Chương 7
To cancel a scheduled inspection at his house.
The inspection had been requested by Elena after a nursery outlet sparked.
That was the second clue.
The third came from Maya.
She remembered the object in Daniel’s hand when he told her to take Sophie downstairs.
A small glass bottle.
“What kind?” Kell asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Medicine?”
“Maybe.”
“Did you see a label?”
“No.”
“Color?”
“Brown.”
“Like a prescription bottle?”
“No. Glass.”
Elena’s skin went cold.
She kept essential oils in brown glass bottles in a bathroom drawer.
Daniel hated them.
Margaret gave them to her every Christmas anyway.
The fire investigator found residue of isopropyl alcohol and citrus solvent near the bedroom curtains.
Not enough, by itself, to prove accelerant use.
Enough to change the classification from accidental to undetermined.
Then Daniel petitioned the probate division to activate the death-related provisions of Elena’s trust.
Rebecca opposed it.
That was how everyone ended up in Judge Hayes’s courtroom.
Elena wanted to appear.
Rebecca said it was a terrible idea.
Naomi Ruiz said it was an even worse one.
Sergeant Kell said Daniel had not been charged and they still lacked enough evidence to arrest him for the fire.
Elena listened to all three.
Then she said, “He thinks I’m still in Pennsylvania.”
“Yes,” Rebecca said.
“He thinks I’m afraid to be seen.”
“Yes.”
“He thinks the footage is unusable.”
Naomi frowned.
“We have not told him footage exists.”
“He knows the camera existed.”
“That’s different.”
Elena looked at the clear evidence box.
“What happens if he sees it?”
Kell understood first.
“You’re hoping he reacts.”
“I’m hoping all of them react.”
Rebecca folded her arms.
“You’re proposing to use yourself as bait in a courtroom.”
“I’m proposing to attend a hearing about whether my death should make my husband richer.”
“That sentence alone should tell you how insane this is.”
Elena looked toward Sophie, who was on the floor chewing a rubber giraffe.
“He buried me publicly.”
Rebecca softened.
“Elena.”
“I want him to look at me.”
The plan was never for Daniel to hit her.
Nobody anticipated that.
Daniel had not struck Elena once in eleven years.
He had thrown a glass during an argument five years earlier. It hit a wall. He apologized for days. Elena had eventually accepted the apology and then forgotten the incident except when Rebecca asked whether Daniel had ever been violent.
She had said no.
Then corrected herself.
“Not to me.”
In the courtroom, after the damaged footage was sealed, Daniel was arrested on a misdemeanor assault charge before lunch.
The attempted-murder investigation remained open.
The first photographs of Elena leaving the courthouse spread online within an hour.
She hated them.
In one, Sophie’s pink bow had slipped sideways. Elena’s scarred face was turned toward a reporter. The champagne satin dress made her look glamorous in a way she had not felt. Her left cheek was red from Daniel’s hand.
The headline called her THE DEAD WIFE WHO WALKED INTO COURT.
By evening there were television trucks outside the townhouse.
Rebecca turned off the television.
Elena turned it back on.
“You’re going to make yourself crazy.”
“I want to know what they’re saying.”
“They’re saying whatever keeps people watching.”
A legal commentator announced that Daniel’s statement in court was “close to a confession.”
Another said shock made people say irrational things and warned against premature conclusions.
A former prosecutor discussed evidentiary rules.
Someone on social media claimed Elena had staged the entire fire for money.
Another person claimed Margaret was part of an international crime ring.
Elena stared at that one.
Rebecca leaned over.
“At least they’re ambitious.”
Elena laughed despite herself.
Then Sophie threw a spoon onto the floor.
The spoon bounced under the table.
For a minute, the mystery of the burned house gave way to both women crawling around looking for it.
That was Elena’s life now.
Trauma existed beside laundry.
Police interviews happened between pediatric appointments.
She could spend an hour discussing attempted murder, then discover there were no clean bottle nipples.
Reality refused to organize itself according to importance.
Three days after the courtroom confrontation, Margaret asked to speak with Elena.
Rebecca advised against it.
Naomi strongly advised against it.
Elena agreed with them.
Then she went anyway.
The meeting took place at Rebecca’s office with two attorneys present and a recorder on the table.
Margaret arrived wearing navy instead of cream.
Elena noticed because she had never seen her wear navy.
Margaret sat.
For several seconds neither woman spoke.
Finally Margaret looked at Elena’s face.
“I’m sorry he hit you.”
Elena almost smiled.
“That’s where you want to start?”
“I don’t know where to start.”
“Try the nursery.”
Margaret’s eyes dropped.
Her lawyer shifted.
“Mrs. Bennett is here voluntarily.”
Elena looked at him.
“Then she can voluntarily answer.”
Margaret touched the pearls at her throat.
Same pearls as in court.
Elena wondered if she slept in them.
“Daniel told me Sophie would be downstairs,” Margaret said.
“When?”
“The evening of the fire.”
“What exactly did he say?”
Margaret looked at her attorney.
He said nothing.
She turned back.
“He said Maya would have the baby.”
“Why?”
“He said you needed sleep.”
Elena waited.
Margaret’s jaw tightened.
“That’s what he said.”
“No.”
“What?”
“That’s not what you said in court.”
Margaret’s fingers stopped moving.
“You said the nursery was empty.”
“I was upset.”
“You were specific.”
“I’m an old woman who watched her son assault someone.”
“You’ve spent your entire life becoming more articulate when frightened.”
Margaret looked offended.
For one strange moment, Elena saw the woman she had known before the fire.
The woman who corrected restaurant menus.
The woman who once sent back a condolence card because the florist had misspelled a family name.
Margaret said, “You always did enjoy being clever.”
“There she is.”
Margaret looked away.
Elena leaned forward.
“Did you know the fire was going to happen?”
“No.”
“Did you want me dead?”
“No.”
“Did Daniel?”
Margaret’s face changed.
Not much.
May you like
Enough.
Elena sat back.
