t know.”
“You were seen holding it.”
“I was holding an envelope.”
“The empty one?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Serena looked at Harrison before answering.
“My husband has been preparing to leave me. I found an envelope in his study and believed it contained correspondence about our marriage.”
Harrison’s face remained still.
The room did not.
Mrs. Kline, who had entered with coffee, set the tray down too quickly. China struck silver. Rachel stared at the carpet. Paul’s eyes moved toward the officers as though measuring how much of the sentence they would remember.
Mara felt the shock travel through the room and divide itself according to each person’s loyalties.
Officer Grant asked, “Was the envelope sealed?”
“No.”
Mara’s breath caught.
Serena turned toward her.
“The one I carried downstairs was not sealed,” she said.
“That wasn’t the packet.”
“I have never claimed it was.”
“You said—”
“I said you saw an ivory envelope.”
Officer Grant intervened again.
“Did you remove a sealed packet from the study?”
Serena looked down at her hands.
“I removed something addressed to my husband.”
“Where is it?”
“I gave it to my driver.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted it taken to my attorney.”
“Without opening it?”
“Yes.”
Harrison spoke for the first time in several minutes.
“You knew what it contained.”
Serena looked at him.
“I knew what you intended it to contain.”
Officer Grant asked what that meant.
Neither Harrison nor Serena answered.
Ellen closed her eyes briefly.
“The documents relate to a confidential internal review of a private charitable foundation,” she said. “There are potential civil issues. Possibly criminal ones. I advise everyone in this room to stop speaking beyond the immediate question of property removal.”
May you like
The second officer looked at Harrison.
“Do you want to file a theft complaint against your wife?”
