Chương 4
“What did Cal say?”
“That some disaster-response expenditures were coded oddly because of state reimbursement.”
“Was that true?”
“I checked.”
“And?”
“He lied.”
Amelia sat on the edge of the workbench.
The wood creaked beneath her.
“I should have stopped there.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because I’m not stupid.”
“I didn’t say you were.”
“No, you just kept an entire life secret from me because apparently you thought I couldn’t handle knowing who I married.”
Logan let that sit.
She was using anger to hold herself together.
He recognized the mechanism because he had used it for years.
“What happened next?” he asked.
“I downloaded copies.”
“To where?”
Her gaze shifted.
Logan straightened.
“Amelia.”
“I printed some.”
“Where are they?”
“I moved them.”
“From where?”
“Our house.”
“When?”
“Two weeks ago.”
The black county SUV had appeared about the same time.
Logan looked toward the closed garage door.
“Did you tell Vance?”
“No.”
“How did he know?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s becoming a problem.”
She stood.
“You think I don’t know that?”
“I think I need facts.”
“And I think I’ve spent six weeks waking up at three in the morning wondering whether my husband would believe me if the sheriff told him I was stealing from the county.”
Logan’s jaw tightened.
“Why would he tell me that?”
“Because that’s what he told me he could do.”
The garage seemed smaller.
“When?”
“Three days after I confronted Cal.”
“You confronted your supervisor?”
“I was angry.”
“About missing money?”
“Yes.”
“And you told him you had copies?”
“No.”
“Did you imply it?”
Amelia looked away.
“Probably.”
Logan dragged one hand over his face.
A faint strawberry smell remained in his hair.
“Then what?”
“Cal acted confused.”
“Did you believe him?”
“No.”
“The sheriff contacted you?”
“The next morning.”
“How?”
“He came to my office.”
“What did he say?”
“He said Cal had told him I was asking questions about restricted expenditures and that I could create legal trouble for myself by accessing things outside my job duties.”
“Were they outside your duties?”
“No.”
“Did you tell him that?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“He smiled.”
Her voice became smaller.
“He said people misunderstand what counts as authorized access all the time.”
Logan stared at her.
“And you didn’t tell me.”
“I was going to.”
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
“After he arrested you?”
“Don’t.”
“After the money disappeared completely?”
“Stop.”
“After he decided I was useful leverage?”
Amelia slapped the workbench.
A socket rolled off and struck the floor.
“After I figured out whether I had destroyed my career for nothing.”
Silence followed.
The socket spun in a slow circle before falling flat.
Amelia looked at it rather than at Logan.
“I’m forty-one years old,” she said.
“I finally have a job that isn’t somebody’s temporary assistant or somebody’s wife helping with paperwork.”
“I never treated your work that way.”
“No.”
She nodded.
“You didn’t.”
Then she looked at him.
“But you also never needed me.”
“That isn’t true.”
“It felt true.”
Logan started to answer, then stopped.
He could have denied it cleanly.
Denial would have been easier.
Instead, he picked up the socket and placed it on the bench.
“Did Vance threaten you directly?”
“Not at first.”
“What does that mean?”
“He asked about you.”
“What specifically?”
“How long you’d been retired.”
“Anything else?”
“What you did in the Navy.”
Logan felt a slow pressure behind his ribs.
“What did you tell him?”
“That you were a mechanic.”
“And he didn’t believe you.”
“He laughed.”
“When did he start asking?”
“A couple of weeks ago.”
“Before or after that county SUV started parking near the house?”
Amelia stared at him.
“You saw it.”
“Of course I saw it.”
“I thought you didn’t notice.”
“I noticed.”
Her shoulders dropped a fraction.
“What else have you noticed?”
“Enough to know you’ve been lying badly.”
“That’s rich.”
“It is.”
The answer surprised her.
Logan continued before either of them could turn the conversation into something safer.
“Why did you take his side today?”
Amelia’s face hardened again.
“Because he told me to.”
“Explain.”
“He said he needed to see what you would do if he provoked you.”
“Why?”
“He said if you attacked a law enforcement officer, everything could be contained.”
Logan went still.
“Contained how?”
“He didn’t say.”
“He didn’t need to.”
Amelia’s voice cracked.
“He said you had a temper.”
“I’ve never hit you.”
“I know.”
“I’ve never threatened you.”
“I know that too.”
“Then why believe him?”
“I didn’t.”
“You helped him anyway.”
She flinched as if he had struck the bench again.
“Yes.”
The word landed harder than any excuse.
Logan looked away.
A plastic bag full of shop rags hung from a nail.
One corner fluttered in the weak draft around the garage door.
“I thought if I made you sit there,” Amelia said, “you wouldn’t react.”
“You thought humiliation was safer.”
“Yes.”
“For whom?”
She did not answer.
“Me?”
Still nothing.
“Or you?”
“Both.”
Logan nodded once.
At least that was honest.
“Did he tell you to send him a message afterward?”
“No.”
“He sent me one first.”
“What did it say?”
She hesitated.
“Amelia.”
“He asked whether you were angry.”
“What did you say?”
“That you were quiet.”
“And then?”
“He asked if you made any calls.”
Logan looked at the phone in her hand.
“You told him?”
“Not yet.”
“Yet.”
“I didn’t know what to do.”
“You could start by not reporting on me to a man you think is stealing public money.”
“That’s easy for you to say.”
“No, actually, it isn’t.”
She laughed once, bitterly.
“You call one person and suddenly you have somebody searching federal records.”
“That person gave me public information and legal advice.”
“You have a secret phone.”
“I have an old secure habit I should have told you about.”
“You have people.”
“Yes.”
“I have nobody.”
“You had me.”
The words came out sharper than he intended.
Amelia looked down.
May you like
Logan regretted them immediately but did not take them back.
A vehicle passed slowly on the street.
