Chương 8
Rebecca had not known that.
“At his fund?”
“Yes.”
“Is your son still there?”
“They told everyone not to come today.”
Lidia looked embarrassed, as though her family’s dependence were a private failure.
“You don’t have to decide now,” Rebecca said.
As Lidia turned to leave, she stopped near the doorway.
“The little camera in the hall was broken for two weeks,” she said.
“Which camera?”
“The one by the upstairs sitting room. Mr. Hale said the battery died.”
The security system was hardwired.
Rebecca found Maya in the study.
The black case was not behind the golf bags.
The closet contained golf clubs, two rolled architectural plans, a raincoat, and an empty shelf with a clean rectangle in the dust.
“He took it,” Rebecca said.
“Probably,” Maya replied. “Or moved it earlier.”
The desk computer remained, but its storage drive had been removed. A drawer where Trevor kept company seals and spare keys was empty. The gun cabinet in the basement was open. The shotguns were gone.
The deputy notified his supervisor.
Rebecca stood in the study while the room changed from a place where her husband had worked into a list of missing things.
On the bookshelf, a silver frame held a photograph from their honeymoon. Trevor was laughing at something outside the image. Rebecca remembered the moment. A waiter had spilled water on a couple at the next table, and Trevor had whispered a cruel imitation of the man’s surprise. She had laughed because Trevor’s attention felt like being chosen from a crowd.
She turned the frame facedown.
Upstairs, Emma’s rabbit blanket lay under her bed. Rebecca pressed it to her face. It smelled faintly of lavender detergent and the child’s warm hair.
She packed clothes, medication, school items, favorite books, and the stuffed fox from Paige. In the nursery, unopened boxes leaned against one wall. Trevor had insisted they wait to decorate until a designer could present a complete plan. Rebecca had wanted to paint the room herself.
A small blue sample was taped inside the closet where Trevor would not see it.
She peeled it from the wall and slipped it into her pocket.
The security consultant called from the hallway. “Ms. Lawson?”
She had stopped using Hale in her own mind but had not yet said so aloud.
He showed her the access log. The upstairs camera had not failed. It had been disabled through the administrator account twelve days earlier. The account belonged to Trevor.
“Can you tell why?” she asked.
“No. It could be maintenance, privacy, a software issue, anything. But the timing is recorded.”
“Can it be turned back on remotely?”
“It was turned on yesterday at four forty-eight.”
Rebecca looked at him.
“That was after the assault,” Maya said.
“Was anything recorded?”
“The local drive is missing,” he replied. “The cloud account may have event thumbnails, depending on the subscription and settings. We’ll need lawful access or account credentials.”
Rebecca knew the password Trevor used for the system. Or she thought she did.
It did not work.
By noon, the press had learned that she returned to the estate with deputies. A photographer waited beyond the gate. Rebecca left lying down in the back seat of Maya’s car with Bun’s blanket over the boxes at her feet.
“I feel ridiculous,” she said.
“You’re avoiding a photograph, not invading a country.”
“My father would use three cars.”
“Your father believes subtlety is a budget category.”
Rebecca laughed, then was quiet.
Maya glanced at her. “You’re allowed to laugh.”
“I know.”
“You looked guilty.”
“I feel guilty about everything right now. It saves time.”
At Richard’s house, Emma saw the rabbit blanket and collapsed against it with such relief that Rebecca had to leave the room.
She went to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, and stood in the cold air without wanting anything.
Richard entered behind her.
“I didn’t call anyone,” he said.
“Congratulations.”
“I am trying.”
“I know.”
He opened a drawer, found no reason to have opened it, and closed it again. “Mrs. Alvarez says you haven’t eaten.”
“Mrs. Alvarez reports to you.”
“She worries independently.”
Rebecca took out a container of soup.
Richard watched her heat it. “The board meets tomorrow.”
“Your board?”
“Yes. Trevor has been a nonvoting adviser to the strategic investments committee. I need to remove him.”
“Do it because of the financial risk, not because I told the police he hit me.”
“Those risks are not separate.”
“They need to be treated separately.”
“He forged your signature.”
“We don’t know that yet.”
Richard’s eyebrows rose.
“See?” Rebecca said. “You decide before the evidence arrives.”
“He presented a document you did not sign.”
“I said I don’t remember signing it.”
“You are protecting him.”
“No. I’m protecting the truth from you.”
The soup began to boil at the edges. Rebecca turned off the burner.
Richard looked offended, then thoughtful.
“What do you want me to tell the board?”
“That an adviser failed to disclose material financial exposure and may have misrepresented authorization for collateral. Whatever your actual lawyers would say if he were a stranger.”
“He was never a stranger.”
“That was the problem.”
Richard leaned against the counter. For a man who owned towers, factories, distribution centers, and more conference tables than he could possibly have used, he looked uneasy in a kitchen.
“I liked him,” he said.
Rebecca set down the spoon.
“I know.”
“He was direct. He did not defer to me.”
“He made you feel modern.”
Richard gave her a narrow look. “I am modern.”
“You print your emails.”
“Only the important ones.”
She smiled despite herself.
Then his face changed. “I thought he was strong enough not to need anything from me.”
“He needed everything from you.”
“Yes.”
“And from me.”
Richard nodded.
May you like
Rebecca carried the soup to the table. It tasted of nothing, but she ate six spoonfuls because the baby required ordinary things while the rest of her life became evidence.
The temporary hearing occurred six days later in a courthouse that smelled of wet coats and burnt coffee. The hallway was crowded with people whose crises had no security teams. A man in work boots whispered angrily into a phone near the vending machines. A woman bounced a crying infant while filling out a form against the wall. Two attorneys discussed lunch beside a sign instructing everyone to silence electronic devices.
