Chapter 7 - A Hole in the Alibi
Daniel recovered quickly.
Too quickly.
“She was home,” he said.
Grace watched his face. “All evening?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did she tell the deputy she went to the pharmacy at six?”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
Grace had made it up.
Victoria had told no deputy anything, as far as Grace knew.
But Daniel didn’t know that.
He looked toward the open door again.
Rosa lowered her head, hiding a smile.
Daniel said, “You’re playing games.”
“No. I’m lying. There’s a difference.”
The words surprised Grace as soon as she said them.
She had spent years smoothing things over—at dinners, with staff, with Daniel’s mother, with Daniel himself. She had become good at making ugly things sound reasonable.
Now she was done being reasonable.
Daniel walked closer to the bed.
“Do you understand what you’re doing?”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t think you do.”
Grace met his eyes. “That sentence used to work on me.”
Something hard moved behind his expression.
Then the deputy stepped into the doorway.
“That’s enough, Mr. Nolan.”
Daniel turned.
“I’m speaking to my wife.”
“She asked you to leave.”
Grace hadn’t.
The deputy had decided for her.
Normally she would have corrected him.
She didn’t.
Daniel picked up the lilies and dropped them in the trash.
“Fine.”
At the door, he paused.
Without looking back, he said, “Your signature is on the Cedar Pines inspection certification.”
Grace stopped breathing.
Daniel continued, “Not mine.”
Then he walked out.
Rosa closed her eyes.
The deputy looked between them. “What certification?”
Grace didn’t answer immediately.
There was no useful lie this time.
Three months before the Cedar Pines fire, Daniel had brought a stack of facility documents home during dinner.
“Just annual compliance,” he’d said. “I’m late for a call. Can you sign the finance and facilities acknowledgment pages?”
Grace had signed them while talking to her sister on speakerphone.
She had not read them.
Not because Daniel threatened her.
Not because she was confused.
Because she was busy and careless and trusted a shortcut she had no right to take.
One of those pages had certified that required fire-safety repairs were complete.
They weren’t.
Grace looked at the deputy.
“My signature is on it.”
Rosa whispered, “Grace—”
“No.” Grace swallowed. “He’s right about that part.”
The deputy’s face became professional and unreadable.
Grace felt the room shift.
She was no longer only the woman someone had tried to kill.
She might also be evidence.
Or a suspect.
Then the deputy’s radio crackled.
He listened, frowned, and looked at Grace.
“Mrs. Nolan, we just found your husband’s mother.”
Grace’s fingers tightened around the blanket.
“Where?”
“In your house.”
May you like
He paused.
“She says Rosa attacked you and forced you into the car.”
