Chương 7
“I know.”
The bathroom door rattled.
Richard said, “This is ridiculous.”
Madison’s breathing sped up.
“Go.”
“What?”
“Call the ride.”
“I am.”
“Then hang up.”
She hesitated.
“Okay.”
The call ended.
I stood in Tessa’s guest room holding the phone in both hands.
The house had gone quiet outside the door.
When I stepped into the hall, Tessa and Miguel were sitting at the kitchen table.
Neither pretended they had not been listening to my side of the conversation.
Tessa slid a mug toward me.
“Tea.”
“I don’t want tea.”
“You also didn’t want dinner.”
“I ate.”
“You moved noodles around.”
Miguel looked at the mug.
“It’s chamomile.”
“I hate chamomile.”
Tessa frowned at him.
“You said she liked it.”
“I said my mother likes it.”
They began arguing softly about whose memory was worse.
I sat down anyway.
The tea smelled like grass.
My phone buzzed.
A screenshot from Madison.
Then another.
Then seven more.
I opened the first.
It showed a photograph of Richard’s phone screen.
On it was one of the pages from my notebook.
The image had been taken at 12:46 a.m. on the same night I found him in my office.
The timestamp was visible in the metadata Madison had captured.
The second screenshot showed a message from Richard to Madison four days earlier.
Need you to update the reserve sheet tonight.
Another followed.
Use the accounts from the photos I sent last month.
Then:
Don’t change anything else.
Then:
I’ll handle the transfer side.
I stared at that sentence until the words blurred.
Tessa reached across the table.
“Claire.”
I passed her the phone.
She read without touching the screen.
“Oh.”
Miguel leaned in.
Tessa pulled the phone back.
“Not unless Claire says.”
He raised both hands.
“Right.”
I took it again.
A new message arrived from Madison.
Ride is three minutes away.
Then another.
Dad is outside the door.
I typed, Do not give him your phone.
She reacted with a thumbs-up.
The casual little icon made the situation feel more frightening, not less.
I called Naomi.
“What now?”
“I have messages.”
“What messages?”
“Richard told Madison to use account information from the pictures.”
Naomi became very still on the line.
“How explicit?”
“He wrote, ‘I’ll handle the transfer side.’”
“Send everything.”
“I am.”
“Do not forward anything except to me.”
“Why?”
“Preservation.”
“They’re screenshots.”
“I know.”
“Is that bad?”
“No.”
Her tone sharpened.
“It means I want original devices preserved, original messages preserved, and nobody playing amateur detective tonight.”
I looked toward Miguel.
He mouthed, She means you.
I almost laughed.
“I’m not playing detective.”
“You flew to Colorado while a process server walked into a barbecue.”
“That was unrelated.”
“That is exactly the sort of sentence people say before becoming difficult clients.”
My phone buzzed again.
Madison.
Outside.
I exhaled.
“Naomi, she left Eleanor’s.”
“Where is she going?”
“I don’t know.”
“Find out.”
“I thought I wasn’t supposed to be a detective.”
“That is not detective work.”
“What is it?”
“Making sure a frightened twenty-three-year-old with potentially relevant evidence does not disappear into somebody’s spare bedroom and start deleting messages because her father calls crying.”
I flinched.
“That specific?”
“I’ve been practicing law for eighteen years.”
I texted Madison.
Where are you going?
Her reply came a minute later.
Hotel.
Which hotel?
No answer.
Naomi said, “Do not pressure her.”
“You just told me to find out.”
“Find out is different from corner.”
“That sounds convenient.”
“It is also true.”
I waited.
Finally Madison wrote:
The Hampton near Fredericksburg.
I sent the information to Naomi.
“Good.”
Naomi exhaled.
“Now I’m going to contact the bank’s counsel first thing in the morning.”
“What happens then?”
“They may want a formal statement.”
“From Madison?”
“Possibly.”
“What about Richard?”
“They’ll decide what they need.”
I rubbed my thumb along the edge of the kitchen table.
The wood had a small burn mark near one corner.
“What if he moves money tonight?”
“He may try.”
That was not the answer I wanted.
“Can we stop him?”
“We can protect what is yours within the mechanisms already in place.”
“And the company?”
“That depends on what is actually there.”
“I don’t want the employees hurt.”
“I know.”
“Fourteen people, Naomi.”
“I heard you.”
“If payroll fails because of this—”
“Stop.”
Her voice was firm.
“You did not create a payroll system dependent on unauthorized access to your personal accounts.”
“We don’t know that he intended to use the money for payroll.”
“No.”
“We don’t know what he intended.”
“No.”
I stared at the dark window over Tessa’s sink.
My reflection looked pale and older than it had that morning.
“I hate not knowing.”
“I know.”
“I keep thinking if I knew exactly what happened, then I’d know what to feel.”
“That is not how feelings work.”
“That sounds suspiciously like therapy.”
“It’s free, so don’t get used to it.”
I smiled despite myself.
Naomi continued.
“Sleep.”
“I won’t.”
“Then lie down and fail at sleeping like a normal person.”
After we hung up, Tessa took my phone from my hand.
I let her.
“No more messages for ten minutes.”
“That seems arbitrary.”
“It is.”
She put the phone on top of the refrigerator.
I stared at her.
“I can reach that.”
“Of course you can.”
“Then why put it there?”
“So you have to stand up and make a choice.”
Miguel pointed at her with approval.
“That’s annoyingly smart.”
“Thank you.”
“It wasn’t praise.”
I drank the terrible tea.
At eleven thirty, the three of us were still awake.
Miguel had gone upstairs and returned with clean sheets he insisted were cleaner than the clean sheets already on the guest bed.
Tessa folded towels while pretending she was not monitoring me.
I finally retrieved my phone.
Richard had left two voicemails.
I did not listen.
Eleanor had sent a message.
You have gone too far.
Another came ten minutes later.
May you like
Whatever problems exist between you and Richard should not destroy this family.
I read that one twice.
