Chapter 5 - The Locked Drawer
Richard waited on the front steps when Clara returned for her belongings.
An officer told him to move away while the conditions of the visit were explained.
He looked at Clara instead.
“You brought an audience.”
Dana stepped beside her.
“Speak to me.”
Clara entered the house with an officer and a sick feeling of recognition.
Nothing had changed.
The lilies were fresh.
Her wedding portrait still hung above the console.
Someone had straightened the rug she had stumbled across.
She wanted the house to show what had happened.
It looked ready for a magazine.
In the morning room, her desk drawer was unlocked.
The notebook was gone.
Clara searched once, carefully, then stood still.
Panic pushed against her ribs.
Richard knew about it.
He knew how long she had been keeping dates.
“What’s missing?” the officer asked.
She told him.
He made a note.
In the bedroom, Clara packed jeans, shoes, her mother’s earrings, and a battered cookbook she had brought into the marriage.
Richard had once laughed at its stained pages.
Too ordinary for this kitchen.
She took it anyway.
Downstairs, his voice came through the open front door.
“Tell her I’m sorry. Tell her we don’t need to ruin each other.”
Clara stopped beside the wedding portrait.
“You ruined the marriage when you hit me.”
He could hear her from outside.
For a moment, she saw the anger before he covered it.
“You’ll miss this life.”
She looked around the spotless foyer.
“I’ve been missing my life for three years.”
At her father’s house, she unpacked with the bedroom door open.
When she lifted the cookbook, a folded sheet slipped out.
Her own handwriting covered the top half.
She sat on the bed.
Months earlier, Richard had surprised her while she was writing in the notebook.
She had torn out the newest page and hidden it in the cookbook before he entered.
On it were three dates and one sentence copied from a call she had overheard.
Friday. Westport dinner. Get Vance on camera confirming the guarantee.
Below that, she had written another name.
Graham Pike.
Thomas appeared in the doorway when she called.
May you like
He read the page and went pale.
“Graham handles my company’s finances.”
