Chương 5
Not a clean triangle.
Not good people and bad people.
Just several exhausted adults failing each other while something worse grew inside the spaces they stopped looking at.
Ethan said, “I shouldn’t have let it happen.”
Daniel looked at him with contempt.
“That sentence is for parking tickets.”
Claire said, “What happened after she gave you the ring?”
“She showed me documents.”
“What documents?”
“Printouts. Transfers. Vendor records. She said she’d found a pattern going back almost four years.”
“Where are they?”
“She kept them.”
“Then why involve you?”
“She needed me to verify whether some renovation companies were real.”
“Were they?”
“Some. Three weren’t.”
Daniel frowned.
“Which?”
Ethan named them.
Daniel’s expression shifted at the second name.
Claire noticed.
“You recognize that.”
“No.”
“You did.”
Daniel rubbed his forehead.
“Northway Maintenance.”
“What about it?”
“I approved invoices from them.”
Ethan stared.
“How many?”
“I don’t know. Several.”
“Did you ever meet anyone from Northway?”
“No. Natalie handled vendor contacts.”
Ethan said, “Northway doesn’t exist.”
Daniel looked sick.
Claire said, “Could Natalie have created it?”
“No,” Daniel said.
Ethan looked at him.
“You can’t know that.”
“Yes, I can.”
“How?”
Daniel hesitated.
Claire felt anger return.
“Can everybody please stop hiding the second half of every sentence?”
Daniel looked at the ring in his palm.
“Because I created the vendor profile.”
Nobody spoke.
Claire said, “You just said you never met anyone from them.”
“I didn’t.”
“Then why create it?”
“Paul sent me the paperwork.”
Ethan’s face changed.
“Paul Hensley?”
“Yes.”
“What paperwork?”
“Insurance certificate. Tax form. Banking details. He said Natalie had approved them for emergency work at two properties.”
“Did you verify any of it?”
Daniel stared at him.
“No.”
Ethan laughed quietly.
Daniel’s shoulders went rigid.
“Careful.”
“I’m not laughing at you.”
“Sounds like you are.”
“I’m laughing because Natalie spent two months trying to figure out how Northway got into the system.”
Daniel’s anger drained.
“She asked me.”
“What?”
“She asked whether I remembered approving them.”
“When?”
“A week before she disappeared.”
“What did you say?”
“That I didn’t.”
Claire watched him.
“But you did.”
“I forgot.”
Daniel sat heavily on the edge of the concrete wheel stop.
For a moment the only sounds were rain and dripping water.
He rubbed the ring with his thumb.
“My father had chemo that week,” he said. “Paul put a stack of vendor forms in front of me. I signed everything.”
Claire said, “That doesn’t make you responsible for what happened.”
Daniel looked up.
“You don’t know that.”
“No. I don’t.”
That was the first kind thing she had said to him all evening.
It landed badly.
Daniel looked away.
Claire turned to Ethan.
“So Natalie gives you the ring at ten twelve.”
“Yes.”
“And according to the medical examiner, she was dead before nine.”
“Yes.”
“What happened after you met?”
“She left.”
“How?”
“Her car.”
Daniel said, “Her car was found at the Southfield commuter lot.”
“I know.”
“How did it get there?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you follow her?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“She told me not to.”
Daniel closed his fist around the ring.
Claire asked, “Did you call her afterward?”
“Twice. No answer.”
“Text?”
“Yes.”
“Show me.”
Ethan looked at his phone in Claire’s hand.
“Those messages were deleted.”
“By you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He looked at Daniel.
“Because I panicked.”
Daniel stood.
“You deleted messages with a missing woman because you kissed her.”
“Yes.”
“Anything else?”
Ethan said nothing.
Claire already knew the answer.
“What else?”
Ethan pressed his tongue against the inside of his cheek.
“She asked me to hold money.”
Claire stared.
“How much?”
“Twenty thousand.”
Daniel said, “Cash?”
“Yes.”
“Where is it?”
“Gone.”
Daniel moved toward him again.
Claire did not stop him this time, but Daniel stopped himself.
“Gone where?”
“I gave it to someone.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know her name.”
Claire frowned.
“You handed twenty thousand dollars to someone whose name you don’t know?”
“She had a phrase.”
Daniel stared.
“A phrase.”
“Natalie said somebody might contact me. If they said, ‘Blue rooms make bad offices,’ I was supposed to give them the envelope.”
Claire looked at him.
“That is ridiculous.”
“I know how it sounds.”
“It sounds like a rejected spy movie.”
“I know.”
“You did it anyway?”
“Three days after Natalie disappeared.”
“Where?”
Ethan looked around the garage.
“Here.”
Daniel stared at him.
“A woman?”
“Yes.”
“Describe her.”
“Maybe fifty. Dark hair. Glasses. Thin.”
“Car?”
“Silver SUV.”
“Plate?”
“I didn’t write it down.”
Daniel swore.
Claire said, “Did the woman know Natalie?”
“I assumed.”
“Based on?”
“The phrase.”
“That is not evidence.”
“I know.”
“Did you tell police?”
“No.”
Daniel’s laugh was soft now.
“You are unbelievable.”
Ethan looked at him.
“I thought Natalie was alive.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“She wasn’t.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“You had three days of police searches, news coverage, volunteers walking fields, and you were secretly handing her money to strangers?”
“She told me not to trust anyone.”
“Including her husband?”
“Yes.”
That word detonated more quietly than shouting could have.
Daniel’s face changed.
Not fury.
Hurt.
Claire looked away.
Ethan saw it too.
“She was scared,” he said.
Daniel nodded slowly.
“Of me?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did she say my name?”
“No.”
“Did she say she thought I was involved?”
“No.”
“But she excluded me.”
“Yes.”
Daniel turned his back.
Claire looked at Ethan.
“Why keep the ring eleven months?”
“I didn’t know what else to do with it.”
“Police?”
“I’d have to explain everything.”
“Yes.”
“Including the money.”
“Yes.”
“The messages.”
“Yes.”
“The kiss.”
“Yes.”
“The fact that I lied.”
“Yes.”
“Claire—”
“You are listing reasons you were afraid of consequences as though they are reasons you had no choice.”
Ethan lowered his head.
She had never seen him look smaller.
It did not make her feel better.
“Why was the ring in your jacket today?” she asked.
“I was going to get rid of it.”
Daniel turned around.
“What?”
Ethan said, “Not destroy it.”
May you like
“What does that mean?”
“I was going to leave it somewhere police could find it.”
