Chương 5
Daniel folded his arms.
“You could have gone to police later.”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t.”
“No.”
“For eight years.”
“No.”
“Why now?”
Evelyn looked at the old page.
“Because a month ago Michael Carter came here and asked me what I remembered.”
Daniel’s anger returned.
“So this begins with Michael.”
“No.”
Her answer was quick enough to surprise him.
“It begins with your wife.”
“Rebecca?”
“Yes.”
Evelyn walked toward a cabinet near the fireplace. She opened a drawer and removed a small object sealed in a clear evidence bag.
A brass room key.
Old-fashioned. Heavy.
Room 814.
Daniel stared at it.
“What is that?”
“Something Mrs. Carter gave me the night she died.”
Claire looked surprised.
“You didn’t show me that.”
“No.”
Daniel looked between them.
“What did Rebecca say?”
Evelyn held the bag by its edge.
“She came to the front desk around nine-thirty. She asked whether the old executive offices on eight still used physical keys. I told her some did. She asked for this one.”
“Why?”
“She said Mr. Carter had left documents in that office.”
“Which Mr. Carter?”
“Your father.”
Daniel’s skin prickled.
“Did she go upstairs?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“Approximately fifteen minutes.”
“And afterward?”
“She returned the key to me. She told me if anyone asked, she had never borrowed it.”
Evelyn paused.
“I asked whether she wanted security.”
“What did she say?”
“She said no.”
Daniel waited.
Evelyn looked at him.
“Then she said, ‘Actually, ask me again in an hour.’”
Daniel looked down.
Rebecca would say something like that.
Not because it was clever. Because she changed her mind in stages. She had once agreed to buy a house, withdrawn the offer at midnight, then called the realtor at seven the next morning and offered more.
“What happened an hour later?”
“She was at dinner with your father.”
Daniel knew about the dinner.
He had known Rebecca was attending a small investor event at North Crown while he traveled. She had texted him a photograph of a terrible floral centerpiece and written, Your father has discovered burgundy napkins. We’re all doomed.
He still had the message somewhere.
He had never known Charles joined her privately afterward.
“Room 814,” Daniel said. “What was in there?”
Evelyn shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Daniel looked at Claire.
She understood immediately.
“You want to see it.”
“Yes.”
Evelyn hesitated.
“That area has been renovated twice.”
“Does the room still exist?”
“Yes.”
“Then I want to see it.”
The eighth floor executive wing was closed to ordinary guests. Evelyn used a staff key card to take them through a narrow hallway behind the ballroom level and into a corridor decorated in a restrained modern style that had replaced whatever existed eight years earlier.
Room 814 was now labeled BUSINESS CENTER B.
The storm made the overhead lights flicker once.
Inside were a conference table, a wall-mounted display, six chairs, a printer, and a locked supply cabinet.
Daniel stood in the doorway.
Nothing recognized him.
He had expected that.
He had also somehow expected the room to accuse someone.
Claire entered behind him.
Evelyn stayed near the door.
Daniel walked to the windows. The glass faced north toward the mountain road, though the storm obscured almost everything beyond the nearest floodlights.
“Was Dad’s office here?”
“Temporary executive office,” Evelyn said. “During the Alpine Ridge financing meetings.”
Daniel turned.
“Who renovated this?”
“The resort.”
“When?”
“First time, about five years ago. Again last summer.”
“So anything Rebecca saw is gone.”
“Most likely.”
Daniel looked at the room.
A printer hummed to itself in sleep mode.
Claire opened her mouth.
Daniel raised a hand.
“Please don’t.”
She closed it.
He sat in one of the chairs.
Minutes passed.
Eventually Claire sat across from him.
The distance between them was four feet and approximately eleven days.
Daniel looked at her hand.
The one that had struck him.
“Why didn’t you tell me the first night Michael contacted you?”
Claire stared at the tabletop.
“Because I thought he was drunk.”
“Was he?”
“Yes.”
Daniel almost smiled again.
“At least something makes sense.”
“He called me at one in the morning. He said he needed to tell you the truth about Rebecca.”
“And you didn’t wake me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I knew what his name did to you.”
“That wasn’t your decision.”
“I know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because I know.”
“Do you?”
Claire looked up.
Her eyes were wet now.
“I was afraid you’d call your father before Michael could show me anything.”
“So?”
“So Michael said your father had destroyed evidence once already.”
Daniel leaned back.
“You believed him.”
“I believed the possibility.”
“That’s a polished distinction.”
“I had eleven days to polish it.”
He looked away.
Claire pressed her fingers together.
“I also knew you’d hate me for speaking to him.”
“You were right.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that.”
“All right.”
The room fell silent.
After a while Daniel asked, “Why did you agree to meet him?”
Claire took a slow breath.
“Because of something you said last February.”
Daniel waited.
“You were asleep. Or almost asleep. You said Rebecca called you before she died.”
Daniel stared at her.
He had told Claire about the missed call only twice.
Once before they were married.
Once seven months earlier, after too much whiskey at a friend’s dinner.
“You said you’d always assumed she was calling because of the road,” Claire continued. “Then you said, ‘Sometimes I think she was calling because of him.’”
Daniel’s voice lowered.
“I meant Michael.”
“No.”
Claire looked straight at him.
“You said your father’s name.”
Daniel did not remember that.
His face told her.
“I didn’t bring it up the next morning because you were embarrassed about being drunk.”
“I was not drunk.”
“You tried to put your watch in the freezer.”
Daniel looked at her.
Claire gave the smallest shrug.
“It was a very expensive watch.”
May you like
Despite himself, Daniel remembered waking at four in the morning and finding it beside frozen peas.
The memory irritated him.
