Chapter 12 - VICTORIA AT THE GATE
Leo told Rafael to keep the gate closed. Dana called the detective handling the case. Beatrice stayed inside with Lily.
Victoria stood outside in the cold beside a parked car, her ivory coat buttoned to the chin. When Leo approached the gate, she lifted an envelope.
“My father wants his laptop back,” she said.
“It’s with the police.”
“I know.” Her eyes moved toward the guesthouse. “He thinks Lily saw something else. He won’t stop asking me what she knows.”
“Then tell him to speak to his lawyer.”
Victoria gave a bitter laugh. “You think he asks people nicely?”
Leo noticed how tightly she held the envelope. She was afraid of Graham. That did not erase what she had done to Lily.
“You locked my daughter in a cellar,” he said.
“I thought she’d cry until you came home. I didn’t know she couldn’t breathe.”
“Beatrice told you.”
Victoria’s mouth opened, then closed.
She slid the envelope through the gate. Inside was a photograph of Elena outside a downtown office building, taken three days before her death. A man stood near the entrance with his back to the camera.
On the back, Graham had written: “Ask Mateo why he met her there.”
Victoria’s car left as police arrived. An officer took the envelope.
Leo showed Mateo the photograph. “Were you there?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Elena asked me to come. She’d found the shipping records. We argued because I wanted her to wait until I could bring you in safely.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me that two years ago?”
Mateo’s voice dropped. “Because I was angry with her when she left. The next time I saw her, she was gone.”
Leo studied him. He had hidden too much, but the shame on his face was real.
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From inside the guesthouse came a crash.
Both men ran toward the door.
