Chapter 5 - The Address
For a few seconds, I could hear only the air conditioner.
Our home.
The kitchen window Anton left cracked when he cooked.
The porch light that flickered in heavy rain.
The spare key we’d promised to stop leaving beneath the planter.
“How did you get it?” Anton asked.
“Valerie already had it. From an old client mailing list. She told me to include it with the background-check request.”
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
I looked at Reyes.
He was already calling someone.
He requested a patrol check at our address and asked that any findings come directly to the detective assigned to the incident.
Anton reached into his pocket.
“Our doorbell camera.”
He opened the app.
I watched his thumb drag through the dates.
Deliveries. A neighbor returning a package. Me carrying groceries.
Then a man in a work shirt stood on our porch with a tablet.
Tuesday afternoon.
I remembered him.
“He said he was checking fiber service.”
Anton stopped scrolling.
“You talked to him?”
“Through the door.”
“Did he come inside?”
“No.”
Reyes leaned closer.
“Save that.”
My stomach dropped for a reason I couldn’t yet explain.
The man had asked whether my husband was home.
I had said no.
Such an ordinary answer.
Such a stupid answer, my old training whispered.
Anton must have seen it on my face.
“Don’t do that.”
“What?”
“Whatever you’re about to blame yourself for.”
Nina was crying quietly.
“I thought he was a licensed investigator.”
“You need to tell the detective exactly what you were asked to send,” Reyes told her.
“I will.”
Outside, the party had resumed in a strained, uneven way. Music played, but nobody sounded relaxed.
A resort manager knocked and entered with a plain navy dress from the boutique.
“We can give you another room to change.”
“Thank you,” I said.
She glanced at the envelope.
“Our security supervisor asked whether the chief would like the incident footage copied.”
“Yes,” Reyes said immediately.
Her face tightened.
“There may be a problem.”
“What problem?”
“Mr. Shaw requested that tonight’s terrace footage be erased. He said it was a privacy concern involving important guests.”
“Was it erased?”
“No. Our supervisor wanted written approval.”
“Tell him to preserve it.”
She nodded and left quickly.
Anton helped me stand.
The scar pulled beneath the ruined gown.
I had spent years trying to make that part of my life smaller.
Now it had reached into our home.
Reyes’s phone buzzed.
He read the message.
May you like
Then he looked at me.
“The patrol found your back gate open.”
