Chapter 9 - THE PRICE OF AN APOLOGY
Vivian arrived at the hotel wearing jeans and no makeup.
She looked younger without the sharp lines she painted around her eyes.
Celeste hated noticing that.
It made pity too easy.
Brooks interviewed her first.
Where had she found the bag?
What had she moved?
What had Arthur said?
Vivian answered until her voice grew thin.
Then Brooks left the sisters alone with Nora.
Vivian sat on the edge of a chair.
“I thought if you came back, everything would go back to being about you.”
Celeste stared at her.
“Everything?”
“Your picture was always in Dad’s office.”
“Turned facedown?”
Vivian flinched.
Celeste remembered seeing it that way years ago.
She had told herself the cleaning staff must have moved it.
“I didn’t know what he was like with you,” Vivian said.
“You saw enough to join him.”
Tears gathered in Vivian’s eyes.
Celeste didn’t rescue her from them.
For once, somebody else could sit in an uncomfortable room and tell the truth.
“I told him I wouldn’t lie about the dress,” Vivian said. “He said I was confused.”
“That’s how it starts.”
“He told me I’d lose the house. The money. Everything.”
“And?”
Vivian looked up.
“I gave Brooks the pictures.”
It wasn’t forgiveness.
It was something.
Nora brought water.
Vivian held the glass with both hands.
“There’s more. Julian’s been moving things out of the company office.”
“What things?”
“Boxes. Drives. He said they were preparing for an audit.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
Celeste called Brooks back.
The information changed the room immediately.
Phones came out.
Names were confirmed.
Times were written down.
No one asked Celeste to sneak into an office or confront Julian. Investigators were already building the case. Vivian had given them another place to look.
Then her phone rang.
Julian.
Brooks nodded toward it.
“Your choice.”
Celeste answered.
“You’ve had a busy day,” he said.
“So have you.”
“I know what you think you found.”
“Then you know why I’m not meeting you.”
He laughed softly.
“You haven’t even heard the offer.”
“I’m not interested.”
“What if I tell you why Mara Ellis went back inside?”
Celeste’s grip tightened.
Julian noticed the silence.
“There she is,” he said. “I knew that would get your attention.”
Brooks leaned closer.
Julian’s voice dropped.
May you like
“She wasn’t going back for a person, Celeste.”
“She went back for proof.”
