Chapter 4 - THE HOUSEKEEPER
“Adrian,” I said. “His assistant. Our accountant.”
“Anyone else?”
“Vanessa organized our last overseas trip. She made copies of our passports.”
Leah wrote down every name.
Nobody called me careless.
Somehow, that made it easier to keep talking.
Detective Nora Ruiz arrived that afternoon. She asked permission before turning on her recorder.
The first questions were simple.
Where had I been standing?
Who locked the doors?
Who held the crop?
Then she asked why I hadn’t left after the stairs.
I went still.
She noticed.
“I’m asking about what prevented you,” she said. “Not what you should have done.”
I looked toward the window.
“Every time I packed, he became the man I married.”
Ruiz waited.
“He cried. Bought flowers. Promised counseling. Then he’d ask why I was willing to destroy his life over one bad night.”
“And the last two months?”
“I was gathering evidence.”
“Did he know?”
“I don’t think so.”
A knock interrupted us.
My father entered with a woman in a faded blue cardigan.
Rosa.
Our housekeeper.
Her eyes filled when she saw me.
“Oh, Mrs. Vale.”
“Evelyn,” I said. “Please.”
She stood at the foot of the bed gripping a paper grocery bag.
Adrian had dismissed her before the attack. I remembered hearing him tell her she could take the rest of the evening off.
He had sounded generous.
“I forgot my reading glasses,” she said. “I came back through the side entrance.”
My stomach tightened.
“What did you hear?”
Her gaze dropped.
“Enough.”
Ruiz pulled up a chair.
Rosa remained standing.
“I called my nephew. He told me to call police. I was afraid they’d say I was trespassing. Mr. Vale had already fired me once for asking about the stairs.”
“You weren’t responsible for stopping him,” I said.
Rosa covered her mouth.
Then she opened the bag.
Inside was a cheap prepaid phone.
“I took a picture before he made me leave earlier. There was a paper in the kitchen trash. I thought you should see it.”
Ruiz put on gloves before touching the phone.
The photograph showed part of a printed email.
Most of it was ordinary accounting language.
One sentence wasn’t.
Once Evelyn’s authorization is in place, the exposure stays with her.
Below it was Adrian’s reply.
Get her signature however you need to.
Leah read it twice.
Rosa looked at me.
“There’s something else.”
She pulled a folded envelope from her cardigan.
“He told me to put this in your suitcase tomorrow.”
May you like
Across the front, in lettering meant to resemble mine, were two words.
I’m sorry.
