Chương 4
Shortly after midnight, the police released Elena pending further investigation.
The necklace had been recovered, the disputed bank deposit had a plausible source, and Nadia had made it clear that keeping Elena overnight would produce a hearing no one wanted. The district attorney had not yet approved charges.
Daniel waited in the lobby with a paper cup he had forgotten to drink.
He stood when Elena appeared.
“Where’s Noah?”
“With Mrs. Perry.”
“Not your mother?”
“No.”
She walked past him.
He caught up outside. The humid air smelled of wet pavement and cut grass. A local news van was parked across the street, though the camera operator sat inside eating from a carton.
“Elena.”
“I need my phone.”
“They kept it.”
“I know.”
“I bought you another one.”
She stopped.
Daniel held out a small shopping bag.
The gesture was so completely Daniel that anger moved through her before gratitude could. A problem had appeared; he had purchased an object.
“I don’t want a phone from you.”
“You need one.”
“I have a phone.”
“The police have it.”
“Then I don’t have one tonight.”
He lowered the bag. “Nadia said you should be reachable.”
“Nadia can reach my brother.”
“I called Mateo. He’s coming.”
“You called my brother?”
“He called the house after he saw the video.”
She closed her eyes.
Mateo lived in Yonkers with his wife and two daughters in a two-bedroom apartment above a dentist’s office. He worked nights maintaining elevators. He hated the Ashford house, though he had visited only twice. The first time, a security guard asked whether he was delivering food. The second time, Margaret thanked him for “lending” Elena to them on Christmas.
Daniel looked toward the news van. “You can’t go back to the staff cottage tonight. The police sealed the room.”
“Is that what Grant told you?”
“I saw the tape.”
“Did you see him?”
“No. He left before I got back.”
“Of course.”
Daniel stepped closer. “Tell me what you need.”
She almost laughed.
“You still think the right answer will make this manageable.”
His face tightened. “I am trying.”
“Noah screamed while they put me in a police car, and you stood there asking who owned the house.”
“I was trying to understand what authority they had.”
“I needed you to understand me.”
“I did.”
“No. You believed me. That’s different.”
The news van door opened.
Elena turned away before the camera operator could lift his head.
Mateo arrived in a rusted Honda with one headlight brighter than the other. He got out wearing work boots and a reflective vest, looked at Elena’s face, and embraced her without speaking. Over his shoulder, he stared at Daniel.
“Thank you for getting her a lawyer,” he said.
The politeness was worse than anger.
Daniel nodded. “She’ll keep the lawyer as long as she needs.”
“Elena decides that.”
“Yes.”
Mateo opened the passenger door.
Before getting in, Elena looked back. Daniel still held the shopping bag.
“Tell Noah I’m safe,” she said.
“He won’t believe me.”
“Then don’t promise what you can’t prove.”
Mateo’s apartment smelled of fried onions, laundry soap, and the strawberry shampoo his daughters used. His wife, Ana, had made soup even though it was nearly one in the morning. She reheated it while talking too quickly about nothing: the dentist downstairs had started parking in their spot, the youngest girl had a summer reading list, the bathroom fan made a rattling noise.
Elena sat at the kitchen table wearing Mateo’s old Yankees sweatshirt over her uniform. The cuffs had left purple bands around both wrists.
Her nieces hovered in the hallway until Ana ordered them back to bed.
“Was it scary?” the older one whispered.
“Yes,” Elena said.
Mateo frowned.
“What? It was.”
The girl nodded solemnly and disappeared.
Ana placed soup in front of Elena. “The internet says you stole a necklace.”
“The internet also says I’m Daniel’s secret wife.”
Mateo, leaning against the counter, looked up sharply.
Ana snorted. “You could do worse.”
“Could she?” Mateo asked.
It was the wrong joke at the wrong time, which made Elena laugh once, unexpectedly. The laugh turned into a sound she could not control. She covered her mouth.
Ana sat beside her and rubbed her back.
Mateo stared at the floor until it passed.
At three in the morning, Elena lay awake on the living room couch beneath a blanket printed with cartoon llamas. A bus groaned at the intersection outside. Pipes knocked in the wall. Someone upstairs dropped what sounded like a shoe.
She had lived at the Ashford estate for seven years. First in a room above the garage, later in the cottage near the east garden after Sophie insisted she needed privacy. Elena owned furniture there. Books. A chipped blue bowl she had carried from her mother’s apartment. Six years of Noah’s school pictures tucked inside a kitchen drawer.
None of it belonged to her enough to reach.
At six, Ana’s coffeemaker began beeping.
At six fifteen, Elena received the first message on the prepaid phone Mateo had bought from a twenty-four-hour pharmacy.
It was from an unknown number.
THIEF.
The next message included a photograph of the Ashford house.
The third said, WE KNOW WHERE YOUR FAMILY LIVES.
Nadia answered on the second ring.
“Screenshots,” she said. “Do not reply. Forward everything to me.”
“They know Mateo’s address.”
“They may not. That language is common.”
“It doesn’t feel common.”
“No. It feels like a threat. Those are not the same thing.”
Nadia’s voice was calm without being soothing. Elena found that useful.
“Are the police charging me?”
“Not this morning. Detective Keene requested more time. The necklace is being processed. Your phone is in forensics. The Ashford family’s insurer has also opened a claim review.”
“Why? They found the necklace.”
“Because someone reported additional missing property.”
Elena sat up. “What property?”
“A diamond bracelet, three antique coins, and fourteen thousand dollars in cash.”
May you like
“I didn’t know there was cash.”
“Neither did the police until Grant Vale submitted an updated inventory at two this morning.”
