Chương 4
Claire picked it up first.
“Passcode.”
He stared at her.
“Claire.”
“Passcode.”
“You can’t—”
“You just told me I may need a lawyer because of something you did. Your privacy is not my most urgent concern.”
Ethan’s jaw worked.
“0427.”
She unlocked it.
“Where am I looking?”
“Email.”
“Whose?”
“A private account Natalie used.”
Daniel said, “She didn’t have a private account.”
Ethan looked at him.
“Yes, she did.”
Claire opened the mail app.
“Address?”
Ethan gave it.
There were no messages.
“Nothing.”
“Archived.”
Claire checked.
Dozens of emails.
Some between Natalie and Ethan.
Others forwarded from accounts Claire did not recognize.
She opened one at random.
A spreadsheet attachment.
Vendor payments.
Property addresses.
Amounts.
Claire worked with suspicious transaction reports often enough to recognize a pattern that wanted to look boring.
Regular payments to vendors with similar invoice amounts.
Different properties.
Rounded figures.
Small enough individually to avoid attention.
Large enough collectively to matter.
“How much?” she asked.
Ethan said, “A little over three hundred thousand.”
Daniel laughed.
It was an ugly sound.
“You expect me to believe Natalie stole three hundred thousand dollars from our company and I never noticed?”
Ethan looked at him.
“No.”
Daniel stopped.
Ethan said, “I expect you to believe somebody did.”
Claire looked up.
“Not Natalie?”
“I thought it was her at first.”
“Then why say she was stealing?”
“Because that’s what she told me she was doing.”
Daniel stared.
Ethan corrected himself.
“That’s what she wanted whoever was watching her to think she was doing.”
Claire felt a small pressure behind her eyes.
“Who was watching her?”
Ethan shook his head.
“I never knew.”
“That is not good enough.”
“I know.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“What did she tell you?”
Ethan looked at the ring in Daniel’s hand.
“She found payments going to shell companies. She thought somebody was using your vendor system to move money.”
Daniel’s face changed.
“Our vendor system?”
“Yes.”
“Who had access?”
“You. Natalie. Your bookkeeper.”
“Melissa?”
“And your outside accountant.”
Daniel frowned.
“Paul?”
Ethan nodded.
Claire said, “Paul Hensley?”
Daniel looked at her.
“You know him?”
“I met him at the memorial.”
Paul Hensley had been the man carrying folding chairs after everyone else had gone home. Sixty-something, soft-spoken, careful suit, gray hair. He had hugged Daniel and told him Natalie had been “the soul of the company.”
Claire looked back at Ethan.
“You think Paul killed her?”
“No.”
“Who do you think did?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel swore and turned away again.
Claire said, “Start at the beginning.”
Ethan gave a tired shake of his head.
“We should leave.”
“No.”
“Claire, whoever Natalie was afraid of knew this garage.”
“How?”
“Because this is where she told me to meet her.”
Daniel looked at him.
“On Tuesday?”
“Yes.”
“After she was dead.”
Ethan’s eyes shifted.
“That’s why I’m telling you something is wrong with the timeline.”
Daniel laughed again, but there was no humor now.
“Medical examiner versus your memory. Tough call.”
“I know what I saw.”
“What did you see?”
“Natalie.”
Daniel lunged.
This time Claire did not catch him.
He shoved Ethan against the sedan.
Metal boomed beneath Ethan’s back.
“Say that again.”
Ethan did not fight him.
“I saw her.”
“You saw my wife after she was dead?”
“Yes.”
Daniel drew back his fist.
Claire stepped between them.
“Daniel.”
“Move.”
“No.”
“Move.”
“If you hit him, we lose whatever he hasn’t told us.”
Daniel breathed through his nose.
His fist stayed raised another second.
Then dropped.
Ethan straightened his jacket.
Claire said, “What time?”
“Ten twelve.”
“Exact?”
“I checked because she was late.”
“Where?”
“Here.”
“Same level?”
“Same space.”
Claire glanced around.
The black sedan.
Concrete pillar.
Open side.
Fluorescent fixtures.
“What was she wearing?”
“Blue coat. Black pants. Running shoes.”
Daniel stared.
Natalie’s body had been found in a blue coat.
Claire knew that from the news.
Daniel said, “What did she say?”
“She gave me the ring.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“She said if anything happened to her, I should keep it until I knew who I could trust.”
Daniel’s face twisted.
“You?”
Ethan looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
“She trusted you with our wedding ring?”
“She didn’t trust me. That was the point.”
Daniel stared at him.
Ethan continued.
“She said nobody would connect us personally. She knew police might look at you first if she disappeared. She knew they might look at employees. She thought I was outside the circle.”
Claire said, “Except you weren’t.”
Ethan looked at her.
“No.”
“What were you to her?”
He did not answer.
Claire felt Daniel go still behind her.
“Ethan.”
“We kissed once.”
Claire nodded.
It was strange how little the admission hurt compared with everything around it.
“When?”
“Two months before she died.”
“Once?”
“Yes.”
“Did you sleep with her?”
“No.”
“Did you want to?”
Ethan looked down.
Claire almost laughed.
“Fine. Don’t answer that.”
Daniel said, “I’m going to be sick.”
He walked several feet away and leaned against the pillar.
Claire watched Ethan.
“Did you love her?”
“No.”
That answer came too quickly.
Claire’s mouth tightened.
“Try again.”
Ethan looked at the wet ground.
“I don’t know what it was.”
“That means yes in coward.”
“Claire.”
“I’m not judging the vocabulary. I’m saving time.”
He looked at her.
“I cared about her.”
Daniel made a sound from beside the pillar.
Claire ignored it.
“And she cared about you?”
“She was lonely.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“She said she was.”
Daniel turned.
“She was lonely?”
Ethan looked at him.
Daniel approached again, slower now.
“I was sleeping next to her every night.”
“She told me you barely spoke.”
“Because my father was dying.”
Ethan said nothing.
Daniel’s voice lowered.
“My father was dying in my house. I was working fourteen-hour days because Natalie kept saying the company was bleeding money and she didn’t know why. I was driving my father to chemo before sunrise. And my wife told you she was lonely?”
Claire closed her eyes briefly.
May you like
Here it was.
The mess beneath the mystery.
