Chương 3
Daniel looked down.
“That was unfair.”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I don’t care.”
They rode to Franklin in Daniel’s truck.
Neither of them spoke for the first five minutes.
The windshield wipers fought the rain and lost.
At a red light, Daniel said, “Natalie hated thunderstorms.”
Claire turned toward him.
He was looking straight ahead.
“She’d pretend she didn’t. Used to make fun of the dog for hiding in the laundry room, then somehow she always ended up folding towels in there until the storm passed.”
Claire said nothing.
Daniel rubbed his thumb across the steering wheel.
“Sorry.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know. Talking.”
“It’s fine.”
“It wasn’t relevant.”
“That doesn’t mean you can’t say it.”
He nodded.
A few minutes later, Claire asked, “What were you two fighting about?”
Daniel’s shoulders went rigid.
“What?”
“Before she disappeared.”
He glanced at her.
“How do you know we were fighting?”
“You were married.”
Despite himself, he almost smiled.
It disappeared quickly.
“Money,” he said. “Work. My mother. The fact that I was sleeping four hours a night and being an asshole about it.”
“Were you separated?”
“No.”
“Was she leaving?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s a strange answer.”
“Because she didn’t tell me.”
Claire watched rain streak sideways across the passenger window.
“What did she tell Ethan?”
“Apparently more.”
Daniel’s bitterness sat between them.
Claire understood it too well.
They reached the Franklin garage at 7:28.
The security gate was raised because the attendant booth had been removed months earlier. The first two levels were crowded. The third had fewer cars. On the fourth, Claire saw Ethan’s black sedan parked beside a concrete pillar near the open western wall.
Ethan was standing beside it.
Alone.
He had changed back into the charcoal jacket.
Claire looked at Daniel.
“Stay behind me.”
Daniel laughed without humor.
“Why?”
“Because if you go at him like you want to kill him, we learn nothing.”
“I don’t want to kill him.”
She looked at his hands.
Daniel loosened them.
“Fine,” he said.
They got out.
Ethan watched Claire approach.
He looked at Daniel once.
That was enough.
Claire saw recognition followed by calculation.
“What’s going on?” Ethan asked.
She stopped beside the sedan.
Rainwater gusted across the concrete.
“Empty your pockets.”
His expression barely moved.
“Claire.”
“Empty them.”
Daniel stood several feet away.
Ethan looked at him again.
“What did you tell her?”
Daniel said, “Nothing you shouldn’t have told her yourself.”
“Empty your pockets,” Claire repeated.
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
Then, slowly, he reached into his jacket.
Phone.
Keys.
Wallet.
A folded receipt.
He placed them on the hood.
“That’s everything.”
Claire looked at his right pocket.
“You missed one.”
“No, I didn’t.”
She stepped closer.
Ethan moved his arm.
That tiny movement settled something in her.
Claire reached for the pocket.
He caught her wrist.
Not hard.
Hard enough.
Daniel moved.
Claire lifted her other hand.
“Don’t.”
Ethan let go.
Claire stared at him.
“Take it out.”
Water dripped from a pipe somewhere behind them.
Ethan pulled the red box from his pocket.
Daniel made a sound like someone had struck him.
Claire had transferred the box into Ethan’s jacket pocket before leaving the apartment.
She had wanted to see what he would do if confronted with an object he believed he had already hidden elsewhere.
Ethan looked down at it.
Confusion arrived first.
Then understanding.
He looked at Claire.
“You planted this.”
“You recognized it.”
“That doesn’t mean—”
“You recognized it before you opened it.”
“Claire.”
She slapped the box out of his hand.
It hit the ground.
The ring rolled.
Daniel picked it up.
And three hours of doubt collapsed into the moment Claire would later remember as the true beginning.
“She gave it to me the night she disappeared,” Ethan said.
Daniel stared at him.
“She was already dead that night.”
The rain seemed louder afterward.
Ethan looked from Daniel to Claire.
“That’s not possible.”
Daniel’s eyes hardened.
“Police narrowed her time of death.”
“When?”
“Between seven and nine.”
Ethan shook his head.
“No.”
“You met her after nine?”
“Yes.”
Claire said, “Where?”
Ethan did not answer.
“Where did you meet Natalie?”
His gaze slid toward the sedan.
Claire moved into his path.
“Then tell us who you met in this garage.”
For several seconds, Ethan stood without moving.
Then his shoulders lowered.
Not surrender.
Exhaustion.
“There are cameras,” he said.
Claire looked around.
“Good.”
“They don’t cover this section.”
Daniel said, “You know that because?”
“I did a lighting job here two years ago.”
“Of course you did.”
“Daniel.”
“Don’t say my name.”
Ethan looked toward the open side of the garage.
Rain blew against the concrete column.
Claire said, “Who did you meet?”
“I can’t do this here.”
“You can.”
“No.”
“You lied about where you were tonight. You hid Natalie’s ring. You lied to police about why you met her. You lied to me for almost a year. You’re going to start doing something here.”
Ethan rubbed his mouth.
“Claire, call a lawyer.”
She stared at him.
“For you?”
“For yourself.”
That frightened her more than denial would have.
Daniel stepped closer.
“What does she need a lawyer for?”
Ethan looked at Claire.
“Because if this comes out wrong, people are going to think she knew.”
Claire felt the air leave her lungs.
“Knew what?”
Ethan closed his eyes.
Daniel said, “Open your mouth and say something useful.”
Ethan looked at him.
“Natalie was stealing.”
Daniel moved so quickly Claire barely caught his sleeve.
“Stop.”
Daniel jerked away from her but did not hit Ethan.
“You don’t get to do that,” he said.
“I’m not insulting her.”
“You call my wife a thief while holding the ring that was taken off her body?”
“I didn’t take it off her body.”
“Then who did?”
Ethan said nothing.
Daniel turned away and pressed both hands to the back of his head.
Claire looked at Ethan.
“Stealing what?”
“Money.”
“From the company?”
“Yes.”
Daniel spun back.
May you like
“That is a lie.”
Ethan reached for his phone on the hood.
